Click image to read complete, official text of Lynn McDougall’s December 4, 2009 Communique.
The following — from Ms. McDougall’s Communique — may be worth noting:
The National Executive Board will be asked to review the action of the National President and the decision of the National Executive Committee at its very next meeting scheduled to take place in Ottawa on December 16 and 17. The former officers and executive board of Local 3903 or any one of them individually, if they request, will be given the opportunity to provide written or personal representation against continuing the Administration. I have been advised by the National President, that the National Executive Board has set aside time on December 17, 2009, at 2:00pm to review the Administration of Local 3903.
In other words, on December 17, 2009, at 2 p.m. in Ottawa, before the CUPE National Executive Board, some of our 3903 members will have the opportunity to write and speak out against continuing the Administration.
Will any 3903 members take this opportunity — and act on it? Looks like it. A strategy meeting to shape a collective response has been planned for Monday, December 7 @ 5 p.m. in the GSA lounge.
Will there really be an opportunity to end the Administration by speaking out against it on December 17 in Ottawa? Not a chance. Not if our Administration was intended to address serious issues or concerns. Not unless there weren’t any serious issues in the first place – and the Administration of local 3903 by CUPE National was some kind of joke.
Right? It wasn’t just at issue, to be settled by forensic audit, how fiscally misappropriate we’d been. It also sounded pretty serious having local 3903 referred to, by Paul Moist, as dysfunctional due to “a climate of fear, harassment and bullying”. None of that seemed funny, somehow.
The point? Simply that whatever serious concerns there were in the first place — these concerns continue to persist. The stated concerns giving rise to administration have not yet begun to get addressed.
Thus, perhaps not altogether coincidentally, Lynn McDougall’s December 4 Communique includes the following language:
The forensic audit has not yet begun; however, I am hopeful to have more information from the auditors for the unit meetings next week. The preparation work for the audit is underway, and will take a great deal of time and effort to organize by those involved.
Indeed. If our Administration is to not be made into mockery then properly addressing the concerns giving rise to it will take a great deal of time and effort. Clearly our Administration has not yet properly begun.
But what’s the point CUPE National providing us the opportunity to speak out against Administration, then? Not so much. Maybe to suggest the process is democratic. And that we’ll all be better off toning down that removal of democracy in CUPE 3903 noise. Since, obviously, CUPE National cares about democracy just as much as we 3903 locals ever did.
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