Fellow workers,
Thank you for entrusting us with the leadership of your local union. We educate the very young, we provide life-saving mental and behavioral health care, we teach college and high school, we are at the cutting edge of scientific research, we maintain facilities and make city governments run, we are peer mentors and resident assistants who support students in every aspect of their lives. We work morning, day and night. We hail from hundreds of different countries and speak hundreds of different languages. We are of every race, gender, sexuality, ability and religion. We are parents and we take care of our aging parents. We live and work in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. And we are united by the work that we all do to care for and educate our communities. Together we are very powerful.
Just as we are a local union made up of 27 different bargaining units, we are just one of the more than 600 locals affiliated with the broader UAW- United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers–divided into 9 regions. About 3 years ago, it was discovered that a handful of officials from the UAW and Chrysler-Fiat had been stealing from a training fund financed by Chrysler-Fiat and jointly administered with the UAW for its members at Chrysler-Fiat. The officials were convicted or pled guilty and went to jail. The UAW has been under a continuing investigation ever since. A month ago another UAW official was charged with taking kickbacks from a vendor. A few weeks ago federal authorities executed search warrants at the homes of the current president of the UAW, Gary Jones and his predecessor, Dennis Williams. So far, no charges have been filed against either of them but yesterday, the regional director of region 5, Vance Pearson, was indicted on multiple charges, including the embezzlement of union funds.
However, these people in positions of power do not represent the vast majority of the nearly half million members of our union. In fact, right now, our fellow workers in the auto industry are in the middle of a crucial contract campaign, having recently voted to authorize a strike. Despite the collusion between some union and company officials, the union really is the members and we are in solidarity with them all, now and always.
We are appalled and infuriated about the fact that a handful of people in positions of trust in the UAW betrayed the people they represent. Nonetheless, as a local and in our workplaces we still have lots of work to do to build OUR union and that does not depend on the national union or its bureaucracy. We ONLY answer to you, our members, and we hope to figure out together, along with other locals, how to change the national leadership along with the institutional structures and practices that made this possible.
As the UAW Local 2322 executive board, we are committed to democracy, transparency and working together to build power and fight for justice. As such all of the financial documents (which are audited twice a year) and decision making of our local union are available for all members to examine at any time. Our leadership at every level are here to listen to you and to build power with you and support you as leaders in your shop and in our local. We urge you to participate in shaping this local to be more united and more powerful than ever as we fight for justice in our workplaces and beyond.
Please join us in coming together as a local –kids included–when we watch Newsies at the Community Field in Holyoke on the 21st from 6pm-10pm. The movie will start at 7 so there will be plenty of time at the beginning for informal discussion. Save the date for our membership meeting on Sunday, November 3rd for more. As always, we welcome your feedback– email us, talk with your stewards, unit leadership and reps!
In solidarity,
The Executive Board of UAW 2322