Campaign EP 04

The transcript is a conversation about a proposed amendment to create a steward council for the local union. The amendment was intended to improve communication and information sharing among the stewards. However, the administration opposed it and took measures to prevent its passage, including stacking the room and influencing members to vote against it. The speakers discuss the benefits of having a steward council and criticize the administration's actions. They highlight the need for transparency and letting the democratic process take its course. They also mention other questionable actions by the administration, such as putting their names on union materials. Overall, they advocate for a fair and open decision-making process within the union. Welcome, everybody, to the Teamster Power 767 Campaign Podcast. This is a new podcast solely dedicated to the Teamster Power slate running for local 767 office in November of 2024. Regardless of the outcome, we intend to continue the Reality Check Podcast dedicated to the education of the members locally and across the country. Our goal, in or out of office, is to educate as many Teamsters as possible. What are you doing today, Garfield? I'm doing pretty good, pretty good. How about you? I'm doing all right. Just a sad state of affairs at our general membership meeting yesterday just to watch what – watch the length that the administration would go to to shut down an amendment to the bylaws. Yeah, I was sad to hear about that. Sounds like you had a pretty rough Saturday. I wasn't able to make a meeting because I had some family in town, but why don't you let us know what the amendment was about. Well, basically it was a steward council. William Hale and Seth Passett came up with this. And the main reason why they came up with this is because nothing was being done by the administration. They just wanted to come up with a steward council. And here's how it reads. It will be established a steward council consisting of all the stewards of the local union. The stewards council will meet monthly and will only cancel meetings if and when the general membership meeting is canceled. The stewards council will be chaired by the principal office of the local union. Councils shall be self-governing in the general guidelines set by the executive board and will conform to the provisions of the bylaws. The council may adopt educational programs, set up subcommittees, adopt by-vote recommendations by the executive board, discuss grievance and contract problems and issues, adopt motions and resolutions to guide the council, and may elect four stewards who, along with the principal officer, will constitute a committee to plan programs and agendas for the stewards council meetings. The stewards council shall not have the authority to enter into any contract that binds this local union. So, you know, so in itself, you know, it's not a bad, you know, I don't see anything bad with it. And, you know, for me, it was, and you can tell, they had a vote no line and a vote yes line. Now, you know, the vote no line, you know, it was, they were reading from scripts. They were reading from scripts. I mean, they didn't want it, and we're just going to call it what it was. They stacked the room, which, okay, they want to do that. They want to play the games. You know, they didn't want this to pass, not because it wasn't good in anything. It was just because one of the people that did it, Will Hale, is on, you know, on my slate. So my thing here is, I don't, there is nothing wrong with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with a steward council. It's just only to make it better. Now, what they kept doing was there were people went up there, oh, only four people. We have 300 stewards. All that stuff can be amended. I mean, and it even says in there, you know, things can be worked out, and, you know, we have to make 10, 12, this, men, women, whoever. And it would consist of all. It was just a starting point, okay? But then they were going into, you know, so many things that we don't need this. The stewards should be doing this on their own. Well, guess what? They're not, okay? And, you know, it was crazy to me. One of the business agents got up, Thomas Edwards, and was reading, you know, this whole thing, going into it. And I'm saying to myself, I really wish he put that effort towards the members. I mean, imagine that. Imagine putting all this effort into shooting down an amendment to the bylaws. That wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. Was it needed? I don't know. I'm just saying, you know, it wasn't a bad thing. It could only help, right? But it wasn't, they didn't come up with the idea. And since it was, you know, Will's idea and Seth's idea, they didn't want it. And they were going to do anything. Stack the room. There's got to be a two-thirds. It was a whole thing. And it was the day of the grillmaster, you know. And, you know, they just, you know, they had a lot of people there, and they did that. And the thing is, this is my thing. Whether it passed or didn't pass is the problem. And this has been going on off and on for years. Shady. You know what I'm saying? There's nothing in this that says you can't. But that's a shady look. That's a bad look. That's like, you know, our president putting his name on the tent. They do it? Yeah, you can do it. Or on the contract that's putting the stickers on there. I mean, it's a bad, bad look. And, you know, when you do about the tent, so by having your name on there as a president, it makes it about you. And that's just one thing. And people are like, whoa, why don't you just worry about other things? I've heard people say that to other people. Well, it's not just one thing. It's that one thing. It's the sticker thing. It's the being shady and not just letting the vote go by itself. It's the hundreds of other things that are done wrong. And that's a culmination. That adds up to a lot of things. So it's not just one thing. And the problem here is, and what we want as a slate, we want it just to be, you know, live by the sword, die by the sword. Whatever happens, happens. Don't start, you know, trying to control the outcomes, trying to show your power, you know, and this, I can do this. Look, I have this at my disposal. I can do this. I can get people. You're a joke if you do that. You're a joke. So you're doing that. And, you know, in your head you think it's okay. Well, it's not a legal issue. We can do it. We can do it. Well, as for the tent, back to the tent, guess what? It's only three or four locals in the country that do that. So how does that look? And then the stickers on the book, I mean, you could have the stickers on the book. It was done a couple of administrations ago. But they put all the BAs, you know, numbers that they can call. This one, the logo, it has the 767, which is fine. But then they add their names on it, you know, the president and the secretary-treasurer, the same as their logo for their campaign. That's just shady. And they're trying to get over it. Let me get this straight, Jeff. So this bylaw was for an amendment to create a steward council so the stewards could be more informed and could come up with ways to make sure that all the stewards were getting the same information. Absolutely. We have a pretty wide – you said we had 300 and some odd stewards, right? So we cover a pretty – we cover a pretty wide area, you know, from like Waco to Wichita Falls. Two other companies. Two other companies. So why is this a bad thing? Like, I don't understand why, you know, like, sure, like, we've got 300. But, like, if you want – if you're creating a committee, like, you don't want 100 people on it. You know, it doesn't have to be four, but, like, maybe it could be 10. But, you know, these are simple changes that could be made. But it sounds to me like this is just a – this is out and out. Like, oh, no, this is a bad idea. We shouldn't do it. Like, the stewards should be doing it on their own. Like, no offense, but, like, I do a lot of shit on my own all the time. Like, I put in an extra 8, 10 hours a week unpaid to, you know, settle grievances and do things like that, make sure paperwork's assigned, make sure people have their stuff assigned. Like – Why does that happen? Why do you have to do so much work? I mean, I'm assuming because my business agent isn't doing it. But – Absolutely. But, you know, this is – like, I do a lot on my own. I've been a steward for, like, 10, 12 years. It's been a while. And, like – Yeah. And, like, I would love to have a council of stewards I could go to and, like, talk to these other stewards. Because, like, the business agents aren't doing it. You know, Dave Reeves isn't doing it. Like, you know, but he can get up there and he can have all of his cronies tell everybody how to vote just like he did it – just like he did for the contract, tell everybody how to vote as opposed to letting people hear the amendment and make their own decisions. Yeah. So here's the other thing. So I get to the hall. You know, they have the competition. Everyone's been cooking the brisket. And by the way, everyone's brisket was really good. Everyone was – you know, I commend everyone for staying the night before and, you know, really, you know, committing to that. So that was – Yeah. That was good. They go, why is Amy Benavides going up to them and telling them to vote no on the amendment to the bylaws? I'm like, what? Yeah, a couple of them. Yeah, they're willing to come forward for it. I'm like, huh? Like, that's the length that they went to? That's the length they're going to? How about taking care of the members like that? And he's a – I mean, he's a steward. But, you know, like I said, there was a BA up there who was saying it. I mean, where's the – all that effort was in taking care of the members. So we say all that to say this, okay? And I'll say it again instead of before. You've got to live by the sword, die by the sword. And whatever happens, happens. You have to let it – you can't control things. You just have to let them be like an election, right? You should let them be. You know, some people like to try everything in their power. Hey, we're going to do this. I have this. And, you know, we're going to – you know, this is – doing things, you know, that are just not a good look and, you know, putting memes out about people that are wrong because – and they're adding people to management on there, which I just – it's one of the most ignorant things. I mean, why would you ever, ever, ever do this? I could care less. I don't think I've ever been offended in my life, you know, but why would you do that? And they did, but here it is. We've said that. We've said what they've done. And we know a lot of things that they've done. Here's the thing. Teams to Power 767, we're going to be transparent. We are transparent. We had our campaign rally last week, and we answered questions. We – you know, we – and when they were done, we said, hey, any more questions. We were answering them. Everyone was answering them, not just one person on the slate. Everyone was because we want everyone to know we're going to be – this is an open process, and we want everyone to know that. And we're going to do it the right way. We're not always going to be right, but we're going to do it the right way because doing it the right way is just as important, if not more important. You know, it's the way it has to be. Now, so I want that for the membership. I want the members to see that, hey, look, you know, we're doing it like this. This is the way it should be done. And, you know, getting the members involved with different things, not, you know, playing on the ignorance of people if they don't know the contract because that's what these guys are doing. They're playing on the ignorance. We want all the members to be, you know, empowered, educated, empowered development. We want to reinforce it. And everything we want to do is all about the members. And first thing I said at the rally, we're here for you. Every one of you out there, we're here for you. That's why we're here because we want the members to know that it can be better. It can absolutely be better. And, you know, the administration is playing to an old card, an old way of doing things, an old guard way of doing things. You know, HAFA did it. Guess what? These guys are doing it, you know. I mean, that's who they used to back. So they're learning from, you know, someone like HAFA. And they're just, you know, they want to shut people down. They want to, you know, silence them. They don't communicate. We want to communicate. We want to do all that. We want to have your back. And that's what it is. And, you know, sometimes you have to speak on what, you know, the current administration does because that's why you're actually, you know, you're doing this, you know, because you're doing it for the members because the administration is not doing anything. And it's sad these days because we have so much to worry about and they're just gaming it. And you're just not going to get that from us. And I know people are like, oh, you know, we've heard that. Well, we're showing. We're showing that, you know. We've already said someone asked, oh, are you going to bring Zoom back? Before they finish saying it, I'm like, yeah, that's back. That's back. We get in there, that's back. You know, we want people to hear. We want people to, you know, know what's going on in the meeting. We don't want them to miss anything. We even said the podcast, our regular podcast, that's going to be part of it. We want people to ask questions. We want people's questions to be answered, people's problems to be solved, not wait for a phone call that never comes or something. So, you know, it's important that we say these things. And it's not, you know, we're speaking truths here. These are facts. We're speaking what this administration is doing. These are facts. They've done them. This is not making up anything. And, you know, I just needed to say a couple of things. So let me ask you something, Garfield. One second. Let me pop in here real quick. There's something that you said at the rally last week that really resonated with me and I think should resonate with a lot of people is that, you know, this administration is, like, this isn't what he said, but this administration is very much spending a lot of its energy trying to stay in office. Absolutely. What Jeff is trying to do and what makes me believe in Jeff as much as I do is that Jeff straight up said that he's there to train his replacement. He wants to be there to make sure that the people that come after him are better prepared than he was. You know, that's what I've tried to do with my stewards. Like, my stewards are like the new stewards that come in in my building. Like, they've all got my phone number. They all call me any time, day or night, any time they have a question. You know, I don't need somebody that's more interested in being in power than is more interested in the well-being of the members. And that's what Jeff is. Jeff is interested in informing the people. He's interested in making sure that the stewards and the members and the BAs, everybody is equipped and capable of doing the jobs that they have and representing themselves and representing the other members to the best of their abilities. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And what I want for everyone is, you know, as, you know, as the top of the slate, you know, as the running for president and principal officer, I want to create followers. I want to create leaders. That's really important. It is. It is. It's very important. But all this stuff means nothing. And, you know, the whole slate feels the same way. I mean, we're on the same page. We are together because we're, you know, brought everyone together because, you know, we have a little like-minded in a lot of ways. And in other ways, people have different ideas and they think differently on certain things. But I bring that to the table. And it's very important. But the one thing is, the first thing I said to everyone is, you know, I said, you know, I'm bringing you in here because you're a fighter. You've got to be a fighter. I mean, you have to be able to stick up for yourself or others. And I always say this, this day, the strongest people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others. And it's true. I mean, don't you agree, Garfield? Oh, absolutely. It's important and just want the best for this membership. I don't have any other – there's no motives here. It's just wanting, you know, wanting the best and wanting the most information and I know that, you know, things can be a lot better. I mean, I, you know, I just – some people are stuck, you know, it's like a Stockholm syndrome thing. It's like you feel stuck. But, you know, listen, listen, listen. I want people voting for us because they believe in us, not because we're friends. I don't want that. I want it because they truly believe in what we're doing. And hopefully, you know, you see our actions will show everything. So, you know, I want to get this out. And again, it's just about, you know, it's about change. It's about changing that culture, wanting to change that culture. And everyone on the Teams to Power 767 slate wants to change the culture. And, you know, from everyone on the Teams to Power 767 slate, we got your back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.