Agenda

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 Brothers and Sisters, Change is not easy, but the easiest path is not always the best one to travel. We are not seeking to cause rifts in our membership, what we ARE doing is issuing an alarm call to all of our Union Brothers and Sisters. We have serious fundamental disagreements with how we operate, and want to work with YOU, the MEMBERSHIP, to usher in a new direction of Leadership, Transparency, and Fiscal Responsibility. WE NEED TO WAKE UP 130!

Why? What’s the Alarm?

We built a parking garage, for 32 million dollars for us to park at our Hall. Why was it so expensive? Why was it over budget? Why weren't we informed? 

Why would we want to sell off parcels of our Local 130 campus, which we had secured over the years to stay in the West Loop and in our Union Hall?

Why would we build a $23 million dollar Training Center, only to turn around and sell off parcels of land around it?

Why is none of this discussed?

Where is the transparency?

In order to usher in a new era at Local 130, we have to have new Leadership. Leaders that will restore your voice, truly listen to your concerns, and take your opinions to heart, and keep you informed on ALL MATTERS of this GREAT LOCAL UNION. This will start with transparency.

We Pledge:

To be TRANSPARENT and bring back the VOICE of the membership. You are the Union, not just our elected officials. We as the body, are the final say, the final check in a system of real checks and balances. However we currently HAVE NO SAY, and WE WERE NOT INFORMED, the system is FLAWED.

• Amend the by-laws to require the reading of the executive board minutes and resolutions for the membership's approval prior to action. 

Why is that so important? As stated above, we do not agree that they have the sole power to sell our property, or enter into development deals with developers. But also and equally as important they should not be able  to increase the salaries of the Business Manager and Financial Secretary, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in sports marketing packages for “Brand Building” the plumbers 911 program, and more without notification and vote by the body. IT’S YOUR MONEY! YOUR UNION!

To be FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE, our members pay 7% in payroll deductions, 3.5% in working dues alone. What type of general fund reserve do we have? The target fund is at $1.15 an hour, Is “Brand Building” Plumbers 911 for hundreds of thousands of dollars per year the best use of your pay? How many leads are generated a year? What's the success rate? The Building Fund is at $0.70 an hour. Is that where it needs to be? Why did we have to move money from the Target Fund to the Building Fund without prior notification to the membership of a reallocation vote?

• To be TRULY TRANSPARENT on ALL FUNDS and where all of YOUR Payroll Deductions go.
• To trim back all non-essential spending of the Union and to build up a general fund reserve. 
• To develop a long-term investment and real estate plan for our 130 campuses, not just have development deals sprung on us.
• To evaluate all of our payroll deductions and find ways to REDUCE THEM
  • Evaluate the target fund, why is there no contractor contribution in it? They have no skin in the game.
  • Evaluate the Plumbers 911 program. Fully funded by the Union!
  • Evaluate the building fund, see how we can reduce it without selling off our property
  • Evaluate the working dues, do we really need all of these different buckets of deductions that add up to 7%? Let's have a real discussion and see how we can fix that and move forward

Strengthen our Collective Bargaining Agreement, why are we only talking about money when we discuss an Agreement?

• We want to discuss bringing back union stewards, to help protect our jurisdiction and enforce our work rules. Other crafts have them, why not us?
• Strengthen our work rules, we need to cover “on-call” time in the agreement. 
• Ask the members their opinion on the CBA before negotiations start and work “Collectively” for our best Agreement.
• Offer more than one option for the members to vote on for yearly allocations.
• Put into the by-laws the notice required for an allocation meeting and reallocations if ever needed.

Protect and Improve our Fringe Benefit Funds. Yes, they are healthy, but let's not cherry-pick the successes, and ignore our issues.

• The HRA administrator Optum Financial needs to be replaced immediately
• Our Retirees receive the occasional bonus check from the Pension Plan, we want to look into making that a yearly occurrence.
• Our Retiree Welfare Fund has a healthy reserve, we want to look into setting up a bonus from the Retiree Welfare Fund for retiree prescriptions, to help offset the rising costs they incur.
• Our Pension is doing great, at 103% funding we as participants should be getting more. 
• To work on getting the retirement age lowered. 

Brothers and Sisters, the time for Change is now, we have to take the first step together, we will walk this path and we will triumph. Together, Brothers and Sisters, we can do all of this and more. 

VOTE UNITED TEAM JUNE 11th. BE PART OF CHANGE!