Here are some facts you should know:
- Terry Davis’s family is on the council payroll making approximately $375,000 yearly. This does not include expense accounts.
- Terry Davis -- $220,000 per year salary plus $?? Expense account
- Travis Davis -- $125,000 per year salary plus $?? Expense account
This doesn’t include the vehicles, gas, insurance, taxes, and maintenance on the cars. Nor does it include two retirement packages.
- Approximately 45 percent of your Council delegates are paid staff of the council.
These jobs depend on Terry Davis directly whom can hire and fire without reason.
- These same representatives double-dip from the pension fund, having both carpenters pension payments and UBC international pension.
Member’s pension rates have continued to drop since Davis was elected in 1992. He and his team’s international pension payments have risen to 16 percent of their yearly gross salary for every year of service (members paid for).
- They get paid vacations, new Yukons, $850 per month gas allowance, car insurance & taxes paid, and built in raises every contract.
- Base pay for a BA and organizer is approximately $100,000 per year. Paid on a 40-hour week, plus 8 hours overtime for Saturdays. (Ever seen a Yukon at the hall on a Saturday except when the CDC meets?)
- Most of US, including myself have NO medical insurance because we can’t get the hours needed for coverage; however, we are still paying thousands of dollars into the Health and Welfare fund for what?? NOTHING!
This is just a few shining examples of why things need to change. Unions were formed for the collective benefit and protection of the membership, not the CHOSEN FEW!
You have the power to apply the pressure to your delegates, the question is do you have the guts? I have little chance of winning unless YOU come out in vast numbers to support me and your rights to become a truly democratic union where you, the members, control and govern themselves.
I have heard all the bitching on the jobsites and all the excuses for not going to meetings for years now. I agree that one man may not be able to make a change on his own, but I will tell you if hundreds or thousands of you show up on August 26th, YOU can make a difference. There are approximately 10,000 members within this Council allowing their democratic rights be denied all because of Terry Davis and his hired delegates stripping away YOUR power and rights. These are the ones in power that only care about themselves and their $100,000.00 per year jobs, the Yukons, expense accounts, double retirements, free gas, paid vacations, free travel and early retirement options. Who pays for all of this? YOU DO!
They are accountable to no one except Terry Davis, certainly not to YOU. There are only about 200 of these delegates and officers of your council. You are being controlled by only 2 percent of the total membership of your union as they are raping your wallets each day. Do you have medical insurance? Is your pension safe? Are you working steadily? Terry Davis and his hired delegates are making more money, receiving more benefits and higher pensions than anyone in the history of the Council. They best part is they are not accountable to the members they say they represent.
Do you find this hard to believe? Research all of the salary information on the internet at www.unionfacts.com. While you are on your computer, check out the Carpenters for Democratic Unions www.ranknfile.net website. It might open your eyes to what is really going on in your Union. Read your UBC constitution. Wake up and stop believing the lying bullshit coming from your leader’s mouth and his son, the “heir apparent” to the throne.
It benefits only a dictator to have total control of leadership within a local, or the majority control of the elected delegate seats upon the council. It’s no wonder members don’t attend local meetings when to disagree means retribution from your Business Agent. Not to mention disagreeing upon the District Council floor which will not just get you black-balled from work but could get your entire local union destroyed too.
How many good local unions are gone today because their membership refused to fight for their UBC charters? Illegal seizure took our Richmond #938 and Warrensburg #1953 local unions. Local Unions with membership above 100 and stable financial resources prevent such takeovers. Cabinetmakers Local Union #1635 fought for their charter in Federal Court.
One of Terry Davis’s favorite sayings is “I’ll never lie to you!” Several years back I was a District Council Delegate attending a meeting that included the UBC Sixth District Board Member (equal now to a UBC District Vice-President). Terry Davis stood up and said, “Brother Cornett, it sounds like you are calling me a liar.” I stood up and replied “Mr. Davis, if your lips are moving, you’re lying!” I still stand by that statement and know it to be a fact. I have a signed Federal Court document bearing Terry Davis’s signature which HE is in contempt of.
It is my intention to restore power to the local unions and the members that they represent. I believe if individuals can build skyscrapers together, they can certainly run their own Union. We are fighting a war and shedding blood for democracy, let us insure that democracy returns to our own Union.
I urge you to make time to be at this election. If you don’t show up in record numbers I will lose an election, but YOU will be the true losers. Don’t stand by and allow intimidation to keep you from demonstrating that you want control back! They will be the ones outnumbered, make yourselves be seen and heard on August 26th. Stay until the election is over to see how your delegates voted. Your right to vote may have been stripped away by Terry Davis and family, but your right to demonstrate to get your rights restored remains yours if you’ve got the nerve!!
Douglas M. Cornett/Candidate for Union Democracy!
Candidate for the office of Executive Secretary/Treasurer
Kansas City, Missouri District Council
Basic Democratic Rights of Rank and File Union Members
Union Democracy makes unions stronger. The key to union democracy is an educated and active membership. This summary describes your rights under a Federal Law: the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Several unions have printed this handout in their union newsletter, or posted it on union bulletin boards.
1. The Right to Equal Participation in Your Union
You have the right as a member of the union to participate equally in union affairs. You have the right to:
attend and participate in union meetings,
vote by secret ballot in local union officer elections, and other important election rights,
equal access to union publications in election campaigns,
if voting on contracts is in your union constitution, you have the right to know what you are voting on,
due process if you are disciplined by the union.
NOTE: It is illegal for the union or the employer to retaliate against you, or threaten you, for exercising your rights under the LMRDA.
2. The Right to Essential Information
As a union member, you have the right to certain types of information:
Copies of annual financial reports, including the LM-2 forms, available from the Office of Labor Management Standards--OLMS,
Copies of union contracts and side agreements that affect your job,
Copies of the union constitution and bylaws.
NOTE: You are free to publish the information in the reports and documents described above.
3. The Right to Free Speech in Your Union
Your right to free speech in the union is very broad. You are free to:
criticize union policies, officers, staff, or candidates,
discuss union policies and issues,
write about, sing about, draw cartoons about union representatives,
complain, protest, demand and advocate.
NOTE: You can not be disciplined for free speech. However, if you advocate leaving the union, or changing unions, your speech may not be protected.
4. The Right to Free Assembly
Like your rights to free speech, your rights to organize with your coworkers to make changes in your union are very broad. You can:
organize a committee or a caucus,
meet without official union permission or participation,
write and distribute leaflets, newsletters, etc.
run candidates for office,
take collective action to influence the union (pickets, buttons, etc.).
NOTE: Be careful not to represent yourselves or your group as official union representatives if you are not.
Enforcing Your Legal Rights
Some parts of the LMRDA are enforced by the Department of Labor (Elections, Financial Reporting, Right to Information). Other rights you enforce through a lawsuit in Federal Court (free speech, free assembly, union discipline cases). Some rights can be enforced through State Court, also.
You may be required to "exhaust internal union procedures" before taking your case to the Department of Labor or Federal Court. This means you must first file an internal union protest or complaint, according to the procedures in your union bylaws/constitution—even if you believe that this is a waste of time. If, after four months (three months for election complaints), the internal charges have not been resolved, or you want to challenge the result, you may take your complaint outside of the union. If you do not exhaust the internal procedures, the union can not discipline you, but the court or Department of Labor may dismiss your complaint.
Because the legal procedures are complex and have strict time limits, it is important to get advice. You may need a lawyer. Contact AUD:
Association for Union Democracy
104 Montgomery Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11225; USA
718-564-1114, info@uniondemocracy.org
www.uniondemocracy.org