 Okay, we are live and we are just waiting for people to join us See there's some people coming in Welcome. Welcome everybody. We're gonna give this just a few minutes before we kick things off here I see people are still coming in Welcome everybody. Hey, we got folks even joining us from Canada. That's great All right We're just giving this just a minute before we kick off because we want to give people time to join We're gonna give this just another minute or two. All right This is great. I see a lot of people joining the call. Welcome everyone We are just waiting a minute or two before we get started to let more people join in Welcome. Welcome everybody is joining So we can go ahead and start moving along. There's gonna be a lot more people joining the call So hi everybody. Thanks for joining the call tonight. My name is Chris Brooks I'm a member of UAW local 1981 the National Writers Union and I'm a staff writer and organizer with labor notes I'm gonna be facilitating the call this evening. I really appreciate everyone joining us While people are still joining on what we're still waiting. I'm just gonna take a minute Just to tell everyone a little bit about labor notes So labor notes is a media and organizing project that has been around for over 40 years Through our magazine and website books conferences and workshops We promote organizing aggressive strategies to fight concessions and unions that are run by their members So labor notes is also a network of rank-and-file union members who are fighting to make our unions more democratic and more militant We've supported multiple groups of auto workers in the past as they've organized to take on the boss and the union leaders that have failed them That includes locals opposed to concessions the new directions movement soldiers of solidarity Auto workers caravan and now unite all workers for democracy or UAWD One of our biggest projects at labor notes is our big national conference, which is held every two years in Chicago It's the largest conference in the world of rank-and-file union activists from across all industries and unions in 2018 so two years ago We had over 3,000 attendees and over 200 workshops and panels on everything from how to run for union office To how to organize a strong contract campaign to the legal rights of union stewards. It's a whole mix of things Our next conference is coming up in April. It's April 17th the 19th, and I'll hope you'll consider coming You can find out more by visiting our website There's going to be many UAWD members there, which we're very excited about as well as folks who have been involved in past efforts to reform the UAW So that brings us to why we're here tonight So the United Auto Workers was once known for being one of the cleanest unions in the country That is obviously no longer the case a Multi-year federal investigation into the auto industry has exposed far-reaching corruption and self-dealing by union leaders and corporate management To date three Chrysler executives seven union officials and the widow of deceased UAW vice president Have all been convicted of crimes uncovered by the investigation Two others are currently indicted in a waiting trial And the investigation is now closing in on both former UAW president Dennis Williams and former president Gary Jones In October allegations emerged that Jones and other senior UAW officials had embezzled over one and a half million dollars of Union dues money, but it's our money Out of the union to finance their own lives of luxury. So this is a moment of really deep crisis for the UAW The UAW must act boldly if it hopes to restore its credibility and To avoid a government takeover under the racketeer influence and corrupt organizations actor Rico Sadly the UAW's leadership's response to date has been entirely inadequate For example, the union leaders only began taking steps to bring charges against Jones after multiple local unions across the country Past resolutions demanding such charges be brought So for anyone who's paying attention the message is pretty clear if the UAW is going to get cleaned up If concessions and corruption are going to come to an end, then it's the members that are going to have to lead the way Thankfully a national movement of rank-and-file auto workers called unite all workers for democracy or UAWD is Organizing to transform our union from the bottom up and one of their goals is to push for a specially called National convention to amend the union's constitution and mandate that its top leaders be elected by a direct vote of the members So to discuss the UAD the UAWD in the the fight for member-led reformed. I'm joined on this call by four other UAW activists So joining me is retired new directions activists Michael Cannon home I'm also joined by Scott Holdison a member of local 551 at the Ford Chicago assembly plant Everyone Also joining us is Travis Watkins a member of local 167 at the caravan Everybody And lastly, we're happy to have Kenneth Larue a member of local 1853 at the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee Hello everyone So the way this is going to work is I'm going to go around and ask each of our panelists a question But at the end I'm going to be taking questions from you the audience So if you'd like to ask a question There's a Q&A function in the zoom app down at the bottom where you can type in your questions And I'll be pulling from those as we go on So please feel free during the call to just type in any questions that you have as they come up to you And we'll be circling back to them later So the first question is going to go to my cannon Mike You were you know member-led reforms have a long and proud history in the UAW One of those efforts was the new directions movement Which tried to steer the UAW away from labor management partnership and concessions towards democracy and militancy As a former leader in the new directions movement Can you tell us a little bit about that that that movement and why you believe one member one vote is an important step in reforming the union? Well, the history of the new directions movement starts in 1986 Members in UAW region five were just Frustrated with the level of leadership. They were receiving from the regional director who was Kim Whirly at the time Jerry Tucker was his assistant and The basis of their frustration was due to the fact that Kim Whirly he held the position But he'd never performed any of the functions of the regional director He wasn't involved in collective bargaining. He wasn't involved in the politics of the union Whereas Jerry Tucker as his assistant was fighting out in the field fighting concessions In many local unions He was involved in political process and also work trying to organize in the region as well so the contrast between those two individuals was pretty stark and Leadership and membership of region five got together. They formed this new direction movement And they went to Jerry Tucker and they asked him to run against the incumbent Kim Whirly as regional director This was as I said was in 1986 so Tucker finally agreed to run for regional director and at the UAW convention in Anaheim, California in 86 Election was held Tucker lost by two-tenths of a vote We found out on the same day that there were some election irregularities on the part of the administration caucus a Couple of delegates voted at the convention who had not been duly elected under the terms of the Constitution So we filed an appeal through the UAW election process and ultimately filed a complaint with the department labor and They agreed to take up our case with the court judge ordered a new election and in 1988 We had a rerun of that election and Tucker won the regional director spot in region five Sadly we he was only in office nine months because it took two years to process this whole case through the courts and In 1989 he was up for re-election Unfortunately lost the election for regional director region five As well as Danny Douglas who was running to unseat the incumbent in UAW region one Who was Bob Lynn at the time? Donnie Douglas also lost his race But new directions continue to stay around and discuss the questions and debate the questions of jointness in the UAW democracy in the UAW the one number one vote they invited that cause as well and in 1992 Tucker ran against Owen Bieber for president of the UAW now Most people say well, you know Iran gets on Bieber You only receive about five percent of the vote from the delegates and doing to through the UAW convention system But it was a symbolic justice try to break the mindset the culture of the UAW that had existed as just a one-party state at that point So that's the basic history the short version of what happened in region five and how new directions was born Like I said, you know the whole question of jointness was was big on our agenda We did we just simply felt that it was not in the interest of workers to Collaborate with management join management in essence Because as Tucker used to always say there's a stark difference between labor and capital and Their goals and aspirations are not to say they're always going to be a conflict with each other you know, of course capital was more concerned about making more capital and workers are more interested in trying to Redistribute the wealth and in the country and provide for their families who having you know, high-paying jobs in Hawaii so that's the brief history of region five new directions, which somewhat became somewhat national when Donnie Douglas and In others join in with new directions to try to change the union Now why is one member one vote important? Well It would be the first time that the membership of the union would have an opportunity to select a home leadership As it stands right now, we have the administration caucus which the leadership of administration caucus and an international executive board are the same people and They basically decide who's going to run for president vice president and regional directors all throughout the country Going to a system where one member one vote takes that Deep that centralized power and distributes it to the membership allows them to select the meat The leaders that they deem to be qualified and who will also Advocate a worker's agenda as opposed to leaving that in the hands of just a few people Who are only doing it to serve themselves? Their whole goal is simply to get re-elected Time and time again and once they're elected to these positions They basically stay in them until they decide to retire and there's no way to unseat them If they're not performing a job or is in a case that we have now where they engage in corrupted practices So that's the reason that we have to do this it has to move To that there are other unions that have direct election of their officers and the ua devil should be no exception to that Thanks, mike. And can you just say very briefly? If you had been able to elect other people than the administration caucus to the executive committee Do you think that would have had an impact on the corruption that we now see has been rampant in the union? Exactly because when you go to at least a two-party system And no one knows how many caucuses will come out of this. It could be three or four parties But when you have at least a two-party system one party can always Investigate and question the actions and the practices of the other party You know similar situation we have in congress now They will always be able to bring up And question and and check and act as a check and balance Bounce against the majority party in power And I saw some of that when tucker became The regional director that was like the first time in recent history We ever had a member from opposing caucus that also have a seat on that international executive board And when we would go to those meetings Tucker would be the one who would bring up discussions about jointness and our reason And the fact that we needed to end that we needed to get away from that And just his presence in the room had a chilling effect on a number of things that oan beaver And the vice presidents and other regional directors wanted to do so having an opposing party On the international executive board acts as a check and balance against the power of the majority without without question And I would envision that If we had more than a one-party system in the uaw today the corruption that we see now would never have been Uh, we never come forward because there's no way that Anyone could engage in corrupt practices Uh, because they would have been exposed by you know, the other party the minority party in this case so yes, definitely definitely, uh Definitely would have changed the culture of the uaw and allowed for Another check on unbridled power and that's what we have right now Thank you very much. That's very insightful. Uh All right, so next we're going to turn to scott holdison. Uh, scott You're a founding member of the unite all workers for democracy movement. Um, or uawd You also wrote the article eight resolution that is now being currently passed by locals around the country Uh, so can you explain to everyone on the call what? uawd is and what this resolution says and does and how it becomes a pathway to a special convention to discuss The question of of direct elections Sure, I'd be happy to talk about all that First of all, I'd like to thank you chris and labor notes for putting on this webinar Uh, this is an important vehicle for for us to get a message out to uh, to our members Um, uawd or unite all workers for democracy Uh is a movement of rank and file uaw members Uh, who are concerned about uh, the direction our union has been taking And we are interested in enacting Uh reforms Uh and the reforms to the uawd that we'd like to see enacted our democratic reforms Um transparency reforms And we are hoping that through those kind of reforms we can get accountability Uh to uh over our international officers Uh the problem has been that With a one-party state like mike was talking about There is nobody to hold them accountable And you know, they they've uh been very Feeling very comfortable in Getting involved with these schemes That have Really hurt the the members of the uawd How how's it hurt the members and it's hurt the members by Giving us poorer contracts when the uh the Head negotiator for fiat chrysler is paying off the last two vice presidents Over that department To you know grease the skids for better contract terms for for fiat chrysler. It hurts the members Also, uh, you know when we started seeing these indictments and things coming out Uh, you know, we we were concerned and then and then when it started hitting our membership dues Uh a bunch of us got together and decided that we wanted to look into the constitutional Options that we had available to us So the first constitutional option that we exercised was the article 30 section 1b And that option allows members to file charges Against uh international officers and that's what we did you mentioned that briefly chris um chris budnick down in uh, uh, kentucky at local age 62 actually was the one that got The affidavit filed and uh, he got the uh his local to endorse it Then six other local or five other locals endorsed it And uh at that point the international executive board decided they had to do something they stepped in and filed their charges uh, you asked about the resolution the resolution is aimed at bringing a One member one vote system to the union, but there's a process in our constitution that must be followed to do that Uh, and that process is pretty detailed laid out in the constitution in article eight section four Uh, and they're in article eight section four. There's a two different ways to call a special convention One the international executive board can do it Two the membership can do it. Uh, but in order to do that you need to have Uh 15 at least 15 different locals in five different states Representing 20 of the total membership of the ua w Um, so that's actually a pretty heavy lift to get that done then once that done it gets done it triggers a referendum vote of the uh, uh, the entire membership of the ua w And uh, if a majority of the members want the uh, special convention convened Then the international executive board and uh is obligated to do so Um, it also says that you need to have specific purpose for the, uh The convention so, you know, we encourage Locals that pass a resolution calling for a special convention to pass the same Resolution because we want to be united in our purpose and our purpose Uh is to uh Bring uh changed the way we elect our international officers We want direct elections a direct referendum election of our international executive board All the positions We also want transparency the resolution asks for, um Uh regular financial reports to be published and So that all the members can see it and also easier access to the Minutes of the executive board meetings. So we understand their decision-making processes It also, uh Wants to undo a Something that was passed at the last convention where the uh, the officers international executive boards Chase My dog's drinking The international executive board, uh, their salaries are now tied to the salaries of the international Uh servicing representatives who they negotiate those those salaries with so, you know, when they agree to a an increase in and salary for the servicing reps the They agree to a uh increase in salary for themselves So, uh, we'd like to see that disconnected um So it the constitution says you have to have a specific date or a specific location and time date for the uh Uh special convention and that's That's included in the resolution Also, it says, uh, you have to request when the ballots are supposed to be mailed out for this referendum vote That's also included in the in the resolution Right now we're facing a pretty tight time frame The ballots according to the this resolution are supposed to be mailed out by February 21st Which means that uh, we really need to get the requisite number of Uh Members locals representing 20 of the membership On board and pass By valentine's day essentially essentially so that you know, there's time to make up those ballots and and Make sure that everything is uh sealed up and done Did that answer your questions? It did I do have a follow-up though. Um, so, uh, two questions How many locals have passed this resolution already? You said that there's a steep hill decline. How close are we to reaching the top of that hill? And how can anyone who's interested find a copy of the resolution to have it passed in their local? Oh, great questions. Um 12 locals have passed it so far Uh, the constitution requires a minimum of 15 locals to pass it But uh, the highest hurdle is is the 20 percent of the membership So right now that's right in the neighborhood Of 80 000 members so The 12 locals that have passed it they represent Roughly 34 to 35 000 members. So we're almost at the halfway point for the number of members So we're going to keep working at it and uh keep doing outreach That's partly what this webinar is for is outreach and Your second question Where they can find a copy of the resolution. Oh, yeah, uh, uh uwd.org that's uh, uh unite all workers for democracy website and Right there on the the front page. There's a button a link you can click on It'll take you to instructions on how to uh, how to present it what needs to be done And there's a link to the resolution and also to a toolkit To try and help you Get Do the outreach in your local union Fantastic. Thank you so much scott. I was very All right, so uh, travis i'm going to go to you next. Um, so you also are a founding member of the uwd and Have passed the article eight resolution Calling for a special convention in your own local So can you tell us why it's important for everyone on this call to one join? You know unite all workers for democracy or uwd and to how they can follow your example in passing the resolution in their own locals Okay, well, let me first. Uh, I'll start out by thanking uh, you chris and labor notes for hosting the webinar and giving us this opportunity to speak to our membership and To those who are joining us and uh interested in learning more about the uwd Uh start with your question. Uh You know the ability or inability Uh to organize is the success or failure of any movement. Okay, and that's no different for us here um You know, uh, I came across a quote today of dr. Kings and forgive me I can't remember the entire quote But the part that I remember was to produce change people must organize working together in units of power That power is our membership and that's you and I The uwd movement has the potential to be that organized change We need that dedicated commitment from our membership to stand with us The uwd is a principled movement We believe we have an organized path to restore the power back to the membership Never forget that the membership is uh, the ruling body of our union And but without this organization in a solid front by our membership The administration caucus and the international leadership Will not view any reform effort as a serious threat We need to restore the power and accountability back to the ranking file and it's Where it's always intended to be Where it is now and it's just time to organize that power So we need you and that's why i'm asking for my union brothers and sisters to uh to join with our movement um regarding uh the article eight Like scott had mentioned The uwd website Again uwd.org has a fantastic template and toolkit available to help prepare anybody that's interested in bringing it to their membership It's no different from the one that i use successfully and bringing to my membership meeting You know solidarity starts on the shop floor and so the best advice that i can give to those that are bringing the resolution or interest That mean bringing it to the membership is to start there Engage your local members prior To the membership meeting Make sure you have Support and someone there to second your motion You know, I know we all don't have the time on the shop floor to have lengthy conversations and so what I did was I took it took Some time and I wrote a few paragraphs and I attached it to a copy of the resolution And I you know, I approached the membership that I know that attended membership meetings Uh, and I passed those out and gave them an opportunity to sit with that And think about it and contemplate it. I think that's important um That's who's voting, you know But you know, also don't be afraid to approach the members who don't actively attend the membership meetings You know many of our members as you know are disenfranchised with the the corruption and Uh This issue may be something they've been looking for, you know, and their support there as well um Prepare for opposition. Uh, don't be intimidated by Those attempts to shut you down I anticipate what the opposition might say be prepared to have some answers available for those Um, again, I think preparation is the key prior to the meeting And ask those that you know that are going to support your the resolution to Stand and speak and in favor of the motion if they feel comfortable to do so That's great travis and was there any um Particular lessons from what you did that you think uh, you didn't know going into it that you wish you had known If you could talk to yourself before you tried to pass the resolution. What would you say? You know, I think uh, I I probably would have spent a little bit more time role playing the the The opposition what what uh What they're going to bring what they're going to say And spend some more time Preparing to have really good solid answers. I think I was able to I did my best and We were successful. Um, but it was difficult. We did have a lot of opposition And I think people need to understand that there is going to be some opposition Um, but you know the membership is ultimately going to decide and it's there, so Great. Thank you so much I see that some people are already beginning to ask questions, which is fantastic I would just encourage everybody on the call if you have questions to enter them in the q&a or the chat function And I'll be pulling from those very soon So next we're going to be hearing from kenneth larou kenneth is um at a large local in spring hill, tennessee and uh, He was um able to work with his coworkers there to pass the resolution over the objections of his own local president So anticipating some of the opposition. We might be uh facing as we go out to try to reform our union Um, so kenneth, what advice do you have for activists? Who are trying to pass this resolution and knowing that they might face uh some pushback in their local leadership? Oh, yeah, thanks. I'd like to uh, like everybody else. Thanks. Thank uh, thank everybody that's uh, That's watching and everybody that's uh on this podcast and thank you chris Well, what you know, I think uh travis kind of hit the nail on the head Uh, when he said bring support, uh, you know, it was a large local and I knew ahead of time that that some of our leadership, uh Wasn't on board and and I think that's part of the process but I'll get the to that uh in a minute um, so the first thing Is it is bring support? And you got it. You got to foster that and build it Luckily at my local we have a very prominent kind of facebook community a lot of people Are comfortable on facebook And it was used a lot during the strike so people were already active So I use that uh, you know one thing I did was uh, A week or a couple weeks before I would post things on facebook like, uh, you know now's the time, uh, you know If you want to change we got to we've got to act now Uh, and and we have a voice and we need to use it and and just little things like that And I let people know ahead of time. I actually, uh Uh copied the uh amendment or the article eight Document that we were looking to pass and posted that you know, let everybody know that this is what's coming Uh, and then I got a lot of communications from facebook and and and it went, uh, really well But the point is To have make sure you have support at that meeting in as much as possible Uh And and and that that's really important and and where I found anger To help was there's a lot of people at our local that are coming Down south and they're they're kind of encountering A little more harsh work environments that we're used to up north But there's anger. There's other anger. Uh, you know, a lot of people are just mad at the corruption going on You know, maybe not everybody got the temp tired Some some locals are some locals are running into problems So you need to find that And kind of turn it into support on on the on the floor at the meeting And the other thing is let leadership know ahead Especially now times getting short I think it's that it's really important that you don't Just show up with that document in hand read it And expect good results. Uh, you have to have support And it's a good idea to let leadership know ahead what's common, but if you don't They have the ability to call you out of order Or to uh table or motion and if that happens, uh, you know, it delays things So you want to make sure you give them the heads up And let them know what's common if if you don't want to you don't want to scare them into Trying to stall this so The other thing I wanted to get into is kind of the nuts and bolts of The actual meeting As long as those things are planned and laid out ahead You have support you got The leadership knows ahead You're going to walk into that meeting Ready to go With with support In the new business when when when the when the president's reading his section Which is usually at the start of the meeting He'll ask for new business. That's when you want to present You know, I did a quick intro. I said basically this is a An article eight document The culture of special convention To enact one member one vote and the other a few things that the document entails And when you stand up to the mic, you know, I always say Mr. President, I want to make a formal motion in good order Kind of sets the tone and I'm just read that read that document verbatim You'll need somebody to second you And at that point the president will open the floor for comments We got I'm gonna kind of give you a few examples of the arguments we have Travis kind of mentioned the kind of real play and get this Right ahead of time, which was really good advice But I think I think most the arguments are going to come down To very simple arguments. I think primarily you're going to have people that Are arguing for the status quo My president did that You know, his arguments were basically the You know, the few bad apples argument That they're fixing things and You know that that he read Rory Gamble's list of things that he was going to address and Right after he became president And the other thing he said was that if we if If if we don't fix this the government will So you're going to get arguments that That the things are already kind of in the works or You know why fix something that isn't broken Uh To me these are terrible arguments, but that's what you're a lot of people are going to receive I think it's because People are have for years been conditioned To vote for the status quo and our whole organization and there was fear Involved in that because we you know, we're kind of worried about future products and things like that And that's kind of thing that was always caught overhead But uh, you know my argument against that is that twofold a If we just sit back as a membership and do nothing What kind of message is that sent to the public? And it's unethical, uh, you know, this is our union. Uh, this is something we should be Fighting, you know, we need to own it And we want the public to see that that we are sitting back Letting this happen where they need to see that we're disgusted and we're taking action And we're doing what we need to do to fix things Uh, and the other part of that is uh, if you can enact one member one vote Uh, there's going to be less Influence that the administrative caucus can Can have on on that election And with with a more direct tether We can hold them more accountable And that's a thing that we need we need the administrative caucus to know that we the rank and file the people on the floor Are watching them and they need to know that We're not going to put up with this and uh So that's kind of some of the points I made Uh, another guy came up and said that uh, you know that the UAW is no longer a majority Or the auto workers are no longer sorry I said that wrong the auto workers are no longer a majority of the UAW Which has some truth that uh, the other side of that is We are the largest Membership and It doesn't really matter, you know, we need qualified good people Uh To be representing us and in and you know what? I don't see that as a major issue where they're selected from In in, you know, to me that seems like a pretty ridiculous argument The other thing we had was uh delegates Somebody argued that the delegate system is is working fine You know, I would caution people Uh To on the counter arguments not to call people out You got to be careful with this one because we don't want to say This person was elected the delegate and they got out there and they Did everything the administrative caucus caucus wanted to do and uh Didn't represent the people on the floor. We you know, we got to remember that We don't want to call our brothers and sisters and Really it's just about keeping the focus on The system, you know, so I mean we can argue that and say well, we all know that there is That that in the past delegates have been influenced And we need to get rid of that Influence That's a good argument. We got to be careful about calling people out So that's primarily what we had in my meeting What what you'll need to do is after Uh after there's discussion somebody will have to either get in line depending on how your local works Some some people get in line behind a microphone Some people raise their hands and the microphone gets passed around but after your uh, You've read your motion, uh got your second Uh, you've had your your comments. Someone will have to call for a vote Uh, and you have to do that pretty specifically. You have to say I got a call I'm calling uh calling the vote on uh ratifying the enactment of article eight and Letting our local support So you'll get a second for that Uh, and then the president will administer the vote So we're going to sit back and he's going to call everybody that's going to vote to sit Some of this may be applicable to everybody some of it not depending on how closely you all follow Robert's rules, but uh and Once that's done, it's it's usually a hands up vote from everybody seated Once that's done, hopefully things go well You're going to get a the a copy of that document to your recording secretary to be recorded So that's primarily it's like the nuts and bolts of of one needs to be done. It's not hard And it's just to you know getting people to get the courage to stand up And and and read the document and bring a group of friends or supporters with them One thing I I kind of like to mention Because I know you know a lot of people are nervous about about this kind of thing And and it's always hard to get people to stand up in front of that microphone but You know imagine imagine if you had to argue the other side You know, I know a lot of people are going to be nervous But imagine if you had to get up there and and like my president did and and say with a straight face that That the administrative caucus is doing a good job, you know, and if they're you know, there's a few bad apples up there that that Uh are weeded out and and this is a this is a system that doesn't have problems You know, it's it's it's taking care of itself. That's a hard sell You know, and there's so much evidence against it right now Uh, you know, imagine saying that that uh, you know, it's a good idea to just sit back and do nothing Uh, you know, the government's going to take care of it You know, ethically, it's a terrible thing to say And and this is our union. We need to step up and do what's right so You know anybody nervous about this, you know, don't be nervous because we we kind of we got this, right? This is on this is us. Uh, the the arguments are Weak from the other side and I would be frankly more nervous to do that and we only shop for a talk And uh, you know, we got numbers on our side. We just need to make it happen Uh And that that's kind of the thing, you know, now the now it's kind of a window of opportunity to get this happen It's the first time in decades That that we're being watched, you know, the government's involved We don't have to to worry so much about retaliation as far as product allocations and things like that goes We have a perfect moment in time Uh right now To make our voices heard and to make sure they're heard in the future With one member one vote I think that covers the questions back to you chris Thank you so much. Ken. That was great. Very very, uh, informative I appreciate all the pointers that you gave. Um, so I've got a number of questions that have come in So, you know, folks can keep sending them Before, you know, we're not maybe be able to answer all of them tonight if people have follow-up questions They can of course email it to me chris at labor notes.org and we can try to connect you with uwd folks But if they want to contact uwd directly, how would they best do that? There's a couple of ways to do that. We have a facebook page And on that page, I've gotten messages On the page asking for details. I've sent out the resolution Uh on messenger on facebook messenger We also have emails that are linked to it linked to our website But i'm not sure that those are Really easily accessible I haven't tested out the contact On the website. So, uh, the best way if you're on facebook Uh is to Um, you know, send a message to our facebook page unite all workers for democracy That's the name of the page Alternatively, if you want to take down my my number, I'll give you my number. You can text me and we'll figure it out My cell phone number is two one nine eight zero one two zero zero two So those are those are two options for you Perfect So i've gotten a number of questions about who is eligible to vote, uh for the resolution So One one person asks with all the tiers. Who of the membership is qualified to vote on the resolution for article eight Another person asks our retirees allowed to vote for the resolution And another person asks i'm part of a new newly formed union We we're certified but we're bargaining our first contract now Um, so are they uh allowed to vote for the resolution? And i'll just field this to anybody who can answer it Well, i'll go ahead and take it again. Um Uh As far as the tiers are concerned every local every tier every Member that's a member in good standing, uh is allowed to vote Uh retirees are allowed to vote at their local union meetings um And as far as the new newly chartered local Uh I don't see any reason why they you know at their union meeting. They wouldn't be able to uh pass the resolution as well Perfect. Thank you um a number So somebody has brought up on here that um at their local meeting where they tried to pass the article eight resolution Their local president and an international staffer said that it was unconstitutional Uh, can you someone respond to whether or not the article eight resolution, which is article eight of the constitution is constitution so They're implying that the constitution is unconstitutional um I i i've seen that Uh before i understand that it happened This week at one of the union meetings um and on that it was about the uh question of um electing new delegates because the the resolution does call to elect new delegates Uh, that's in there just to highlight what is already in the constitution uh The last paragraph of article eight uh section four Uh Says uh talking about this particular way of calling a special convention uh says uh In which event the vote of each local union and the election of delegates from each local union Shall be the same as provided for in this article uh For regular constitutional conventions except that in applying section nine of this article To determine the average monthly per capita taxes paid by the local union a 24 month period Uh concluding with the six months prior to the month in which the special convention Is convened shall be used So that tells you that their re uh the voting strength must be recalculated And also that they're the locals will elect new delegates So they use the same process that they use for the uh constitutional convention Great. Thank you. And I know that that information is also available in the uwd website. Mike. Would you like to say something? Yeah, um, I don't know if the question is um Did the the the chair of the meeting actually say that this uh, this motion was unconstitutional Or did he say that the um The motion was out of order Um, and I would challenge the the chair of the meeting on that basis I would simply say and all you have to do if you have the number of people at the meeting to do this Challenge the chair and say I challenge all you could do is give him say I challenge the chair on his ruling that it's either unconstitutional or It's out of order And once you challenge the chair on the roberts rules of order Then a vote has to be taken To determine who wins that battle, right? And it usually takes a two-thirds majority if I remember correctly to overturn a ruling of the chair So if you have the number of people there to make that challenge Challenge the chair on those questions and then once you win then they have to vote on that Uh resolution or motion that's before the body Great, thank you. It's very very uh insightful. Um, and I believe it's just a majority sorry to interrupt Chris But I I do believe it's just a majority vote to overrule the decision of the chair Even better Okay, um, so a number of people are asking which locals have passed this Is there a way on the uwd site for them to get that information or maybe they can in the near future We haven't as it as yet posted the list of locals. We can do that. We have one compiled Okay So two questions kind of about uwd's positions one Someone says it's very important to come out unequivocally against any federal lawsuit or takeover of the uw so against any government takeover Can you make uw's position clear on where you stand on a government takeover? And then also someone asks um, so you're for accountability and one member one vote in transparency But where does uwd stand politically on other questions? Like how do we know more about the organization's position on any number of other issues? I guess i'm i'm uh fielding a lot of the questions. Uh but um So the where do we stand on other issues? Uh, we're we're putting together a platform and basically our platform is to empower the members of uw uh to take our union back Uh, you know the the uw started as a militant rank and file union Uh, and we'd like to return it to to our roots as much as possible and that means that Giving the members the power in the in the uw And what was the other question chris? Can you? Refresh my memory there the position on government takeover of the union Oh, yeah, absolutely Our whole effort is to try and avoid a government takeover of our union the reforms that president gamble has put into place so far Are are wholly inadequate inadequate to uh Do what needs to be done within our union? The best reforms I can think of Would be to empower the members of our union to clean our our Clean up after ourselves And that's what our mission is here is to empower the members of our union to be able to Hold it their officers accountable when they do things that are are, you know out of line whether it be through Contracts that we feel are You know have been forced on us. We can hold them accountable through a one member one vote system When we find corruption corrupt practices happening We can hold them accountable through a one member one vote system Great. Thank you. Um, so a couple questions here about there are some very large locals in the uw like local 600 There's only two locals Someone is saying in the kind of larger michigan area has uwd thought about Having like a mass meeting or something like that in detroit to bring workers together to discuss These fights or how can people get involved? Are you organizing any are there any plans to try to bring people together in a larger scale anytime in the near future Sorry scott, I didn't mean for you to take off feel all these questions I was having an issue with my mic here, but I can kind of speak to that, you know being uh, I'm actually in michigan region 1d in the backyard You know, I've been in national um, it's it's been a challenge here and I think it will continue to be a challenge because you know that Like I said, I think we talked before I didn't talk about it in this webinar yet, but you know, there's international presence at these At our meetings. Uh, we're a section Article 8's being brought up um As far as Collectively bringing something together. There's some opportunities here. I mean, I think uh, rory gamble is now putting out the town hall um, that might be uh, somewhere where we could gather share information meet and Form something there or pass out literature or you know Set something up to make a presence and let let more people know what's going on that answers the question and I'd like to add that we are planning a a uh Our first official meeting our first official gathering will be uh, april 17th at the labor notes conference so I I'd encourage members to to uh, go to our website join uwd and also go to the uh labor notes website and uh, you know Come out to the labor notes conference and join our meeting Okay, thank you. Um, so this is getting close to the time that we have uh, to you know, uh For this call. I appreciate everybody for joining us. You can continue to message us and contact us So I guess I'll just go around the panel and let anybody have any parting thoughts that you might have or anything that you want to address That you think is really important. Um, so, uh, mike, you know, I'll start with you. Uh, any any last thoughts Oh, mike, you're muted. You have to unmute yourself. Sorry I would just like to uh, thank the participants of the webinar here tonight for your uh, dedication to the union And this challenge that you've taken on. I know it hasn't been easy Uh, I've been through it myself. So I know what you're going through Um, if there's anything that I can do in the future to assist you if you feel I have a role to play Please get in touch with me And I'll do what I can do to uh to help your movement, but uh, the main thing is to to stay strong Stick to your convictions here And um, if we continue to reach out to the members, I think under the circumstances You'll get a positive response from the membership. There's no doubt about that I think someone said earlier that this is the Perfect moment in time for this to happen With all the corruption that's going on in the ua w and and I can tell you that There are many people who are Starch supporters of the administration caucus and in that system who are absolutely outraged over the level of the fact that we have corruption in the ua w and and the The degree to which it has has grown So I think you have more allies out there than you realize Some who are intimidated, you know by the administration caucus still today But it's reached a point where some of them I think are prepared to break from the administration caucus to uh to assist any movement that makes sense So that we can return the ua w back to the days when we were corruption free And one of the most proudest moments of working for the ua w was the fact that we could always say That we didn't have corruption in our union, you know And so many people worked so hard for so many decades to make sure that that actually Was the case And to see what we see now today is just appalling So thank you again for your time and effort I really do appreciate it and again as I said earlier If there's anything I can do please reach out to me and I'll do as much as I possibly can. Thank you Thanks, Mike. So Scott, we'll go to you next Well, I can tell Mike, uh, you know, I expect to be hearing from us because you guys have have already tread this road And uh, we're going to be looking for uh advice from The new directions movement folks um But uh, you know, I'd just like to say that uh, you know the power of the union resides in our members And if we can't clean up our own union, then uh, you know, we don't know what Government takeover is going to look like and you know for me it's it's uh unsettling to think about So I'd rather go down this course and try and take our union back ourselves and do the work that needs to be done to Uh, have a clean uaw once again Thanks, Scott. Hi travis Sorry, I had to forget that unmute thing again. Um I I adamantly believe that there's a very real possibility of we go The uh, it's it's very clear how think we're heading on in that direction Right I think travis froze up on us Uh, so maybe we can try to come back to him in just a minute So can we we'll kick it to you and then we'll come back to travis if he he comes back to us Oh, we'll grab you back. Okay. Sorry. We love you So we lost you at uh riko Roll okay, so I there's a very real possibility riko coming coming. Um, all It's it's leading that direction Right now, uh, we have the opportunity For the membership to take a stand and rightfully take back the member They'll take back the power On the power has been there. It's just it's time that we collectively organize around that and uh clean up our union. So um With that, thank you guys very much for joining us and appreciate the questions and uh, Look forward to uh talking to some of you Uh on the what uh The contact on there for an email. I think that goes uh to uh, brother joseph valentine. He was part of the ua wd and uh Done great work for the website, but i'm happy to help out. Uh, if anybody has any additional questions concerns or or, uh Information My number is uh six one six three two three eight three one seven And uh, you you can reach me at uh travis w at ua w.com as well But thank you. Thanks chris Thank you travis And then uh kenneth closing us out parting thoughts All right, put the pressure on me That's cool. I uh, I just wanted to thank everybody uh, and uh everybody watching and uh, all of these guys and ladies and the the ua wd All the fantastic people, uh good ua w members and uh, just want you know I think the direction is that we want to return the power Uh to the people on the floor and uh, it's it's the right way to go Uh, we've got this moment. We need to use it Uh, if anybody has any questions or wants to talk, uh about How they can do this in their local Uh, name is kenneth luru l a r e w easy to find on facebook Anybody at my local 1853 who wants to talk about the ua w d. I would love the Love to have some conversations And uh, thanks chris for for having us but uh, awesome job all around. Thanks Thank you everybody for joining the call tonight. Uh, there's been lots of contact information out So, um more information is going to be forthcoming That we're almost halfway there to getting enough of these resolutions passed you can find a copy at the resolution at uwd.org Online as well as other information and resources to pass it in your own locals It won't take much for this to pass if um, two of the largest locals in the uw were to pass it right now Like local 2865 in california and local 600 You would we would basically be there. Um, so it's very possible that this could happen And even in the short timeframe that remains. Uh, so I just encourage everybody to get involved and to contact uwd Thank you everybody and I hope you have a good weekend Thank you