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| page 17, 2011 IBT Delegates |
To the left you see WHO the Teamsters Local 320 Delegates were to the 2011 Teamsters International Convention. The names you see BEAT the Sue Mauren Slate, Secretary Treasurer of Local 320. They ran as the Anyone But Hoffa Slate, and won.
Yes, members, it can be done.
You will notice that some of the delegates are now officers of the MNPEA, Dave Deal and Mike Golen, Some of the other delegates like Wade Laszlo and Carol Orcutt are now members of bargaining units that have left Teamsters for the MNPEA.
How did this begin? What was the catalyst?
At the 2009 Steward training there was a MNTLEL meeting. The topic of discussion was the Correctional Pension. We voted and decided that the priority should be a raise in the benefit, which hadn't been raised since its' inception, and to get a corrections officer on the PERA board.
Instead, Mike Carey and Erik Skoog decided that correctional officers being licensed was to be the priority. Union Steward Dave Deal was part of MNTLEL and was never consulted. Angered by the repeated ignoring of member votes by Local 320's leadership, Dave Deal ran a slate, the Members for a Better Union Slate, against Sue Mauren's Unity Slate, in the local board election. Sue Mauren's slate won, but then quickly turned on the members who dared to run against Sue and those who supported them.
You can read some of their bullshit here, Teamsters Local 320 Election Result, it documents some of their personal attacks on members like me, who voiced support for Deal in the election.
This catalyst of ignoring members, then turning on them for exercising their rights as dues paying members resulted in several of us running against the Hoffa supporting Sue Mauren slate in the 2011 Delegate Election. We sought to represent the members of Local 320 as Delegates to the 2011 International Brotherhood of Teamsters Convention. We ran as the Anyone But Hoffa Slate, and as you see on the attachment, we won. Unlike other years, Local 320 did not picture us on their magazine or publish widespread who won. To this day many don't know Sue Mauren even lost to us.
The election was ugly and Sue Mauren's slate cheated. The Federal Elections Supervisor found their slate in violation of elections rules. They used Brian Aldes', non-union, brother in law's business, Razworks, to to make a free website for their slate. Sue Mauren was found guilty by Election Supervisor, Richard Mark.
You can read it here: http://www.ibtvote.org/protests/2010/2011esd087.htm She was forced to pay for the website and post this message for 30 days on their slate's website:
Richard W. MarkElection Supervisor
The Election Supervisor has found that Sue Mauren and the Mauren slate violated the Election Rules by accepting web design and hosting services for the Mauren website from Razworks LLC, a commercial web design and hosting service. Campaign contributions from non-members are strictly prohibited by the Rules. The Election Supervisor has directed Mauren to pay Razworks its usual and customary charges for the services provided and to cease using non-member contributions to campaign.
The Election Supervisor has issued this decision in Laszlo, 2010 ESD 87 (January 27, 2011). You may read this decision at http://www.ibtvote.org/protests/2010/2011esd087.htm.
You can read more about Mauren's and Hoffa's corrupt campaigns here.
A Federal Elections Supervisor ended up having to supervise Local 320's delegate election to ensure fairness. With Federal oversight at the ballot count, the Anyone But Hoffa Slate won. Interesting is the fact that many of the same people on the winning slate had lost in the local election just weeks earlier. It made many of us question the legitimacy of 320's local board election.
The convention was outrageous. Watch videos of Hoffa supporters here, including delegates walking out as Fred Gegare was nominated:
http://detentionhome.blogspot.com/2011/07/teamsters-local-320-delegates-at-ibt.html
At the convention we succeeded in our goals of getting Fred Gegare and Sandy Pope on the national ballot to challenge Hoffa.. Hoffa won the national election.
Having lost faith in the Teamsters to represent their members, some of the Anyone but Hoffa slate and their supporters formed the MNPEA. A labor organization dedicated to representing the members, not over paid so called "labor leaders." Many of Teamsters large corrections bargaining units decertified Teamsters to join the MNPEA. Groups like Hennepin County Detention Deputies and Washington County Corrections. You can see MNPEA's groups here at http://mnpea.com/
In a strange turn of events, Teamsters Local 320 is once again working against corrections officers! You will remember that the initial catalyst of the strife was their unwillingness to support the corrections officers with their pension. Now they are working against corrections officers by proposing letting non-essential probation officers and security guards into it!
I'd like to make one final point. The Anyone But Hoffa Slate people who left for the MNPEA are not anti-labor or even anti-Teamsters. We were the reformers who won in the delegate election, we believe in labor and are proud of the labor movement's and Teamsters' history. We simply believe that the current Teamsters structure and leadership has lost the way paved by great men like Jim Hoffa Sr. They no longer represent members, just themselves.
The Thunder and Lightning has left for the MNPEA.
P.S. If any reader has any doubts as to my former loyalty to the Teamsters over the years scroll back through the history of this blog. Local 320 leadership caused the rift. At the end of the day the members are most important, and if one labor organization has forgotten who represents who, then it's time to move on to one that will.
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