A Message to all Doubters from a Bellite
This e-mail was forwarded to me a while ago and it certainly has people talking. Some people say there are inaccuracies in it. If there are anything thing in this letter that is false or inaccurate, please let me know. Although I am not a Bellite, I think the article raises some very important questions that need to be answered. Especially with the news of a missing $3 million and a horrific abuse of the harassment policy by the TWU executive using it to actually harass and censor the membership.
A
Message to all Doubters from a Bellite
So
you thought you were better than us. You said we screwed the membership over. You
called us Bellites and treated us worse than scabs. You sent each and everyone
packing with your bullying tactics, your accusations, your whisper campaigns. You said we
were a bunch of bullies….but we have nothing on you. You put our picture on the
internet but guess what? We have your caucus list (George, John, Betty, Laura, Lee,
Chris (impartial chair or what?), Delores, Colin, Lance, Guy, etc – yes we’ve
got the whole list. Expect to see that coming soon to an webpage near you.
You
say – well that’s just politics. Fine. You’ve had a chance to
prove your leadership now. Let’s see how you’ve done.
You
spent all of 2006 and a lot of 2007 getting rid of Bruce Bell and anyone who supported him
and cost the membership hundreds of thousands in legal fees not to mention forever
blemishing the union’s reputation. What about all the grievance issues that
weren’t looked after because of your focus on internal fighting? Are you going
to come clean about that? You’ve lost any hope of winning back contracting out
because you’ve left it so long untouched. And let’s not forget to mention
your brilliant strategy of putting an Operator in charge of plant-craft contracting out
and assigning a plant-craft person to clerical.
You
systematically removed Peter, Karen, Tim, Nancy and everyone else remotely associated with
Bell or even Hiebert. We can thank Hope Cumming for all of that too.
Next - you fired Bell’s assistant and forced other staff to quit. (Kim
Fehr was suspended for 8 days and you made her life was a living hell and Anne-Marie
simply couldn’t take it anymore). Eventually you bought out Sid Shniad because
he was telling the truth about your vast incompetence. How much did that cost the
membership? Our dues paid for his buyout.
You threw your support behind your fearless leader George Doubt who quit before the
lockout and didn’t even bother to show up on the picket line. Hey George, you
collected 6 months of wages from both the union and the company? Sounds like an
honest guy to me….
You
criticized us for not watching the money. But you set up a dummy corporation and
weren’t even going to tell anyone about it. Just the table officers would have
signing authority…. Nice Good thing someone finally woke up to that.
You
swiped at us for spending money on having Nancy Curley in as an alternate because of the
cost of travel, hotels etc but now you have George and Lee’s guy from Williams Lake
in for a couple of extra thousand a month when there are in town alternates that wouldn’t
cost anything extra. And you said we were too political….
We
wanted to raise union dues. You said that was wrong. Now you’re coming to
the membership to increase the dues to 2.1% and your spending is out of control.
The TWU travel club is a nice club to join. John Carpenter has been all over
the place with the points he has earned flying needlessly everywhere and for everything.
Spending New Year’s Eve in New York on the member’s backs. Ivana
Niblett gets assigned a northern local in AB so she can be with her lover Dale on the
members money Lee Riggs gets to come and go as he pleases and does nothing for
anyone but politic, politic…whisper and smear. And how about his royal behind?
He likes his perks so much he threatened to put his boots to the officers that didn’t
vote for a week long stay at Harrison. George took a 5-days trip home from the East
by train as a little holiday. He’s so busy. Betty Carassco has taught
other BAs to go to the spa on union paid time just like she does. She pays lawyers
to do her work – we say – just hire the lawyer and be done with it! How
about Local 50 Laura threatening a delegate with ‘serious repercussions’ if she
didn’t invite Betty to speak at a social event? Way to get your voice heard.
Just like a little mafia.
What about Prince Rehel – who flew all the way home instead of attending to his work or going to EC because someone dared put him up at the Best Western instead of the Hilton. Well, you got what you deserved in him. He doesn’t show up for work and you keep on paying him. In fact, there are a lot of EC people who don’t show up for work and that’s why the table officers said they needed structural change and needed to be the boss.
Yeah, you guys are good employers too. You locked out your own staff in a move only
Telus could admire – removing their grievance procedure and making the TWU a national
embarrassment to the entire labour movement. Nice work.
You
said we weren’t democratic enough. Really? Why the secret deal with the
Steelworkers? Yes – you are SO open and transparent.
And, as we have predicted, you have starting eating your own. It started with Mimi Williams and John holding EC hostage and threatening to quit if they didn’t get rid of her. The list of people that guy has screwed over is incredible. Shelley Snape, Scott Slade, and others…..and he brags about it too. A real trade unionist
Meanwhile Colin Brehaut is trying to remove Carol Nagy as Pension Trustee because he’d
like to go on the trips with Lee and George. This guy is so incompetent he couldn’t
even write a legal petition and spent hundreds of thousands of your dollars on a public
awareness campaign for signatures that are worthless! Not to mention the fact that
the members didn’t even know it was happening until after the van left town.
Speaking of – the whole idea was stolen from Tactical but George assigned it
to Colin cause he couldn’t have Harmony Jackson get credit for anything while she was
running against Niblett.
George also charged Harmony with harassment for a letter of concern her local wrote
regarding the removal of Betty Lockhurst from her HRO post. These harassment
complaints work pretty well for you don’t they George? You can keep
people quiet while screwing them over completely. But what are you going to do about
bargaining George? Can you charge the company with harassment if they come after the
membership?
Now,
Anderson writes a letter stating that she is worried about the money so you charge
her with harassment and remove her from office and now you’re doing everything in
your power to keep that quiet and keep it from convention. You cut off her email.
You’ve even offered to pay her to shut up. Where is that money coming
from? The member’s paychecks? And what about your spending habits?
We heard you were a million dollars over budget and Tamara Marshall nearly fell off
her chair she was so surprised. Guess that’s what happens when you don’t
know what you’re doing.
You
even kicked Lila Hackett out. Not that we care but is that how someone who has had a
stroke can expect to be treated after 30 years with the union? Stupendous! And
lets talk about how you also charged her with harassment. Is there anyone you haven’t
charged? Mmmm?
And
you plan to lead bargaining? Good luck with that. You won’t even ASK for
a raise for the Eastern folks because you’re so afraid to be at the table.
And
you thought we were bad….
Singed,
Proud to be a Bellite!