Campaign EP 03 (maybe)

The speaker, Jeff Schoenfeld, is discussing the lack of support and involvement from the current administration in the local union. He criticizes their failure to fulfill promises of being present on shop floors and attending meetings with members. He emphasizes the importance of being accessible and proactive in addressing members' concerns. Schoenfeld believes that a culture change is necessary to strengthen the union and urges accountability from the members. He concludes by stating his candidacy for president and principal officer of the local union. How's the day treating you so far, Sharfield? Pretty good, pretty good. Pretty relaxed day today. All right, all right. Good, good, good. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to get right into it, okay? I just, I'm going to read one of the things that the current administration put out last time that they said they were going to do. Back our members on the shop floor. We will hit the shop floors as a local, as a show of force. To go to members for far too long, the expectation of past administrations has always been waiting for the members to come to them. So we'll see us on the shop floors and at the parking lot meeting. Another empty promise by Dave Reeves, it is no New Vision slate. Now, these are their own words. Show of force, the whole thing was. But show of force, parking lot meeting? Looks like New Vision lied to all of us. And it's important to talk about these things. You know, we have to, they said they were going to do things, they didn't. And we're just bringing it up, you know, to say, hey, you know, what are you talking about? You know, you did. I mean, you said you were going to do it and you didn't do it. You failed to do it. So what are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on what I just read? Well, so our business agent is in the building maybe once a month. If he's not settling grievances and even then when he is settling grievances, he often he often shows up like like around start time. So like not a whole lot of people get around, get a lot of time with them. And as far as like the rest of the hall, like I've seen them up there a grand total of twice when they were campaigning. The last time they were trying to get elected and then this year when they're campaigning again, we had somebody die in our center. Anybody who's been listening to the to our regular podcast has heard about that. And. You know, we couldn't even get. We got the president and two BAs to show up. When we had somebody pass away on the job. And so when they were doing the whole yes vote thing, did they get everyone? How many people did they get for that? Oh, as far as. No, they used one of one steward from each side of the building. And when they were going around everywhere, I mean, how many people got a service that you saw? A lot. Oh, yeah. They took out a lot of people. They took out. What's funny is, is they took out two of our stewards in our building. The two stewards they took out combined had less than two years of steward experience. And, you know, it's fine. They they knew that I had problems with the contract and that they didn't want somebody that would question the contract to be up there telling everybody to vote. Yes. Or possibly vote no. Heaven forbid we give people information and let them make their own choices. I know. I know. And taking out inexperienced student stewards because the stewards who have more experience than doing it might not be voting your way. I mean, come on. I mean, that's just that's that's that's one of the ways they're splintering this local. So here's the thing. Oh, I said that they didn't do that. Is my thing. OK. And and what's it going to be? What's the utmost importance for us as a as a slate is to make sure and we've said this, make sure the members know we have their back. Now. I can say this, that, you know, when I was a B.A., I was in the building a couple of times a week. You know, you know, in all my buildings, you know, we you know, there were outlying buildings. You don't go as much. You still have to go. And, you know, you know, you do all those things. And so we're going to do the same things. The B.A.'s are going to do the same things and make sure they're in the building in all the buildings. OK. And to let the members know we got their back and we'll be able to deal with a lot of problems. See, this is where I don't understand why you wouldn't do that. You're handling a lot of problems. You're stopping problems from happening. That's why you do these things. And. You know, that's that's what it is. I mean, we're going to stand by our members and. Literally, we'll be coming to them a couple of times a week. I mean, and, you know, answering phone calls. I mean, what's so hard about getting back to people? You know, people call you and, you know, what's so hard? Get back to them, whether it's a minute call, whatever. Just get back to them. I mean, it's just. That's what that's what it's about. You know, the parking lot meetings. I mean, you've got to have a sense of we're going to say this. You've got to have a sense of. Like family, you think about it that way. I have your back. You have my back. Right. And we want the members to know that we're going to have their back, you know, and it's it's it's important. You know, and and, you know, education, you know, ongoing education. And we're going to be having proactive representation, which is most important also. I mean, you have to have the proactive representation. It's lacking now. It's lacking. And you want to be there for them. And it's just I don't know why you wouldn't put the best BAs in there. I don't know why you wouldn't do that. And, you know, our whole thing is. That's exactly it. We are going to put the best people in there. We are going to make sure they're attentive to these members. We we're going to make sure of all these things, not standing outside at the gates. We're going to be inside the buildings. That's the only way this happens. Okay. Inside the buildings. So other times we'll be outside for doing certain things, but we'll also be inside. Okay. And the members will start to get that, you know, like, wow, they really do have our back. And they need that. It's tough times right now with the layoffs and the management coming after all of us. We need to adapt to what's going on. And that's why I think, you know. It's been a real problem where there hasn't been that adapting. And you do that and we stop becoming stronger as well. You're adapting to situations. Wow. Look at that. They won't be able to do that anymore. Right. We're going to keep keep doing this and we're going to keep pushing. We're not just going to be, you know, and certainly, you know, we're not going to be reactive. We're going to be proactive. Okay. And, you know, it's about going back at them, not just waiting for them to come out to us and go. We're going to go after them. You know, they they they can't just do whatever they want. And it's I think it's simple. I think it's simple about going into the buildings and taking care of the members and answering phone calls and doing the thing, the ongoing education, you know, to let the members know. I'm going to say this again. We got your back. So, I mean, that's just that's just some of the things based off, you know, you know, what we were talking about before, what they had said, the promises they made. I mean, that's, you know, do what you say you're going to do. Okay. And I want people to hold us accountable. I want that. I'm telling you, hold us accountable. Okay, because this is we're going to be focusing on it. This is what's important. This is what the members need. And, you know, we're going to do it. So it's it's there's no other way. There's no other way but to to to get stronger. That's it. We can't just stay stagnant. It's it's gone on for far too long. And, you know, there's been different versions of the same thing and it's not working. Okay, this is, you know, this you got to do that all this that we want to do by doing a culture change. It won't happen overnight, but it's going to happen because we want it to happen and the members will want it to happen. We just have to show them the way. That's why you're put into these leadership positions to show the membership the way and I'm talking about everybody. There's no this side and that side. I mean, you know, sure, in the campaign where, you know, we're butting heads and the other side will probably cross the line and but we're not. We're going to keep it clean and we're just going to keep talking about our solutions and what this local needs and, you know, we're going to involve everyone. It's not, like I said, not just friends, this and that. Everyone's going to be a friend. I don't care who it is, everyone, because our goal is to be strong enough to say to the company, not on my watch. So, but that's what I want to say for today. I'm Jeff Schoenfeld and I'm running for president and principal officer on local 767. Thank you.