Learn from your mistakes

Now the dust has settled. It is now the time to look backward, at why the union leadership was betting wildly in the election cycle of 2016 - correct the mistakes that were made - labor unions to be able to move forward, to become a real king maker in the political stormy seas.

‘According to the most recent campaign-finance filings, unions spent about $108 million on the elections from January 2015 through the end of August, a 38% jump from $78 million during the same period leading up to the 2012 election, and nearly double their 2008 total in the same period. Nearly 85% of their spending this year has supported Democrats.’

Labor Unions Step Up Presidential-Election Spending

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By BRODY MULLINS, REBECCA BALLHAUS and MICHELLE HACKMAN

October 18, 2016

Membership dues are intended to be used for their benefit - not to be thrown away, adding insult to injury to the union members due to their leadership backed a losing candidate. The backlash from the victor or ‘to the victor go the spoils.’  The labor unions are supposed to act as a safety net for the middle class, however the current leadership (the old guard) inflexibility to the reality on the ground.

There are no argument labor unions, which helped create and maintain our middle class, are becoming less valued by the errors of the current leadership (the old guard) which resulted the rich getting richer and the number of poor families keeps increasing.

AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka (the old guard) leadership revealed its failed philosophy in this election cycle, whether the short term tactics or long term strategies used - the outcome is clear membership dues were squandered uselessly.

Imagine Trumka was gambling with family income, while the family was in need to pay rent, put bread on the table, pay utility bills, pay for medication and infinity needs of the family. True Trumka had a good time at the casino, the odor of booze, tobacco aroma, seeing scantily clad clothed women lascivious carriage - let your imagination go where your membership dues went.

If you want to assess blame, labor unions don't have to turn too far. It is their own fault (the old guard). However, as we know (the old guard) act as royalty thus they will blame the membership (commoners) as the problem - we are used to this phenomenon. 

TWU INTERNATIONAL 

TWU International under Harry Lombardo took a wrong turn, if this is his leadership, then TWU in for a turbulent ride from now onward - not being aware of how divided the nation.

Lombardo inability to read the reality on the ground is more troubling - imagine it is like ripping the head off the statue of Liberty and thrown it in the Atlantic Ocean.

TWU LOCAL 100

TWU Local 100 under a John Samuelsen initial decision to back Senator Sander was a good sign, he should have stuck to his guns and forget the chain of command or acquiescing to the TWU International. 

It was like we’re sold consumer product on illusions which often give the buyer the exact opposite result of the what effect they were seeking. 

The secret to winning an election is simple. Go to where the votes are, and work those precincts until they are yours.

We have seen candidate Trump, now president elect Trump, soon Trump presidency - he promised change - the highly anticipated promise to rollback of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act:

• To make the financial system more transparent and accountable
• to prevent institutions from becoming to big to fail
• to end government bailouts funded by taxpayers
• to end risky and abusive financial services practices

for the benefit of the rich, this shift will make it harder for the labor unions to be the safety net for the middle class. If (the old guard) had simply taken a few minutes, turned off their iPhones and listened to some of those on the other side, especially struggling union members, we are sure (the old guard) would have gotten an earful.

No matter who was elected, there would be a great change. Nevertheless, our labor unions need to move forward in a better matter. It is obvious in this election cycle (the old guard) skulls are full of mush. 

We recommend to (the old guard) allow those who are outside to come into the tent, listen to those outsiders, work together for the interest of the membership. Labor unions (the old guard) on the infinite wrong courses, are costly, union membership numbers are down, union jobs and union shops are shrinking, private and government union members are at all time high are at odds with one another, we express our sorrow, these errors are our errors as well. 

Every union member is owed an apology by (the old guard) we have to get out of the tumbler, this election cycle, disaster and how (the old guard) made it worse. We have often said we are not haters of (the old guard). All the more reason to reflect on this mother of all errors.  

Labor union leaders aim to aid Tim Canova's challenge to Wasserman Schultz

By Anthony Man

June 8, 2016

Leaders of several labor union locals, a key Democratic Party constituency, said Wednesday they've lost confidence in U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and want to see her defeated in the August primary.

They said they're supporting her challenger, Tim Canova, on the grounds that he'd better represent the interests of working people. Wasserman Schultz, they said, caters too much to the interests of her corporate political donors.

"This is something that's been a slow progression to the negative," said Don Abicht, president of Communications Workers of America local 3122. He said Wasserman Schultz excels at making herself look good. "She's good at baking cakes for her constituents, but she's not good at getting the job done."

The central criticism from the labor leaders who appeared with Canova at his storefront campaign office in Hollywood was Wasserman Schultz's support of legislation that creates an expedited approval process for President Barack Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

"It's a terrible trade agreement," Canova said. He and the labor leaders said it would cost 70,000 Florida workers their jobs, make prescription drug prices higher by limiting generic drugs, and lessen environmental standards.

The Obama administration said TPP would help the American economy, and workers incomes, by opening up markets in the Pacific to more U.S. goods and preventing China from making inroads in those countries.

Canova, a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University, said he's not against all trade agreements, but "this is not the kind of trade agreement that we should be in."

Wasserman Schultz was the only Florida Democrat who voted for the TPP legislation last year. Politically it would have been difficult for her to oppose one of Obama's top priorities, as he handpicked her to be chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

To Canova, that means Wasserman Schultz can't do both jobs at once; either she's loyal to the constituents she represents in Congress or she's loyal to Obama at the DNC.

"The people of this district deserve better than that. We shouldn't be sacrificing the needs and the interests of her constituents here on the altar of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's political ambitions," Canova said.

Dan Brennan, chairman of the grievance and political action committees for Transport Workers Union Local 568, transport workers' grievance and political action committees, said TPP is bad for workers.

John Moctezuma, president of CWA Local 3120, said union workers find TPP "to be horrendous. It's going to ship our jobs overseas."

Moctezuma, who lives in Hollywood, and Brennan, who lives in Pembroke Pines, said they've voted for Wasserman Schultz in the past. As their dissatisfaction has grown, especially after her support of the trade agreement, they said they'd vote and work for Canova in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary.

Even though Florida doesn't have the same levels of unionization as big, northern industrial states, labor can exercise political influence because unions have members who can be organized for door-to-door campaigning and phone banking on behalf of causes or candidates.

"[Canova] can win. We're not going to go out and get as public as we have and drop a ton of money in for a guy who can't win," Abicht said. "We're going to be boots on the ground."

Canova said that assistance would be a significant help to his campaign.

But he won't have across the board labor support. Ryan Banfill, spokesman for the Wasserman Schultz campaign, said by email that "the congresswoman is proud to have strong labor support with more than a dozen groups standing with her." He initially declined to identify any, saying they'd be revealed soon.

Three hours after Canova's event, the Wasserman Schultz campaign said she was endorsed Wednesday by the Broward County Council of Professional Fire Fighters, which includes eight locals of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

"We deeply appreciate Debbie's hard work for fire fighters and other first responders here in Broward and across the nation. Debbie's always been there for us and we're there for her," Walter Dix, the Broward fire fighters union president, said in a statement. "She is no Johnny come lately. Debbie has been a reliable friend of fire fighters for years."

Wasserman Schultz's April campaign money report, the most recent available, showed significant financial support from organized labor.

More than a quarter of her political action committee contributions came from unions: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the United Transportation Union, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the American Federation of Teachers, the United Food and Commercial Workers.

On Tuesday night in South Florida, the United Association Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Pipefitters Local 725 endorsed Canova. Previously he's gotten support from the transport workers, from CWA locals and nationally, and from National Nurses United.

The Broward/Miami-Dade county district is overwhelmingly Democratic, and the primary winner is virtually certain to win the November election. Wasserman Schultz is seeking a seventh term.

Bernie Sanders

Canova, who is the most prominent South Florida supporter of Bernie Sanders' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, wasn't ready Wednesday to concede that Hillary Clinton will be the party's presidential nominee. She scored big victories in Tuesday's primaries and has more than enough delegates to become the nominee.

"Bernie Sanders has said he's going to go on to the convention. And we'll see how the convention goes," Canova said.

Many Sanders supporters believe that Wasserman Schultz tipped the party scales toward Clinton in her role as national party chairwoman — something she denies. Sanders has been sharply critical of Wasserman Schultz, and he's endorsed Canova. Obama has endorsed Wasserman Schultz.

Canova declined to say whether he thinks Sanders should demand Wasserman Schultz's removal as DNC chairman as a condition for supporting Clinton.

We are TWU

We are not ATU for those who are not aware especially John Samuelsen and his TBOU team who have given rise to the appearance that for everything we have to seek counsel or follow the Amalgamated Transit Union. We are Transport Workers Union and we are proud TWU Local 100 members that could care less what ATU does. We will not imitate ATU we are not copycats we have our own distinctive features, issues and challenges which should be preserved.

We abhor this current pattern from John Samuelsen with his TBOU lackeys, ‘oh lets see what ATU does’ ‘oh lets follow ATU’ ‘whatever ATU does we will follow suit’. We are TWU we have our own minds - we are the New York Yankees we are the empire of transportation - we move New York we are not the same as ATU. No one will ever mistake a corvette for a camaro. We here in why did you join the union would recommend to John Samuelsen to preserve our independence and start divorce proceedings with ATU.

Maybe John Samuelsen is incapable to lead thus he has to rely on others for ideas and guidance. We here in why did you join the union know who we are as well as the rank and file know who we are and everyone in the country know who we are. Once you inform them you are a member of NYC Transit you can see in their eyes lit with pride and euphoria of union bastion. We are TWU thus John Samuelsen should not seek alliance with ATU since we are not the same. Our issues and challenges are completely different from ATU - we should not hitch our wagon to the ATU.

We recommend that John Samuelsen should not change our identity from TWU to ATU. We are TWU we lead and we will never be the follower of ATU. As TWU we will negotiate for ourselves and we will take care of our own. We will never allow ATU to lead our negotiations and we will never concede, compromise or waver from this demand. We here in why did you join the union will never embrace ATU however we will respect them. ATU should not interfere with our internal issues because it will only benefit them thus harming us. We are not second class to ATU, we are TWU Local 100.

Health Insurance Dependent Audit

I met a maintainer who was upset about his young adult children who are in college losing their medical coverage insurance and especially our employer currently is auditing the membership to exclude dependents while the law has been passed he could not understand why president Samuelsen and the current leadership at the Unionhall are incapable of enforcing the law?

Fact sheet what hinders Samuelsen and TWU Local 100 to enforce the law on the employer? On this issue we are in a win-win situation, the law of the land is on our side for inclusion of the dependents. Do you believe Samuelsen has coherent explanation?