This web-site has grown out of a need for members of this union to voice their concerns about the continued lack of respect for their democratic rights by the Local 787 full time paid officials.
We will be setting up a space where you can add your comments without fear of reprisals. You will not need to add your name if you don't want to and you will not have to know the secret password. Your comments will not be censored.
We know that many of you are concerned about your pensions and well you should be. Several members have complained about the poultry sum they receive, one as low as $43.00 per month. When they retire, the union officials will receive up to 65% of their salary in the best three years.
Others have complained about the disability benefits they receive. Some have received no benefit even though they are entitled to one. If they become disabled, the union officials will receive their full pay.
The Local 787 union officials have taken dues and assessments from your pay cheques without your approval. When some members complained to the UA about these undemocratic actions of the full time paid officials, they returned 55cents of it to your hourly rate but what happened to the hundreds of thousands that they had already collected? You have the only right to decide what should happen to that money. According to the Constitution & Ritual, you have the right to vote on all expenditures but as the Financial Statements clearly say, the union executive has given itself that right.
In the last By-law changes, you were given 4 to vote on. There were about 40 changes. Why weren't you given the chance to accept or reject them. Some of these changes gave increases in salary and every other Friday off to the union officials. They also gave the union the right to charge members with "spreading rumours". Just think about how dangerous that could be. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives us the right to free speech and assembly.
When was the last time you voted on a dues increase?
The last ballot sent to you on a dues change gave you no place to reject an increase. It gave you a choice, this increase or this increase.
There is no involvement in union affairs by most members because they don't want to be intimidated at meetings. Members who don't agree with union officer policies are yelled and screamed at, told they are out of order, threatened and verbally abused with foul mouthed language. No wonder the meetings are poorly attended. Most of the members attending are local to the area of the union offices and those who will blindly back up the union officials no matter how wrong they might be. The meetings are set for 6.30pm. This leaves very little time for those who live out of town to attend. Out of town meetings are held once a year but members in the Niagara area are lucky if they receive their Meeting Notice before the meeting, if at all. Of course this is always blamed on the post office!
We need more member involvement.
We need more accountability from the Union Officials.
We need our right to vote on dues and assessments restored.
We need to be able to discuss our concerns with other members without fear of being thrown out of the union because the union officials don't like what we are saying.
We need to be masters of our own destiny not victims of a union officials' dictatorship.
There are a lot of these 'Members for Democracy' web-sits on line now. Take a look, you would be amazed at who is involved. Take a look at the AUD site at
. It has a lot of very good information.
Please get involved yourselves, it's to your benefit. Tell your Local 787 Brothers about this web-site.