union divisions - part 2 - afscme anonymous email...

the internal strife within afscme got cranked up another notch this week when someone sent out an anonymous email to afscme staff and some members about president mcentee, his friend hillary clinton and the millions of members' dollars that have been poured into the clinton campaign. news of the email spread like wildfire on wednesday morning, 5/21. at first i thought it was only sent to oregon afscme people, but then was highly amused to find that it had been sent out nationwide. some people who know i have been a vocal critic of afscme international's handling of the clinton campaign endorsement asked me if i was involved. some of the issues that are raised in the email are certainly ones that i have raised before, but those who know me well know that it was not me for two big reasons:

1. the language used and style of writing in the email is not mine. people can look back through my blog posts to see that i clearly have a different writing style.
2. if i sent out such an email, i would not hesitate for a second to put my name on it. i wouldn't need to use an anonymous email service. i would sign it proudly: michael o hanna, vice president of afscme local 88 in portland, oregon.

so, without further delay, here is the email that has been circulated this week (i will follow up in the next post with mcentee's email response):

If you're going to San Francisco for the AFSCME Convention be sure to bring a calculator. The Bill of Rights for Union Members in the Preamble of the AFSCME International Constitution (p.8, sub. 6) provides:

"Members shall have a right to a full and clear accounting of all union funds at all levels. Such accounting shall include, but not be limited to, periodic reports to the membership by the appropriate fiscal officers and periodic audits by officers elected for that purpose or by independent auditors not otherwise connected with the union."

The same Bill of Rights (p.8, Sub. 2, second sentence) provides:

"Active discussion of union affairs shall be encouraged and protected within this organization."

We know as trade unionists rights exist only on paper until we fight to make them a reality. Get ready for a fight in San Francisco. Our rights have been trampled on by some of our own union leaders.

We began this political season with millions and millions of dollars designated by the membership for political action. We also began the political season with the three top Democratic candidates who all have 100% AFSCME voting records. Sadly, as the first phase of the political season ends, we have have squandered our millions of earmarked political dollars in a irrational struggle to deprive Barack Obama, a US Senator with a 100% AFSCME voting record, the Democratic endorsement. Our leaders have squandered the money to the point where we have now borrowed millions from the banks to finance this massive waste of our resources. Resources that should have been saved for the general election in the fall or spent in primaries that really mattered to the membership.

President Gerald McEntee was elected to shepard our resources. Instead he has been feeding the wolves, the in-laws of the wolves, the cousins of the wolves, and the distant acquaintances of the wolves.

We are entitled to an answer to a simple question to the International President:

"What did AFSCME members gain by spending all our political money, and more borrowed money, in a futile attempt to defeat Barack Obama?"

We are entitled to the answer to another simple question:

"What was the TOTAL amount of our money spent (political money and other non-political money) on this futile effort?"

We are entitled to have a full, fair, and active discussion of this fiasco at the convention.

We are entitled to know if McEntee, as a DNC member, first voted to disenfranchise Florida and Michigan voters and now claims to be concerned about counting our votes in those states. The only reason he is on the DNC in the first place is because of our union. It surely is not due to his political genius. He is on the DNC because of our clout.

We are entitled to know how our International Vice-Presidents voted on spending all our money and then borrowing more money from banks to attack Obama.

We are entitled to all this because we are AFSCME. We are union members and we have a national constitution where we established rights to make sure future generations of AFSCME members would always have the best and most democratic union in the country. We put it down on paper. We wrote it into our constitution. We voted to ratify the constitution. Now it is time to stand up for our unions constitution by demanding answers.

We will undoubtly face a fight in San Francisco to enforce our own constitution. Be prepared to stand up for our union. McEntee is right about one thing. This IS an internal AFSCME problem and we need to fix it in San Francisco so it never happens again.