Unions are the purest form of Democracy remaining in America today. Union elections are decided by their Members who VOTE. Union elections are not controlled by corrupt political parties, corporate and offshore money influence, professional campaign managers and advisors, voter fraud and all of those kinds of things that hijack the American governmental election process. Union candidates are workers who have devoted a significant portion of their lives to helping improve working conditions for their fellow workers and are elected by their fellow workers.
But like the American governmental election process, Union elections require voting Union Members to make some very hard choices when choosing the Union officers they vote to represent them. Information about our national APWU candidates is particularly difficult for our APWU Members to gather because the APWU represents more than 200,000 workers scattered widely all across the US and our national candidates hail from diverse locations all across the US as well. And campaigning for these offices is equally difficult because a candidate cannot afford in terms of time and money to visit every single Postal workplace in America. National APWU candidates tend to rely on the hard earned grassroots efforts of the ordinary workers they will represent, a process that is often takes decades to develop. In other words, name recognition, established reputation and word of mouth are actually more important to our candidates than slick fliers and advertisement mailings.
I have worked for other large corporations and I have been a Member of, and paid Union dues to, other large notable Unions. I currently serve as an APWU Shop Steward and have mostly since around 1995. I have served in other Local Union capacities as well. In all those years I have become fairly well networked within our national APWU organization so many of our Members ask me for my opinions which I give from the perspective of a Shop Steward on the workroom floor.
Many of our APWU Members recall my national prominence in various social media during the last national 2013 APWU election where I helped to argue successfully for our Members to VOTE OUT seven of our nine national APWU officers for giving us a contract that gave back some $3.8 Billion dollars of our wages to âSave the Post Officeâ from a financial crisis that was manufactured by Congress and the Bush administration in 2006.
The fact that our recently awarded new contract that President Dimondstein, who I campaigned so hard to elect, was able to achieve in arbitration is proof-positive that I was correct in all of my candidate recommendations and that I had given reliable advice to our Membership concerning which national candidates were the best choices then.
This election is much different in that there will not be a complete disaster if we elect a couple of candidates who are not our best choices. We are not facing a crisis of epic proportions as we were back then, at least as long as President Dimondstein remains healthy and remains our President. Otherwise such an argument could be made for our VP position which makes it the most important race in this election. Please take note of that fact.
So I have adjusted my approach to this election cycle where I have been concentrating more getting the vote out in my Atlanta Local (only 25% of us voted last time, but we voted more votes to the good than any other Local). Since there is no general agreement in the Atlanta Local for who the best candidate for each position are, my Local President wisely chose not to give blanket Local endorsements. I support and will defend his decision to anyone who would like to argue otherwise.
My recommendations are just that, solely my personal recommendations and do not reflect those of my Local or my Local President. My recommendations are intended for my fellow Atlanta Metro Area Local Members so they donât include any candidates that will not appear on our ballots here. Many of my recommendations were very challenging for me because I know and an am personal friends with many of the opposing candidates. But you canât be a successful Shop Steward if you canât make hard decisions and place business above even close friendships. For this reason, objective recommendations and endorsements tend to hurt feelings and burn bridges. But any candidate that canât get past that only demonstrate they lacked the character and fortitude to be worthy of my support or friendship in the first place. And certainly they did not deserve our Vote. I say to those candidates, suck it up, this is a tough business and only the toughest should apply.
Many will question my motives and selection process and that is a fair challenge. Mainly they are:
First, a candidate must demonstrate to me they have a viable chance of winning to gain my support.
Second, they had to be the better of choice of any other remaining viable choices for what we need on the workroom floor.
Anything after that is icing on the cake. So while I support a majority of President Dimondsteinâs âMemberâs Unity Teamâ candidates, I certainly do not support them all.
I briefly explain my reasons in the attached .pdf file of my recommendations.
Again, these are my personal picks for who the best viable candidates are to lead our American Postal Workers Union for the next three years.
YRMV, however I do want you to look back over my picks after this election and note just exactly how accurately I called each race. I say that because you canât voice your opinions without the courage to face down your critics. Itâs easy to sit on the sidelines as a spectator, but quite another thing to step foot on the battlefield of ideas and fight the righteous fight. Or, as I like to say, you canât enjoy bacon without the hard work of a butcher.
Remember itâs only a Democracy IF YOU VOTE!
First Name: Mike
Last Name: Nodine
Email: apwunodine@gmail.com
Union/Local : Atlanta Metro Area Local 32
Office held if any: Steward
Union and NAME of Local/Branch
Atlanta Metro Area Local
Office held, if any
Steward
Why should you consider national APWU election advice from someone in the Atlanta Metro Area Local?
First off, the Atlanta is one of the most diverse major International Cities on the planet with the busiest airport in the world. Atlanta was given the title of âThe City Too Busy to Hateâ during the Civil Rights movement, despite being the âHub of the Southâ where it is located in the center of the region where overt racism was the worst in our nationâs regrettable past. Yet Atlanta gave safe refuge to many of our greatest Civil Rights leaders during that time which is an underreported major factor in the many successes they were eventually able to achieve.
Secondly, the Atlanta Metro Area Local currently represents over some 2,700 Members, who work in every size Associate Office and Station and Branch and in every type of plant. The Atlanta Local represents Members from the inner-city to rural farm country in a massive geographical region that covers most of North Georgia. Whatever you have there in your Local, we have here too.
Thirdly, the Atlanta Local represents APWU Members of every race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, and disability.
In short, more than any other APWU Local, the Atlanta Metro Area Local represents the truest cross-section of everything that makes America Great! To say that I am proud of my city and my Local would be an understatement.
But the Atlanta Metro Area Local pays a price for its notable distinction too. Being a large sprawling Local, it is difficult to maintain communication with all of our Members and many in the more remote locations feel isolated and sometimes underrepresented. Compounding our problems is the fact that every type of problem that you have ever seen in your workplace, we have dealt with here as well. And it doesnât help that many in the South in general are stuck in a mental time-warp thinking it is okay for management to treat employees as if they were working in a plantation. We are professionals whoâs career is serving the American public with the lowest-cost best mail service in the world! And we should be treated fairly with the dignity and respect our dedication to that service deserves.
Yet despite the many additional challenges the Atlanta Metro Area Local faces, we are Organized around 80% or so, almost exactly the same percentage our national APWU is Organized.
Unlike any other candidate, these are the strengths that our former Atlanta Local President, Kennith Beasley brings to the table as our Southern Region Coordinator. Not only has Beasley seen it all, he has decades of experience dealing with it all. Which of course is why national APWU President Dimondstein picked him for his team to lead the South.
Some have asked me privately why my current Atlanta Local President, William Flanagan has not taken a more prominent role in voicing his opinions about this 2016 national APWU election? The answer is simply there are not enough hours in the day to run our own massive Local. He is available almost 24/7 and while he cannot answer every phone call because is busy being one of our best advocates and working a constant stream of problems, but if you leave him a message, he will always call you back without fail. The Atlanta Metro Area Local Presidentâs job is arguably, if not probably, the hardest Local APWU Presidentâs job in the nation.
Those are a few reasons why you should consider what the APWUâs Atlanta Metro Area Local is doing in this 2016 national APWU election, because we are the pulse of the nation.