Thread by @1199workersatcu

1/25 Open letter to @1199SEIU leaders:
At last chapter meeting we again asked why volunteer contract captains who attended orientation in late June were forgotten and kept as in the dark about contract negotiations as the rest of membership. We asked why they weren't given same

2/25 access to/participation in negotiations as 1 contract captain, who seems to be a full, active member of the Negotiation Committee from the beginning, participating in its deliberations and voting on its resolutions, and whose remote participation in each session has given

3/25 the lie to union leadership's baffling claim that remote access for members is logistically impossible. Our complaints about the role of contract captains, who are supposed to be well-informed and up-to-date on Negotiation Committee's progress so that they can inform members

4/25 + field their questions/concerns, are consistent with complaints about the lack of transparency/communication from union leadership generally. Complaints have also been about the organization of this chapter, for which we believe an informed membership not only on contract

5/25 negotiations, but on the economic stakes according to which a contract should be judged, is essential. Members were even recruited for phonebanking, but never heard back from the union. At our last 2 chapter meetings, the idea of members uploading video testimonies on 1199's

6/25 website advanced, but again membership heard nothing, despite the request from us at last chap. meeting, both verbal+written to email members about it.

At the 1st dial-in chap. meeting which ~40 members attended, VP Michael Ashby blamed us for the poor turnout + in response

7/25 to our complaint that the time of the meeting (7pm, when many members were still on their way home or attending to families) + its virtual format (limiting participation and sparing leadership from a room with a temp to take) were contributing factors, he said we were making

8/25 excuses. But another factor is widespread member apathy, which has only increased over the years as the union has become less visible + responsive to them, especially during contract negotiations. Michael ID'd the principal cause of apathy when he canceled the 1st picket

9/25 (which most members only learned about when its cancellation was announced) b/c we apparently weren't organized sufficiently for it. Ostensibly concerned about turnout, but not doing anything to address this organizational issue in the meantime, union leadership announced

10/25 the 2nd "emergency" chap. meeting for a Monday solely by posting fliers (of limited value for onsite workers and of no value for remote/furloughed workers) on the prior Friday, yet we know the date for that meeting was known 2-3 weeks in advance. When finally the notice was

11/25 emailed on the day of the meeting, it arrived suspiciously on the heels of an email exchange in a thread addressed to the entire chap. where members, complaining about the lack of communication, debated whether to email the chap. an announcement themselves. This meeting was

12/25 even more inconveniently scheduled at 6pm. That the turnout was significantly better this time despite what appeared a deliberate effort to limit attendance was b/c many of us to it upon ourselves to independently organize. Likewise, many of us felt set up to fail our own

13/25 picket on the 18th -- announced to attendees of the 2nd chap. meeting on the 15th, and to the entire chap. by email on the 16th and yet @CRAF2110 learned about it + began plans for it, albeit "on short notice," on the 11th.

At the 1st virtual chap. meeting, EVP Jacqueline

14/25 Alleyne chastised us for conveying the sense that we viewed the union as a 3rd party -- something other than this chapter + its members + working in some way against us/disregarding our issues + concerns. If any of us does think of the union this way one need only consider

15/25 the reasons why.

But contributing as much if not more is the sense, never felt more acutely than this yr; the union's failure to rep us at the bargaining table regarding wages. Contract after contract has proven the inevitability that no matter what our opening salary

16/25 demands are, we would get at best what the League got and no better. Even union-provided fliers are often full of lazily repurposed slogans from the prior year's League negotiations or from the concurrent negotiations w/ NY-Pres. "Calling us heroes doesn't pay the rent!" We

17/25 aren't frontline healthcare workers. No one called us heroes. & though we do have rent to pay, the tone deafness to our chapter's work seems to carry over to want/need. When the outcome of contract after contract seems foregone, who can blame members for checking out? Many

18/25 members didn't bother to fill out the union's contract survey (sent as a file named "League Member Survey") b/c experience has taught them it's pointless. Meanwhile, the survey 1 delegate independently sent out to members, tailored to the specificity of this chapter by an

19/25 actual member affected by the negotiation outcome, was received positively + filled out by more members than the union's survey. The union responded by demanding members ignore it + threatened summary dismissal as a delegate.

But riding the League's coattails this year

20/25 looks more robotic than ever w/ inflation. Just pointing out to union leaders the inadequacy of receiving the same increases on our next contract as the League got, when #inflation over the life of their last contract, which expired Sept., was only 8%, while ours has been

21/25 15%, can put them to sleep. When we ask why the union doesn't come armed w/ basic economic data comparing our wages against inflation and a #costofliving that has outstripped it in NYC, we're either ignored as flatly + rudely as when we asked about roles of contract

22/25 captains at last meeting/we get the angry reply that the university already knows all that + doesn't care. Yes they know; they're pros. Why don't you? Why isn't the stark NYC cost of living at our compensation used to organize members around something more than a feeling?

23/25 Why aren't they used in fliers/pickets/presented to the public + media, when employer @Columbia, 1 of the biggest real estate owners in NYC + a 🏥 owner, is likely uniquely implicated in rising costs of housing/healthcare, straining the already inadequate incomes they offer

24/25 at the bargaining table? As soon as one member independently set up a Twitter account, public support garnered instantly + journalists reached out to cover us.

We cheered at the rally to hear Michael: "They want cutbacks, we say fight back!" B/c for sure the usual contract

25/25 this year means just that: cutbacks. A contract w/o addressing inflation,🐘 in the room, = cutbacks = taking a pay cut as rent/food costs rise. In response, the Committee insists it's a choice btwn a fair wage/our healthcare. It's no choice.

In Solidarity,
Members of 1199

@fightfor15 Workers are not expendable.