I'm okay, really. By Greg

Comments in the last couple of posts require me to say that I am okay. I overestimated my stamina and found I don’t have the stomach for the high stress, high conflict work on a full time basis. I will continue to participate as I can, just not 50 hours a week.

My story about the incident in the hallway was intended to shed light on abusive behavior by our statewide president and not so much on myself. The thing that I don’t like about the person I become that I don’t like is that I enjoyed it. It is like a chess game, competitive as anything (in the far distant past I competed in chess tourneys. Nothing quite like the adrenaline rush from a purely intellectual endeavor.) I thought Joe was wrong in refusing to help and wrong in his reaction when I challenged him over it. That is the message and I posted the story so more people would know about it. Otherwise it would have remained just another anecdote being passed around.

Deb Lowe comments about this happening to an SEIU staff member and that is right on. However, I did not look at it that way at the time. It was me and Joe. At one time political allies and now on opposite sides, he reacted in a way that I think shows his true colors.

This site had nearly 300 hits yesterday, a lot for this tiny blog that has recently morphed from a travel diary into a “revealing maybe too much about my personal journey” diary. When I hit the save button yesterday there had already been 160 hits so nearly another 140 hits came after I detailed the incident. There are already 70 hits this morning. Some of those are duplicates but I feel comfortable saying that probably a couple of hundred people are now aware of what happened. I am not sure where to go from here in dealing with this. There is no one to discipline Joe except the membership. If he had been a hired supervisor clearly he would be facing some sort of progressive discipline but he is not.

I am thinking along the lines of delivering the recall petitions to demonstrate the membership’s ire over Joe’s behavior, not only about his overtime demand but about how he is treating those who oppose him. Just a thought. I don’t know how many signatures there are but it must be a significant number. Given the huge hurdle our Constitution and By-Laws require for a recall election to even be held I think we need to re-think this whole thing.

Joe fails to demonstrate even a modicum of civility and professionalism in going about the duties he was elected to perform. I have been predicting that he would be running against Leslie for executive director for some time now. His last “Joe’s Journal” seems to me to confirm that in spite of his saying that his name would not be on the ballot, that he is planning to run. I think he was reluctant to complete the sentence by saying “not on the ballot for President.”

His discussion about the exec director not being subject to term limits, well here is what he had to say,

Local 503, OPEU is unusual in that unlike most unions, we do not hire an Executive Director, but instead elect one every two years. The Executive Director is the only statewide officer position that does not have term limits. The Executive Director serves as the Chief Executive Officer of our union, as well as the Chief Administrative Officer. It is the Executive Director who makes all decisions about union staff member assignments and has the final say over all day to day union business operations. The Executive Director is also the only statewide officer election in which staff members may be nominated.
If you want to serve as a statewide officer, now’s the time to send in your nomination and get ready to share your vision of SEIU Local 503, OPEU with every represented co-worker. What are the most important issues facing members? How will you help members make progress on those issues? Is our union on the right track or the wrong track? These are the kinds of questions every candidate will get to debate and discuss all over Oregon until the ballots are counted in October.
Many members may not know that as current President, my second term ends in six months when the next President is installed November 14. The limit of two terms for the President means that my name won’t be on the ballot this year. We’ve been through a lot together since November 2004. Each and every member has fought for and won tremendous victories. Together we?ve stood strong and won at the bargaining table, at the Capitol, where we work and where we live. Thousands of new members have joined our union and made SEIU Local 503, OPEU stronger.
Every member knows there are many challenges ahead. Every member also knows that as long as we work together, show respect for each other when we have differences, and stand up for what’s right and what makes sense, we will always win. Contact any officer or steward and find out how you can put your hat in the ring for any statewide office. When you decide to run for office, you will be standing up for every union member and worker in Oregon. Good luck!

I have also been saying that I hope he does choose to run since he will have to debate with Leslie. Members will be free to ask him questions that I do not think he will be able to satisfactorily answer. I also thing that Joe believes, truly believes, that he has the moral high ground on the overtime issue. He has developed an argument that some agree with. However, his actions towards me, and I am told to others, are something that he should find impossible to defend. Shedding light on this is what I am trying to do here, not whining about myself.

A final note, for now. Another reason I find myself unable to keep my position on staff is how much it silences my voice to be a paid employee of the union. While it is necessary for this rule to be in place, as I know from personal experience running for statewide president ten years ago and seeing the huge impact staff can have, it is not a role at which I am much capable of succeeding.

So, there you have it. Greg

PS Von wants me to stop with this here and get back onto the Travel Blog. So I will. The comments are open though and I will participate there.