Final Corrections News and Views

Hey all, thanks for your friendship all these years. Thanks for allowing me to represent you as a steward all those years. I've released the final Corrections News and Views. I will be keeping the detentionhome blog up, and may post to it from time to time.You guys are still welcome to post there.

I am now a licensed Realtor with theMLSonline.com. Call me, 763 807-6668 if you or anyone you know needs a house or wants to sell one. Or email me at wlaszlo@themlsonline.com 

Special thanks to MNPEA, especialy Tom Perkins, Mike Golen, Dave Deal and the Fowler Law Firm (Rob Fowler and Joe Ditsch).

Here's the last Corrections News and Views:

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Mediation thoughts

On January 6, 2016,  MNPEA will again sit down at Mediation with Hennepin County.

I have sat in that chair many times over the years. It is a tough one. I want to thank the Stewards for their hard work. I know there are differences, as there should be, but the goal is the same to get the best contract for our members. 

I want to thank our attorney Joe Ditsch. I have sat with him at grievance hearings and in I.A. (Listen to the song). He is a good, knowledgeable guy and a man I would always want in my corner. He has a much less confrontational demeanor than yours truly! So he can be very persuasive with the jail Major and Labor Relations.

I want to thank our B.A. Dave Deal. He is a good honest man, and has a tough job dealing with our boss and county. Not to mention us cantankerous members!

The toughest part about contract negotiations with Hennepin County is that they settle with AFSCME first. In Minnesota we have, "patterned" bargaining. If the largest group, AFSCME, settles first, most arbitrators will uphold the pattern. I don't care what Union you are in, that is the reality.

It is frustrating as hell to seemingly bang your head into a wall trying to get something more or different from the county than what AFSCME got. I think Joe is the right attorney for that job.

About six years ago we left Teamsters for the MNPEA. I think it was a smart move. While, like the Teamsters, we still are stuck with the AFSCME pattern, MNPEA actually has our back.

Our attorneys, unlike any other Union are accessible to all members. No other Union gives you on and OFF duty coverage!

Yes, I've had a few disagreements over the years with the Union. It's the nature of the beast. But what I want to say is thanks to all of you for doing the hard, thankless work.

Hopefully we will have a contract to vote on after Mediation. I know how much work goes into it.

Welcome new B.A. Dave Deal!

MNPEA President Dave Deal is our new Business Agent at Hennepin County!

Who is Dave Deal? Besides President of MNPEA he is a Sergeant at the Washington County Sheriff's Office and a former Teamsters National Delegate to the 2011 International Brotherhood of Teamsters Convention. He was a reformer challenging Jim Hoffa's corruption on the Anyone But Hoffa Slate. Have you seen all of the Teamsters corruption in the news? Broke pensions, high salaries on the backs of members? He was against all of that.

After the Teamsters rejected our reforms, yes I was a delegate too, he helped form MNPEA as a Union to actually serve the members.

I, for one, look forward to his services. We need to hold Hennepin County and the Sheriff's Office to the contract and their agreements.

It is because of Dave and the Board that the leather grievance is finally signed and I expect Dave to hold them to their settlement on the Shift Differential grievance.

Welcome aboard.

Teamsters to MNPEA, Lest Ye Forget

page 17, 2011 IBT Delegates

There's a lot of hand wringing going on about the MNPEA "raiding" Teamsters and AFSCME groups. How did this come about?

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.