Retiree Ballot Number Discrepancy

Posted on by 21cpw User Post

As a candidate who sent in a petition for an APWU Elected Retiree Convention Delegate, I received a mailing of the Official APWU Election rules from the APWU Election Committee. Included in the mailing was a document stating there are 41,850 Retiree Department members broken down by Region and category. However, according to  Bobby Donelson who looked up the APWU 2018 LM 2 filed with the U.S. Department of Labor (and available at the DOL website), there were 38,415 APWU Retiree Department members at the end of 2018.

In response to an email from Bobby Donelson of the Southwest Coastal Area Retiree Chapter to APWU Secretary-Treasurer Liz Powell, Liz relayed that there were 32,271 ballots mailed to Retiree Department members. What gives with all the discrepancies? Are thousands of Retiree Department members in arrears on their dues? Have we lost over 6,000 members from the Retiree Department in the last eight (8) months? Did over 6,000 eligible to vote Retiree members not receive a ballot? What’s going on here?

First Name: Paul
Last Name: Browning
Email: oldhipster54@hotmail.com
Union/Local: APWU – Michigan State Retiree Chapter
Office held if any: President-Central Region Retiree Delegate APWU National Convention

2 thoughts on “Retiree Ballot Number Discrepancy”

  1. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
    APWU Michigan State Retiree Chapter & Flint MI Area Local Retiree Chapter
    Office held, if any
    Past MPWU State Chaptr Pres., currently Michigan State Retiree Chapter Adviser
    Email Address
    allab1937@gmail.com

    Sister Steel raises interesting questions, since the 2016 elections reported an about 33% of retiree ballots returned, as opposed to aprox 28% active members returned their ballots. She notices an unusual amount of attention toward retirees and retiree initiatives. Just noticing?! Oh my, Sister! You’re about 27 years behind.

    The APWU Retirees’ Dept. has a “history”. Someone can tell it if only the rank & file and leadership wants to hear it. Let it suffice to say; it has been a struggle to get to where we are with the right to elect our own director, and vote for national officers. There IS a story there, and it’s not finished, again if anyone cares to either listen or acknowledge it. But, the attention our sudden value to candidates generated is a positive thing. Lemons into lemonade. A blessing in disguise. I don’t profess to be a historian, or that I can recount every detail, but was around for most of it. Thanks for asking. Highlights the necessity of educating emerging leadership, retirees themselves, as well as the active working membership in our own Union publication in lieu of some of the filler articles unrelated to our immediate concerns to resolve our internal Union issues first. Just sayin’. And, let’s not, at the same time, forget about our UAW Brothers & Sisters on the strike picket lines! Solidarity Forever!

    Solidarity Forever!

  2. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
    APWU - Boston Metro
    Office held, if any
    Area VP and arbitration advocate (long time ago)
    Email Address
    crazyridge@hotmail.com

    Very interesting observation on the numbers of retirees still in the Union.

    It would be interesting to see the % number of ballots counted from the retirees. In other words — is the percentage higher for retirees voting than active members?

    32,000 ballots is a good chunk of voting available. I noticed in the Election Magazine included in the envelope with our ballots just how many candidates mentioned inclusion of retirees issues.

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