HEADLINE NEWS FOR JULY 2010--For those members unaware of the treatment dished out to Local 1635's delegation in 2005, by Davis & Company, you should refer back to the Police reports filed and to the fact that we were left at home without ANY convention fund monies that year on purpose!  It was very funny all the way to Las Vegas, until WE showed up on our dime!  Here we are in 2010 and let the discrimination begin again!

We have been told again that 1635 did not comply with Terry's instructive letter mailed to all the local's here on January 28, 2010.  He told our delegates that 1635 had not sent the District Council E-board our "post-marked" envelope containing our nomination and election notice for the upcoming UBC General Convention as all other locals here were required to do!  I urge everyone to attend their next meeting and read his letter of instruction because it contains NO SUCH REQUIREMENT!  It is kinda hard to comply when it is not requested, dumb ass or is English a second language???

Here is the only real reason Terry requires a post-marked envelope from Local 1635, it is because we are the ONLY local union here with NO council appointed BA attending or reporting at ANY of our regularly scheduled monthly meetings.  ALL other locals within this District Council jurisdiction have a BA because it is REQUIRED by the UBC constitution and laws as part of thier job duties.  It certainly is not our fault that TD & Co., along with his "rubber-stamp" council delegates made themselves blind, deaf and DUMB when they ILLEGALLY denied us fair representation afforded to all others within this council!

Once upon a time several years ago while Terry was conveniently out of town, accusations were made on the council floor concerning an incident that took place at a regular meeting of 1635 involving several council representatives.  The accusations were made by the assistant EST whom was not even present at the altercation, but it did not stop him from running his mouth.  A motion was made that our council appointed BA would no longer be requred to attend or report to our local union meetings.  It was seconded and passed by the delegates and condonded by the Emperor upon his return.  Our ENTIRE local was punished WITHOUT CHARGES (no written charges for any member, officer, or the local), WITHOUT TRIAL, and WITHOUT a right to APPEAL!

In America, we have an instrument called the US Constitution and a document called the Bill of Rights.  The UBC has its constitution and Congress gave union workers a bill of rights called the LMRDA Act of 1936!  Apparently TD & Co., the District Council E-board officers, your BAs, other paid council staff and the UBC itself have NOT READ or fail to understand the contents of ANY of these documents.  NOwhere in the UBC constitution does ANY district council have the power to deny representation to an affiliated local union.  Only the General President does.  Here is the REAL IMPORTANT part; not even the UBC President can do this without CHARGES being preferred, a TRIAL being held, and the APPEAL process exhausted as required by the UBC CONSTITUTION!

This was brought to their attention not once, but several times over the last seven to eight years by this local using US Certified mail to both the council and the UBC.  Their response was to IGNORE official UBC communications; refusing to respond.  That is why they have blank pages in the backs of their rule books; so that those in power can re-write them when it serves their purposes to screw the members over.

The union has a DUTY to represent everyone equally, fairly, without prejudice, without fear of political reprisal, or intimidation.  Let me ask the entire membership just one question they should consider after more than seventeen years of WAR promoted against ONE local by TD & Co.  After all the Federal, UBC, DOL, IRS audits, hearings, cases and rulings, WHY DOES LOCAL UNION #1635 STILL EXIST?  The answer is, WE HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG! 

The UBC and DISTRICT COUNCIL offered settlement to LU 1635 in the Federal Court case.  WE wanted a trial by JURY!  We would have prevailed in open court against them because of the THUG-LIKE actions by their representatives against union members, and violations of their own constitution by seizing our UBC charter without cause.  WHY did the UBC give our CHARTER back in 1997 if WE were wrong?  Here we are 17 years later still being blamed for all the council's WOES!  Why would they allow one local to have the power to be the cause of all of their WOES? is a better question.  Because, once again, WE HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG!

ALL of the other locals complied with TD's requirements because the BA's attended their meetings and reported the extra requirement VERBALLY, not in writing, to each local personally.  Local 1635 was being set up AGAIN by TD & Co., but the UBC was not pleased with TD & Co.'s last convention performance when it became PUBLIC.  We will be funded by this council to go to Convention because the UBC will see to it and Big Red, BABY BEAR & Co., had better be on their BEST BEHAVIOR because 1635 will not TOLERATE any violence, threats, or intimidation this time.

Local 1635, just like every other local in this council, PAYS the salaries, benefits and PERKS of everyone on Terry's staff.  Every hour of every day worked by every working member (including 1635's) also PAYS for their employment full-time (plus overtime), 48 hours per week.  The difference is, everyone gets serviced but ONE local union, we only get to pay!

LU 1635 helps pay for a staff of full-time organizers, but they DO NOT work for us.  Not a single shop has been organized for 15 years.  MARKET-SHARE is NON-EXISTENT!  There is not a single union cabinet shop or lumber mill in KCMO now.  Prior to Davis, we had about 25 shops and 500 members.  LU 1635 is the ONLY local to show consistent NEGATIVE membership growth over the same time period, while ALL other locals had growth.

Our apprenticeship program was given to TD & Co. to run in 1997.  Since then, our union employers have paid for it by the hour, but NO SERVICE was provided them over the last 13 years because the Cabinetmaker training exists in NAME ONLY!  There has never been a qualified Cabinetmaker instructor hired at the JATC.  How is it that our TRADE is the ONLY ONE consistently graduating ZERO APPRENTICES over 15 years now?

NO APPRENTICES means no skilled workers to replace the old ones, which means ZERO growth in membership for LU 1635.  Apprenticeship is our very LIFE-BLOOD for our locals and the trades.  Our JATC program was taken away and our participation in it denied by this council was pre-meditated and moth balled to hurt us; but that did not stop them from collecting our union employer's money and our member's per-capita and dues money.

NO ORGANIZING for 15 years means no new members.  Our council appointed BA (you know the one we haven't seen for at least 6 years) has attempted to sign SHOP members into other locals, ANY EXCEPT LOCAL 1635.  We had shops decertify the union because of poor representation of our shop members by the appointed BA's. 

It should be apparent what the goal of TD & Co. has been every since he signed the 1997 Federal Settlement Agreement and FAILED to live up to its terms before the ink was dry.  He would let us die on the vine, a slow lingering death!  The planned, systematic DESTRUCTION of an entire local, trade, and union membership.  This is POLITICAL RETRIBUTION for taking a stand for UNION MEMBER'S rights!

Our problems were not overlooked for the last 15 years by this District Council.  The problems were caused by an elite group of small men with weak minds, who care about their own PERSONAL POWER over others, more than they care about doing the RIGHT thing.  This is their pay-back, but it is going to back-fire on them.

The TD TEAM does not represent the untion, its membership, or its values.  They reprsent the fact that "absolute power, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!"  Like a pack of wolves, they care only for themselves, do only for themselves, and care only about their own survival, not those outside the PACK!  They are a mirrored reflection of McCarron's rule via dictatorship.  They mirror the greed and corruption of Wall Street power brokers and the self-service, "we know better than you" attitude of this CONGRESS instead of listening to the PEOPLE they are supposed to work for!

Recent elections are showing that real Americans are beginning to wake up and have begun to VOTE the BUMS OUT and it is my SINCERE HOPE that the McCarron TEAM might experience the same at theupcoming convention.  You will begin to see the mass exodus of retiring rats from the TEAMS because they got to get their "double-dip" of cheese before you retire and find the shelf bare.

For years now TD & Co. have run unchecked, and held UNACCOUNTABLE for their actions by the members of this District Council.  Mark my words, you will live to regret surrendering your RIGHTS and UNION to them!  Just like ignoring Congress while they were selling us out and shipping our jobs overseas in exchange for thier re-election kick back from the CEO's.  The TEAM kick-back is their 18% double-dip pension benefit; not to mention all of the other PERKS you provide for them!

All across the USA and Canada UBC members are joining together to take our union back from Doug "CASH" McCarron, his appointed EST's and their TEAMS.  There are links on this website to connect you directly with rank and file working UBC members, not PAID HACKS making $108,000 per year plus double benefits and perks.  TD & TEAM are not even major players in the UBC convenion world and the ones that are major players, are pissed.

Write Congress, inform DOL, OLMS, etc., of your complaints.  Conact the media from the comfort and PRIVACY of your own home.  TERRY won't know but for God's sake do something to help yourselves before it is too late and you have nothing left.  If you do not attend your meetings and you want to stand up for your rights against the TEAM's control of local offices, TRANSFER!  CHANGE IS IN THE AIR AMERICA!  Stand up and make it happen because FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE! 

I'll be seeing you real soon and remind EVERYONE that DAVIS is up for re-election by the council delegates in August of this year.  WE need an honest rank and file candidate to run who will return member's rights to govern themselves, NOT a team hack or JUNIOR!  It is a position that you can learn; no one is born with the knowledge to become an EST.  The requirements are quite low and when you consider the TEAM we have had in power now for 17 years, how could anyone do a worse job?

 MARCH 2010 HEADLINE NEWS --The notices for the upcoming 40h UBC General Convention have been received by your local unions which explain eligibility to go, nominations and elections for delegate and alternative positions which will be held very soon. I URGE ALL MEMBERS in good standing to attend their meetings to get this very important information from your officers.

I cannot express how important it is for only RANK and FILE members to be nominated and elected to these positions, NOT TD STAFF members, to represent your interests this year!Those STAFF members and their supporters are the very people whom have assisted McCarron TEAM since 1995 to strip you of your rights as UBC members and have changed the UBC Constitution and Laws to give them absolute power. McCarron's team is up for re-election at this convention. THEY must be defeated and replaced to regain our rights in our unions.

The only way this can happen is if this council’s membership wakes up, attends these proceedings and runs against the team candidates. LEAVE them at home for a change! No Business Agents, no organizers, no paid staff (JATC), or any TD supporters; just honest working members should attend this event. The only way this can happen is if this council's membership wakes up, attends these proceedings and runs against the team candidates. Leave them at home for a change! No Business Agents, no organizers, no paid staff (JATC), or any TD supporters; just honest working members should attend this event. Anyone who is fed up should stand up and actually do something about it instead of just bitching about it. Call your brothers and sisters and show up in force when you receive your notice in the mail and make a change beginning right here first; then we might have a chance to make the change at the top!!

I CALL UPON ALL UBC MEMBERSHIP ACROSS BOTH THE U.S.A. AND CANADA TO NOT ONLY DO THE SAME THING IN THEIR HOME LOCALS, BUT ALSO UNITE AND DEFEAT THE MCCARRON TEAM TOO!!

Speaking of the McCarron team, go to your meetings and request to read the latest copy of the minutes of the General Executive Board (August 2007 through October 2009), Volume 11; Number 2, received last month. Read it all so you can see the exotic meeting places, but then turn to page 14; minutes of February 2, 2009, held in Palm Springs and pay close attention to page 15.

• Each general officer's yearly salary was raised by 3% effective January 1, 2008, by these same officers. Can anyone say BONUS just like the Wall Street bankers for screwing over the American public!
The KCMO carpenters pension pay out for working members here has fallen from a high (pre-Davis & TEAM), of 3.65% to now 1.25%; again do the math. This is exactly why they do not CARE about the measly pension amount you will receive after 30 years of hard labor, because they DOUBLE-DIP through this UBC special retirement they get the maximum amount because unlike YOU, they have steady employment every since they joined the TEAM.

Let’s not forget the fact that they are additionally paid eight hours per week of overtime, 52 weeks per year, or 624 hours more than the workers. Each of us are paying contributions into the team’s local retirement package and then factor in their extra UBC pension payments that we are now contributing 18% towards of THEIR monthly gross wages and hours worked. These people are going to retire as millionaires, guaranteed by your lack of interest in attending your meetings, allowing yourselves to be shouted down at meetings, and refusing to FIGHT to Reclaim YOUR Rights as free American union members.

Remember their other little perk of receiving health and welfare coverage for every year served upon the council team. Who receives all this?? Any union member working full time for the TD council staff, BA’s, organizers, JATC instructors, dues collection officer, and maybe some I do not know about.

How many of you are without work? How many without insurance? Membership is dropping throughout the Kansas City Council’s now six state region because of this economy and I am afraid it is only going to get worse not better because of all the self-serving greedy idiots in Congress. These are the very people that our fearless leaders have chosen to fund, through our PAC monies since they took over in 1995, without even consulting the membership because they know better than us. Instead of throwing our monies away on crooked politicians over the past 15 years by TD and TEAM, think what we might have had in reserve to actually help our working and retired members during tough times?

Think about all the new gas-guzzling Yukon’s and TD’s personal cars we have paid for instead of them buying and using their own personal cars as was the rule prior to TD and TEAM! The fact is all this money and more has been wasted to buy his TEAM’s loyalty, insure his family and friends steady employment, make him rich and allow him to play big man on campus at the membership’s expense. Just think of what Baby Bear & Co. will do to you when he comes to power while Daddy sits at home drawing his retirement while running the CDC business as a paid consultant like Gary Smith after he retired.

You young members better wake up soon and those people almost retired better too before everything is gone after all these corporate raiders retire to Palm Springs. It took more than 100 years to build this union but only 15 years of corruption to bring it to its knees. Remember the airline union members who got pennies on the dollar in retirement payments because the airlines were going under and the executives never fully funded their employee’s pension plan. The airline executives got their retirement in full just like our union top feeders will ensure that they are long gone before the house of cards falls down so only you and yours will take the fall and your Government did nothing!!

I was going to publish all of the Department of Labor 2008 LM-2 reports (latest available to the public), but it is 77 pages long. I URGE ALL UBC members within this council area to get on your computer and go to www.dol.gov. Look up File Number 026-389 and do the math. Then maybe you will understand what the facts are and why we need to RECLAIM OUR RIGHTS NOW!

I URGE everyone across this country and Canada to do the same on their councils too. We must untie and cut this cancer away in Las Vegas beginning August 16, 2010 at this Convention.

Make this the year that the rank and file member is in the majority at this event instead of the normal 95% paid for UBC and District Council STAFF going as delegates.

It is time to TAKE BACK what was ours and run these RATS out of office and our union. I believe that action should be taken at this convention to dissolve the special UBC Pension Fund (U.S. Plan), ASAP and return every dime of it back to where it came from; the membership.

Everyone involved in it should receive nothing, if they are already drawing it, they should have to return it and be held accountable to ensure its return in full back to our membership and take legal action against them. I consider this extra UBC pension plan a slap in the face to every honest, hard working UBC member across the board which ONLY benefits those few in power and their loyal servants.

It used to entice those without honor to come forward to join the TEAM, sell their loyalty to the boss, and walk upon the members like storm troopers to promote policy or to better themselves first over those they are supposed to represent. Every council has these people who will tread upon others just to get the chance to join this McCarron HIGH-ROLLER Club in Las Vegas!

The Union was built upon benefiting the whole, not the few at the top, and free democratic rule and CONTROL by the rank and file OVER this union’s power structure to insure that the members always came first, NOT the few running it today. This smells of conspiracy, nepotism, greed, racketeering and corruption; not unionism and if something smells like crap, it is crap.

This new age of the computer unlocks information for those willing to open their eyes and look for it. And, it can empower people to take action against those that want to hide the truth. I urge UBC members EVERYWHERE to go online and see that this is OUR problem, KCMO is not alone! This is a movement to RECLAIM OUR RIGHTS AND OUR UNION’S HONOR!! We must UNITE, to ensure that only our best candidates get elected to go to convention as delegates this year (NOT UBC or District Council PAID staffers), and DEFEAT ALL CURRENT UBC BOARD members running for re-election in 2010. I have added some new website links to my site to encourage this much needed conversation between the rank and file memberships to coordinate a plan of action. YOU have the power to change things if you are willing to FIGHT for it and USE it starting NOW!

For those members unaware of the treatment dished out to Local 1635's delegation in 2005, by Davis & Company, you should refer back to the Police reports filed and to the fact that we were left at home without ANY convention fund monies that year on purpose!  It was very funny all the way to Las Vegas, until WE showed up on our dime!  Here we are in 2010 and let the discrimination begin again!

Here is the only real reason Terry requires a post-marked envelope from Local 1635, it is because we are the ONLY local union here with NO council appointed BA attending or reporting at ANY of our regularly scheduled monthly meetings.  ALL other locals within this District Council jurisdiction have a BA because it is REQUIRED by the UBC constitution and laws as part of thier job duties.  It certainly is not our fault that TD & Co., along with his "rubber-stamp" council delegates made themselves blind, deaf and DUMB when they ILLEGALLY denied us fair representation afforded to all others within this council!

Once upon a time several years ago while Terry was conveniently out of town, accusations were made on the council floor concerning an incident that took place at a regular meeting of 1635 involving several council representatives.  The accusations were made by the assistant EST whom was not even present at the altercation, but it did not stop him from running his mouth.  A motion was made that our council appointed BA would no longer be requred to attend or report to our local union meetings.  It was seconded and passed by the delegates and condonded by the Emperor upon his return.  Our ENTIRE local was punished WITHOUT CHARGES (no written charges for any member, officer, or the local), WITHOUT TRIAL, and WITHOUT a right to APPEAL!

In America, we have an instrument called the US Constitution and a document called the Bill of Rights.  The UBC has its constitution and Congress gave union workers a bill of rights called the LMRDA Act of 1936!  Apparently TD & Co., the District Council E-board officers, your BAs, other paid council staff and the UBC itself have NOT READ or fail to understand the contents of ANY of these documents.  NOwhere in the UBC constitution does ANY district council have the power to deny representation to an affiliated local union.  Only the General President does.  Here is the REAL IMPORTANT part; not even the UBC President can do this without CHARGES being preferred, a TRIAL being held, and the APPEAL process exhausted as required by the UBC CONSTITUTION!

Our apprenticeship program was given to TD & Co. to run in 1997.  Since then, our union employers have paid for it by the hour, but NO SERVICE was provided them over the last 13 years because the Cabinetmaker training exists in NAME ONLY!  There has never been a qualified Cabinetmaker instructor hired at the JATC.  How is it that our TRADE is the ONLY ONE consistently graduating ZERO APPRENTICES over 15 years now?

NO APPRENTICES means no skilled workers to replace the old ones, which means ZERO growth in membership for LU 1635.  Apprenticeship is our very LIFE-BLOOD for our locals and the trades.  Our JATC program was taken away and our participation in it denied by this council was pre-meditated and moth balled to hurt us; but that did not stop them from collecting our union employer's money and our member's per-capita and dues money.

NO ORGANIZING for 15 years means no new members.  Our council appointed BA (you know the one we haven't seen for at least 6 years) has attempted to sign SHOP members into other locals, ANY EXCEPT LOCAL 1635.  We had shops decertify the union because of poor representation of our shop members by the appointed BA's. 

All across the USA and Canada UBC members are joining together to take our union back from Doug "CASH" McCarron, his appointed EST's and their TEAMS.  There are links on this website to connect you directly with rank and file working UBC members, not PAID HACKS making $108,000 per year plus double benefits and perks.  TD & TEAM are not even major players in the UBC convenion world and the ones that are major players, are pissed.

Write Congress, inform DOL, OLMS, etc., of your complaints.  Conact the media from the comfort and PRIVACY of your own home.  TERRY won't know but for God's sake do something to help yourselves before it is too late and you have nothing left.  If you do not attend your meetings and you want to stand up for your rights against the TEAM's control of local offices, TRANSFER!  CHANGE IS IN THE AIR AMERICA!  Stand up and make it happen because FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE! 

I'll be seeing you real soon and remind EVERYONE that DAVIS is up for re-election by the council delegates in August of this year.  WE need an honest rank and file candidate to run who will return member's rights to govern themselves, NOT a team hack or JUNIOR!  It is a position that you can learn; no one is born with the knowledge to become an EST.  The requirements are quite low and when you consider the TEAM we have had in power now for 17 years, how could anyone do a worse job?

HEADLINE NEWS FOR JANUARY 2010 -- First of all I want to wish everyone a happy new year, especially those men and women in our armed forces both past and present who have fought to protect our Constitution, Bill of Rights, democratic process, and our very freedom as a people. They are on the front lines everyday as should every American citizen not serving against injustice, dictatorship, and corruption that weakens our rights as a free nation and as free people!

Veterans have paid a terrible price though out our Nations history for their defense of our founding principals by sacrificing theirs lives, limbs, hearts, minds, and souls for the good of their country. FREEDOM is never free and cannot be just defended by our military alone. It is the duty of every free citizen in America to defend these same principals with the same dedication, valor, and sacrifice to ensure that their efforts upon our behalf have not been for nothing at home. It is time that those of us remaining at home and living free to recognize our responsibility to stand up and fight for those very same principals to ensure that America remains a free democratic nation. We are at war not only from the outside but, from within our borders by those who would take our rights and freedoms away to serve their own purposes or retain their power over the many .

Evidence of greed, corruption, and personal freedoms under attack upon the working people in our country are in the news every night. We have a Congress bought and paid for by special interest lobbyists who no longer listen to or fear the American public. Bankers, mortgage executives, corporate executives, drug and medical providers, corrupt politicians, and Wall Street executives who should have been charged, convicted, and imprisoned for causing our financial problems are instead coddled by the Federal government and allowed to retire or continue as if nothing happened.

When is enough, enough for you to take a stand? How hungry does your family have to get? How many times will you retrain your job skills or start at the bottom before you realize that nothing will change until we unite for the common good. It is not about just you as an individual; it is about the good and welfare of the majority, the whole people. If a nation’s people are unwilling to defend their own freedoms at home at a time of war, then they deserve to lose it for their lack of guts to act against those taking your rights away right here! We will be judged by our children, grandchildren, and future generations for doing nothing but covering our own asses instead of uniting as one people and actively fighting against those who corrupt our American principals.

My website quotes Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is, for good men to do nothing”. This quote was chosen carefully by me as I started this website for my election run in 2006; it is a historical FACT! Freedom has to be defended and fought for every day by every living American citizen if it is to prevail against those who would take away from us!

In 2009 we elected the local union officers and Council delegates in the KC District Council’s areas and instead of the rank and file membership storming back to reclaim their power from TD & CO., you decided to stay home and let the council wannabes re-elect the TEAM. A large majority of our working and retired members no longer even participate in their local union meetings because they feel powerless against the TD machine and the workers are afraid to stick their necks out at meetings because it might affect their union employment if they stand up to them.

How has that worked out for you now that the elections are over and the majority of you are unemployed and on unemployment, or have fallen completely off the grid exhausting your benefits and insurance? It sure is not a problem for TD & TEAM. Their raises, retirement payments (the two they receive to the ONE you receive), medical coverage, new Yukons, gas allowances, maintenance, and insurance continue to be paid for by your dues monies!

Employment is NOT a PROBLEM for them. They are paid upon a 48 hour week; that’s right, 8 hours overtime 52 weeks a year. They have not been accountable to those they represent for about 18 years now, riding the gravy train at your expense. How is it that every working carpenter is held accountable by his or her employer but, your agents and staff are not held to the same standards?  YOU ARE THEIR EMPLOYERS!

Your RIGHT to run for office or directly elect ALL council representatives BA’s/organizers, (including EST-TD office), should be a no-brainer for Americans to understand. The UBC constitution was modeled upon the U.S. Constitution at the founding of this union. The individual local unions held the power and the money so that the members had total control of even the UBC international union by the founders of the carpenters as a checks and balances system to fight corruption and dictatorship. This worked for more than 100 years until Douglas J. McCarron became UBC President and with the help of EST’s like Terry Davis our union went from a democracy to a dictatorship over the last 15 years.

District Councils, State Councils, and any local unions who opposed this forced take over were destroyed or merged out of existence by THEM. Instead of a bottom up ruled union where the members had the money and power, now it has been perverted to a top down dictatorship where they have both the power and all your money. They and their supporters are loyal ONLY to themselves. They have taken away YOUR RIGHT to vote and ensured themselves steady employment as long as they please their masters.

Look up the LMRDA, the 1936 act of Congress which outlines the union member’s Bill of Rights and educate yourselves. What are our soldiers dying for overseas? Is it not to give freedom, democracy, and rights to those without them? Then why would you just give those same rights away at home in America? Would you allow the United States President to just appoint his chosen supporters to Congress with the power to hire or fire at will and take your vote away? You had the power prior to Davis; it is a historical fact of carpenter history and it is time to take it back.

This year, 2010, is a very important year for two reasons:

•    Davis is up for election in August 2010. 
•    The UBC General Convention will be held this year (re-election of the McCarron TEAM), and     convention delegates will be elected to go.

I cannot stress how important it is that we elect ONLY rank and file WORKING members, NOT TD staff members to represent the members.

When I first went to UBC convention in 1991, it was the very first time that working and retired members were denied the right to attend and watch their own convention. That allowed those in power to control the outcome of the election process without a riot by the members. Why, because they were shut out. This was the most contested election in UBC history for an incumbent UBC President. Sigurd Lucassen was declared the winner but months later the U. S. Department of Labor investigated the election and filed suit against the UBC because members of the Lucassen slate had violated Title 4 of the LMRDA in their conduct of the election. Lucassen’s slate had illegally funded his 1991 re-election campaign by using both union funds and union employer funds to gain advantage.

The parties settled the lawsuit and the election was scheduled to be re-run, four years later in 1995. Davis used this to his advantage to take control of the majority of the locals that had voted against Lucassen of which LU#1635 was one of the most vocal. When the 1995 UBC Convention took place, Lucassen suddenly stepped aside on election day and nominated McCarron for UBC President and we were blindsided again. LU#1635’s two delegates of which I was one, were declared ineligible to attend convention by both Davis and Lucassen. But a DOL investigation proved their actions were wrong but it was too late for LU#1635 to attend. The damage had been done by that time. This was before the council paid for people to attend; the locals were responsible for the delegates’ expenses at that time. The 1995 convention marks the time that they took your voting rights away and the dictatorship began. LU#1635’s lawsuit in United States District Court was filed September 5, 1995, when the UBC and the Council illegally tried to seize our charter, bank accounts, records and membership.

There has been nothing democratic about these conventions at all since 1995 in reality because now 90% of the convention delegates are on either the UBC's or a District Council’s payroll prior to the convention, leaving only 10% of the attendees from the workers. This is how they stripped you of your rights for the last 15 years by insuring that working members do not go and instead paid staffers fill those seats so they can reassure their bosses’ re-election. And they can pass anything they want against the membership, since they are not truly represented anyway.

I was told right after the 2006 election by TD that I would not be going to convention again. Remember in 2005, they purposely tried to leave LU#1635 at home by not providing our elected delegates the finances to go. Every other local within the council received their Council paid expenses. Four of us in LU#1635 banded together, purchased our own airline tickets, hotel rooms, arranged our own transportation and expenses and went anyway. It was months later that we received any compensation from the council for attending the convention by TD. At that convention in 2005, the delegates voted to give the UBC General President the power to pick and chose who could attend the convention as a seated delegate. This gives McCarron the power to circumvent free elections at the local level, thus ignoring the will of the majority.  This one action proves that your vote does not count now, even upon those you elect as your representatives to go to Convention and that democracy is dead within our union. Millions of your dues money pays for this private party to screw you over every five years!

Since Davis took office as EST 18 years ago, I am the only person who has ever run against him for office. It is time that a younger person steps up to the plate because I have tried my best to rebuild this union for almost 30 years as has my local but we cannot do it alone. We will continue to try and this website will remain a source of information for the members here and nationwide because WE are not alone. UBC members are uniting to regain control of their union and I certainly hope that there will be candidates running against the McCarron team in 2010.

Members should begin contacting the U.S. Dept. of Labor and members of Congress concerning our LMRDA union members Bill of Rights being denied us, such as our lack of free and fair elections, freedom of speech, right to assemble without fear, and our right to run our own union without fear of intimidation or retaliation.

If Davis is re-elected everybody had better get ready for the rein of “Baby-Bear”. The only way he can take over Daddy’s throne is for him to be made an incumbent candidate at the next election after this one because, I believe, he is unelectable. I believe that Davis will retire at some point in his next term and appoint his son to take over to set him up, just like he made him second in command right out of apprenticeship.

When 1635 signed the 1997 Federal Settlement agreement with both the council and the UBC, WE lived up to the agreement; they did not. Our shops and membership that were seized were supposed to be returned to us and we were supposed to be involved in the Cabinet Makers’ apprenticeship program after it was seized from the Local’s control.  LU#1635 had the very first apprenticeship program a full two years prior to the Carpenters’ program and we had McCarron’s word (in writing), that all hostilities would end in 1997; he lied.

What Davis has done over the years has been to destroy our local by denying us BA representation at our meetings, working against the interests of our members by causing entire shops to decertify and signing any new members to ANY other local but ours. By taking control of our apprenticeship program he effectively cut-off any and ALL new craftsmen to our trade; the life’s blood of any local union, thus hurting our union shop owners.

Over the last 13 years there has been NO organizing of ANY shops within our jurisdiction; even though the council, over the same period of time, has had a full-time staff of these people to further hurt employment of our members. Today there is not a single UNION custom cabinet shop or lumber mill in KCMO. When this started, LU#1635 had an average membership of 515 monthly and 25 shops. Today 1635 is on the brink of 100 members and only 4 shops. What kind of union leader would destroy an entire local, its membership, its trades, and its shops just to get to one man?

I will remind you that 1635 will be 106 years old this year and had it not been for our help, the council might not ever have been formed as we were the second largest local within this council at that time. Will you let this happen to the only local that has fought for membership rights and freedom? Time is running short for you to act! The time has come for you young men and women to make a stand or continue your fall by doing nothing.

When I joined this union in 1983, the working and retired members controlled their own destiny by actively participating in their local union meetings and voting for those worthy of the honor to serve the membership. WE controlled the shops or the outside worksites because each member knew the contracts, the by-laws, the UBC constitution, and the law. Each member looked out for one another and our work individually. Stewards were picked for their knowledge by those working and were NOT appointed by BA’s. BA’s were only called out by a steward when rules had to be enforced and the problem could not be solved by them. BA’s that did not serve the wishes of the members were voted out. Those that worked for the members were returned to office. A noble idea, is it not?

The council was democratic; Roberts Rules of Order ruled the meetings, not TD. The council was just a figure head for the locals and had no real power unless given to it by the locals to perform a function of business for the people. They had no real money except the per-capita taxes paid to them by each local union and if they disregarded the majority of the locals’ wishes the locals could simply withhold their monthly per-capita from the council until they went broke or complied with the wishes of the members. It was the same way for the international. This was the checks and balance system to ensure that the members ran the show, not some small group of officers. Delegates to the council were mandated to vote as their local union members wanted them to. They were not some free agent to wheel and deal without their permission. They were bound to truly represent the will of the majority of the local membership or stripped of their position. Nothing was rammed through the council the night of a meeting as is the practice today. Everything discussed was brought back to the local meeting for discussion, presented to the membership and they voted on the issue presented at the council. The members had total control over those elected to represent them and it worked for over 100 years until Davis.

Changes encouraged by TD & Co. to reduce local union meetings from twice per month to once a month are designed to reduce the members’ ability to obtain important information at both the local and council level. The council meetings were reduced from monthly meetings to quarterly meetings effectively from 12 to only 4 per year to destroy the transparency of what is really going on at the council level in real time insuring that members are behind the eight-ball after policy has already been presented, discussed, and passed without you knowing about it until it is already over and done with.

It is always harder, if not impossible, (especially in the court of TD), for the members to change policies already passed by delegates. It is about controlling the flow of information getting down to the local union member level to keep them in the dark and discourage any real discussion of the issues. It also prevents members from voting on their changes prior to council action, and to discourage member participation because the members feel their voices are not being heard.

When people believe that there is nothing they can do to change policies that have been rammed through prior to their knowledge, it causes them NOT to even bother to participate in the process, and thus you getVOTER APATHY! This is exactly what they planned; control real information until after it becomes policy; discourage real presentation, discussion, and the members ability to vote on real time issues prior to ramming it through before they even know what’s coming down the pipe. This is the trademark style of business as usual for TD & Co., your delegates, and the UBC to maintain total control over the working and retired membership. Knowledge is power and without it you are rendered powerless in the entire political process.

Here is what I want to make clear to EVERYONE that does not attend their local meetings because they feel like it is a waste of their time and gas to do so. That is exactly their plan and you are assisting them by not participating and giving them control over you and your union assets. May I offer you a simple solution to this to vent your anger and disgust of these tactics? TRANSFER your membership to the only democratic local left within this council. Transfer into ONE local because power is based on a local’s membership totals. The more members, the more representation upon the council and it affects the convention delegates too. If you do not attend anyway why not give support to a local who has fought for freedom, your right to vote upon all officers, BA’s, contracts, benefits, and believes that members are smart enough to run their own union provided they are informed and are treated as equals.

They treat the rank and file as if we were children; shut up do not ask questions, do not make a scene because Daddy & Co. knows what’s best for you; justPAY your DUES! It is as easy as calling the dues office and telling them to transfer your membershipASAP! Worried about your continued employment or a lack of a BA attending meetings? LU#1635 has never even met Ken Gillingham since his appointment as our BA, and our previous BA did not even finish out his term, so it’s going on 7 an a half years since a BA has attended a LU#1635 meeting. If EVERYONE mass transferred into one local that is dissatisfied where they are or does not attend the meetings anyway, think about the effect on TD & Co. to maintain control over you?

It is time to empower yourselves by joining like minded brothers and sisters and a local that respects your individual right as a dues paying union member to run your own union and demand that all the rights afforded to U.S. citizens under the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution be returned to the members of the Carpenters Union because we are Americans first.

I did not join this union almost 30 years ago to become a silent shareholder in how the business will be run. I did not join this union to give my hard earned dues money to support TD & Co. without accountability for their actions. It was not on the application of membership that by joining this union that I gave up my rights as an American citizen and became anATM machine for the few in power to enjoy, while the rest of us starve. DID YOU?

Turn on your TV and watch what is happening to Americans via our great Congress right now and tell me that we are not under attack right here at home. On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court decided that corporations and unions can now dump billions of dollars into the next political election cycle to influence who should be elected. In essence it gives them the same status as individual American citizens, which they are NOT! The American citizen is not listened to now by Congress. Instead the special interest lobbyists with the big check books are welcomed in first. What do you think this will do for an already corrupt system?

We the people can not find work now or feed our families and insure them. We are losing our hard earned pensions because we have been sold out for cheap illegal labor.

We the unemployed (or soon to be unemployed) cannot even compete with the amount of money they will spend to buy influence in Washington!GOOD-BYE DEMOCRACY; HELLO DICTATORSHIP! We are at war right here, right now within America,WAKE UP!

Millions of dollars of your dues money has been spent on PAC money donations by both Davis & Co. and the UBC to influence Congress. Millions more have been spent so that they can fly to these functions on your dime to house them, wine and dine them, and pay for their time including all their many benefits because they are (supposed to be), working for your interests. What have you gotten for your money since TD & Co. went into overdrive; since he became head of this council?

Half of the UBC convention was in Spanish in 2005! Along with their plan to organize all the illegal immigrants possible into our union and managing to strip away even more membership rights before it was over. It is no wonder Americans cannot find work or that Carpenters are out of work when your leaders support bringing in cheap illegal labor to compete for your work. AND, your money helps pay for it!

When have you ever received a mail-out from the council asking YOU who you would like to support for political office? NEVER! All you get and pay for is their choice and advice because TD & Co. said they know what’s best for you! Hell, you do not even know what was given to whom until after the fact even if you go to meetings because they meet just four times per year and keep you in dark the rest of the time.

Our union leadership acts more like corporateCEO’senjoying their executive pay, double-dipping pensions, new cars, free gas, maintenance, fully paid insurance, medical coverage, vacation pay, sick pay, 48 hour work week, free flights, hotel, and expense account to fit their image of themselves. They have not been workers since being appointed to the gravy-train andCEO club and they do not give a crap about you or yours, it is all about them so screw you!

Once again WAKE-UP, get mad as hell andDO SOMETHING besides bitching about it over lunch. What are you afraid of within this council area? WE have the numbers on our side. Let’s look--10,500 members and how many wanna-be CEO executives on staff --500? All they have over you is their position and your own fear of what they might do to you if you make a stand. The only time they have any balls is when they outnumber you at a meeting. They locked me in the hall after the last election so that they could try to intimidate me with their threats and childish behavior for a 2-hour personal ass-chewing by TD & Co. BA Simmons finally stood to ask me to take off my prescription sun glasses so that everyone could see the fear in my eyes. I laughed at them and told them it would not be fear they would ever see in my eyes, it would be onlyCONTEMPTfor them and their actions! That was a big word for Dave and his fellows. I survived the meeting only to see Dave outside as I left to which he threatened to see me later and I replied why wait I am standing right here, right now and he did what every coward does when confronted; NOTHING!

I became unemployed shortly after my election run (kinda funny uh), and just sent in my entire 2010 dues amount to TD in January 2010. I am NOT going anywhere, I will not be run out of my union, and I will continue to be a MAN and fight because I owe that to ALL the working carpenters who came before me including 3 generations of my family belonging to the same local and trade.

LU#1635 has a long tradition of our officers attending the funerals of our members and attending those of other locals whom we or our members knew and respected as a matter of honor. Prior to TD this was done by the BA’s too who of course had a political agenda since they had to run for election like they should be required too. I will not judge their attendance based on pure politics because most of them I knew to be honorable men. The last time was Brother Dick Stroud LU 61, master craftsman, JATC Carpenter instructor, a man of honor who defended the rights of the apprentices he taught and got cross ways with Terry about it, eventually losing his job at the JATC. There was a Millwright teacher there who had the guts to quit his teaching position to support his fellow instructor.  I bring this up because I saw no one from the council, no BA, no officers attend his service but, 1635 was there to honor a great man.

I remember it was reported by our delegates in 2009, that Terry had remarked upon the council floor bragging that he would have the largest funeral ever within the council when he died. Not because people liked him but, because they would come to make sure he was really dead. This says a lot about him does it not? I thought a lot about that statement while paying my respects to Brother Stroud, a man whom Terry was not worthy of cleaning his shoes. Once again Terry’s arrogance showed his ignorance of the fact that he and his supporters are only legends within their own minds. The day he dies is the day he will be forgotten by good union members. No one will attend to make sure he’s gone; they will be busy hoisting a glass that the tyrant is finally gone on to answer for all the harm he has done to good people and good locals. My advice to Terry would be for him not to worry about his legacy because he has already has sealed his fate, instead invest in a water proof coffin for the outpouring of emotion from the membership that he truly deserves!

In closing I would like to thankEVERYONE who ever supported my efforts to run for election, attended the rally, lent their support by writing personal mail to me, posting comments on this site, or took a stand at their local meetings from the bottom of my heart.YOUare the very reason I refuse to quit this fight because you joined me on the front lines by your action and I owe every retired union member who really built this union for us and especially those good members who have been run out of our union because they stood up. I am only one man and this has never been about me it has been about our American democratic system within our union and for the freedom of choice. To the executive board officers and members of 1635 both past and present, words cannot express my thanks, my respect, and my pride to be counted among you as a single Brother, you are my heroes!

Whatever was accomplished is due to your efforts not mine because true unionism is not about the individual, or a small group of individuals, it is about the whole, the majority! Whether we survive is now up to our other brothers and sisters within this entire council area to either join us or allow our destruction. Whatever the future holds though, we will forever hold our heads high in the manner in which we conducted ourselves in battle; we always kept to the high road not the low one of our enemies. We never lied or cheated, never threatened or intimidated, we remained men of our word and retained our honor both as a local and as a whole union of workers.

Davis & CO. will never succeed in destroying our union because it is carried within our hearts and our trade and will continue non-union instead of union in the future. The only thing he has succeeded in is turning 400 former union members into union haters for as long as they live and for this he and his supporters deserve all the contempt they get for their anti-union actions against us. I will always be a cabinetmaker and a member of this local because that can NEVER be taken from me my heart and mind.

Thank-you, until the next time,

Douglas M. Cornett

SEPTEMBER 2008 --Hope of my fading away after the KANGAROO ELECTION of 2006 was just wishful thinking on the part of Terry and his family staff.  It has been more than year since I’ve posted anything new on my website but, the hits just keep on coming, spread the word I’m BACK, and get plugged in!

On 3/21/08, a Tim Estabrook commented about how nothing new had been posted by me and that was good, because he and his brothers were all working. Hey that’s great you & yours are working but, what about all the brothers & sisters who are not?  I believe your e-mail address @ SCABBY might just say it all.

Here are some facts that the working and retired members of this council area should consider when comparing YOUR job, wages and benefits to that of the TEAM:

1.        A minority of working members get 2080 hours of work every year or full employment.  The TEAM is paid based on a 48 hour week, 40 regular and 8 hours overtime 52 weeks a year or 2496 hours per year, EVERY year.  That’s 416 hours more than a regular working member lucky enough to have FULL-TIME employment, which the majority of our members do not have.  The TEAM is paid way above regular working carpenter scale too because they are a first-class organization doing ALL your thinking!

2.        Transportation costs for our working members are the responsibility of each of them and it comes from their wages. But not TD & TEAM; they get a new (gas-guzzling) Yukon to drive that’s maintained with the dues monies of hard working members and off the backs of our retired members. YOU pay for the gas, the car phones, maintenance, tires, car insurance, accidents, and liabilities so each can parade around town like they are somebody important. Most of the time they are displayed outside our hall Monday thru Friday but, on Saturday (overtime day), not so much! TD gets a special RIDE cause he is so much more important then the rest of them!

3.        Got health insurance?  Haven’t got your 1200 hour requirement or maybe you fall one hour short NO-problem if your on the TEAM because you get 2496 hours standard every year. But if you’re a working member having $4.00 per hour deducted by your employer for your health insurance; multiply that by 1199 hours earned, its $4796.00 that you pay for and get NO insurance at all.  That’s $4.00 an hour you pay but get nothing for your money.  There are more members doing without than those with insurance.  For example, multiply how many that might be at $4796.00 times just one third of our membership (10,800), that’s over $17 million per year paid into the health & welfare fund by those without coverage. The retired members can’t even afford paying their premiums after the hours run out after retiring. Remember TD & Staff get an additional 416 hours more than each of do you every year. By the way the TEAM also gets FREE health care coverage for every year of service that they worked on the council upon retirement as an added perk for being a TEAM player, YOU get to pay for it!

4.        Pension rates have DROPPED since Davis & CO. took over this council from a high of 3.65% to 1.5% for the working members. But that doesn’t matter to them because they are getting the full amount of hours every year plus OVERTIME hours paid in for them like clock work.  Besides getting all the hours you could possibly get EVERY year, plus receiving more than $20,000 extra per year in overtime, why would the TEAM want to be troubled by your needs as a working member? 

The majority of you probably do not know about Sec: 59-B of the UBC Constitution & Laws.  This deals with the UBC Pension Plan Tax-Exempt Trust for each officer, representative, or employee of the UBC & J of America in which the membership pays an amount equal to13% of the monthly gross compensation for EACH of those mentioned above.  

Let’s just do the math on Emperor Terry Davis on his LM filings of 2006, reported salary of $238,292.00.  He makes about $4,582 per week or $18,330 per month and WE pay him an extra $2,382 per month for his UBC Pension or about $28,595 per year. This is for just TD alone; there are about 43 more of them (THE TEAM), that you pay for EVERY month too.  

This is an EXTRA PENSION you the working member PAYS for which I believe has been raised to 16%.  Unlike YOU, they get TWO PENSIONS, regular carpenters’ pension & the UBC Tax-Exempt Pension Plan.  Perhaps the rank & file membership of this district council should sit down and do the math on TD & The Team benefits and then compare it to YOURS!  

I have provided you with a complete copy of the 2006 KCMO district council officers and employee’s salary list reported in their LM reports filed with the Department of Labor.  You can see for yourself by going to www.UnionFacts.com for additional information.  You can also check on any other district council or the UBC by checking on this website.  You can click on an individual name and get a breakdown of their financial history that you might find interesting when comparing it to your own yearly RAISES! Check out the names on the banner carrying list, can you say NEPOTISM??  Do you care about abuse of power?  

The point of this website’s continued existence is to provide truthful information to the rank and file members of this district council so that WE can TAKE BACK OUR UNION beginning in MAY 2009!  Mark your calendars because that’s the ONLY TIME your VOTE will count brothers & sisters.  That’s the nomination month for local union officers and most importantly District Council Delegates.  The election will be held in JUNE 2009, and we must CLEAN-HOUSE on ALL levels to take our union back. The membership needs to plan for next year by picking non-TEAM players, keeping their names to themselves prior to nomination night, and turning out in mass to all local union meetings to ensure their nomination to office.  In June 2009, the membership should turn out in MASS again to ensure a free and fair election of those willing to represent the workers; NOT the Terry Davis & Company corporate elite TEAM we have now.  Once WE have newly elected council delegates in 2009, we can REMOVE Davis, his SON, and the “TEAM” from office in the August 2010, election for EST!  

This site has two sides to it, the public mail (Your Thoughts), and a private mail box that only I can see to ensure information and plans can be secured from RATS!  After putting pencil to paper and comparing your wages and benefits to that of your Team, you may feel free to thank the whole council full of “wanna-be” TEAM suck-asses who have already proved themselves by VOTING for TD in August 2006, by using this website.  ALL TD STAFFERS holding local union offices need to GO.  AND, ALL sitting CDC delegates need the BOOT too, that makes it simple.

All we need are good working member candidates for office within the locals and the council to take back the control of OUR union.  I had 400-500 of them gathered in August 2006, on my side of the street that election day.  All that’s needed now is for the rest of our membership to STAND UP, be there when needed, and VOTE to make change REAL in 2009 & 2010! 

If any of you don’t think you have the experience to hold a union office, the most important skill you really need to hold union office primarily is HONESTY, INTEGRITY, and a willingness to serve the membership, NOT yourself!!!  When you elect a man without honor to power and then allow him to hand-pick self-serving bullies to enforce his will upon the working class, you get what we have had here for 16 years, a dictatorship!  It’s why our nation is in crisis today, absolute corruption at the very top is killing both our Union and America!

Many members complain about their local union meetings being undemocratic because team members were elected to local union office to control the business and the discussions.  Members are afraid of the blackball if they question TD or UBC policy so they stop attending or caring until something affects them directly.

I hear a lot of bitching on the jobsites about TD & TEAM during break or over lunch but, no action!  I have had members say I’d join your local but, I do not want to be the first one to transfer because I need to work.  Well brothers & sisters that’s the kind of no-brain, no-balls, BS-excuse, that keeps them in power over YOU.  They use FEAR when boring you into apathy or into non-attendance does not work at your meetings.  It is the oldest trick of any dictatorship in history for God’s sake.  WAKE-UP, STAND-UP, grow a pair and take a count of how many THEY are and then how many WE are if we UNITE!  Do the math; 50 TEAM members on staff, 110 self-serving council delegates serving the staff, and maybe a few hundred more suck-asses in the wings waiting their turn to feed at the PIG trough at the membership’s expense.  The last council membership count was over 10,000, what are you afraid of?

Being a union member is more than just carrying a card, steady work, or just about any individual’s welfare by itself, it is about the good and welfare of the WHOLE group. A union’s real POWER exists within the sheer number of its members willing to stand together as one and fight injustice united.

WHAT has YOUR local done to protect your rights from the TEAM since TD took over? Mine did not whine about it when the outside local members did not stand up with us.  Instead we put our money and our asses on the line and FOUGHT two years in Federal Court to get it back!  The question becomes this:  If your local has done nothing to regain your rights as an American Union member and you no longer attend your meetings because you feel that your voice does not count, why are you a member there at all?

Council delegate strength is tied directly to the number of members a local has.  The larger the membership, the more delegates it seats, and the more powerful it becomes. One of the rights members still have is the right to transfer into ANY local union of their choice within the council area simply by notifying the council dues office in writing or in person that you wish to transfer your membership.  Both retired and working members have the right to do so no matter their location or trade in which they work within the council area without interference and yes Retirees count towards delegate strength.  ANY ATTEMPT by the TEAM (anyone), to interfere, intimidate, threaten, or coerce a member otherwise should be reported to this website and recorded in a personal log by the member involved including time, date, place, who, and what was said.     

Divided, TD & Co. will continue to double-dip benefits, hire family members, give themselves unjust raises, and all the while be unaccountable to the members they are suppose to represent.  Does anyone else out there notice the TEAM similarity to Wall Street CEO’s lifestyle or Congress when the council is in sessionand the PORK- BARREL spending is flying?  Ask to see the council minutes provided your local union next meeting to see how thousands of YOUR dollars are being spent, while your Pension continues to drop.  Everyone had better be worried about how Terry (Greenspan) Davis & Co. has invested YOUR funds without your knowledge or input as the meltdown on Wall Street continues.

Perhaps its time the entire membership pulls its head out of the sand, gets MAD, get INVOLVED, and demand the same ACCOUNTABILITY as our employers expect from us everyday before WE have nothing left and their golden-parachutes can deploy. The ball is in YOUR court.  Local 1635 has done all we can by ourselves, if we should go down it will be as MEN fighting until our last breath still retaining our HONOR! We will not go down as a frightened cur dog licking the hand that shoots it.  Which way will YOU go?

 Douglas M. Cornett

Here are the results of YOUR CDC voting delegates

TERRY DAVIS = 104                     Doug Cornett = 7

111 CDC delegates VOTED, ONLY 7 good Brothers STOOD UP for YOU, the union workers, and retired members!

I cannot even begin to express my thanks to all the brave union brothers and sisters that came out on Saturday to show their support. You put yourselves on the front line to make a STAND for liberty, justice, and democratic rights. You are Hero’s! It was an HONOR to stand with you!

I am PROUD to be a 1635 member! I am PROUD of what we stand for and for what we will continue to fight against! We have ONLY 124 brave members left and only 7 union shops but I invite ALL like-minded union brothers & sisters to visit our local meetings held every second & fourth Wednesday night of the month at 7:00PM. We meet at the V.F.W. Post #1829, located at

KCMO.

There were many campaign election violations committed by the DAVIS TEAM over the last week. Any member who has knowledge of, or witnessed, illegal campaigning by paid council employees (on union time) are asked to contact my secured e-mail website, or call the D.O.L. directly at (816)-502-0290. Also, be sure to report any threats or actions taken against your rights of freedom to assemble, speech, or participate in the Saturday rally, or actions against you since Aug. 26th.

This website will be up for the next 6-months. Please take advantage of the information it provides. Make special note of the links regarding the stripping of our democratic rights. It’s a nationwide problem and is being addressed by union Carpenters all over the US & Canada. The fight began at the 1995 UBC convention and continues to the present day. Don’t take my word for it, find out for yourselves.

In closing, remember that the number of CDC delegates for each local is based on the local’s total membership, two delegates for the first 100 members and one delegate for every 100 members there after. If you have a large membership, and truly want to see a change for the better, then make sure you put someone in that position that will choose HONOR before the DOLLAR.

Douglas M. Cornett

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2006-  TD’S ATTEMPT TO HAVE LU’S MANDATE THEIR CDC DELEGATES PRIOR TOO THE ELECTION 8/26/06!

More reports from working members that Terry Davis & his team are visiting local union meetings and through their LU supporters bringing about a VOTE of the membership present to MANDATE their LU CDC delegates to support TERRY in the upcoming election! So far its been done at LU#777 and I have word that they will attempt it TONIGHT in Independence MO., LU#1329. I am not sure how many other LU’s may have done the same.

HERE is the PROBLEM:

1.        To make this action REALLY democratic ANY local union should have sent out a TIMELY notice to its ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP that such a VOTE was going to be taken at either a regularly scheduled meeting or a Special Called meeting of the local union. This has NOT been done, the action has been taken by ONLY the members present upon the SAME meeting night that (in the case of 777), Terry & Travis Davis & their team was present at. A motion was made, seconded, and passed that the local union mandate their CDC delegates to support Terry & his team on Aug. 26th. NOTICES were NOT sent out to their entire membership, leaving the rank & file NO knowledge that of the upcoming VOTE that night of Terry’s visit and in effect ensuring that there will be NO opposition from any local members OPPOSED to this action!

2.        Terry has long opposed the LU’s right to mandate its CDC delegates at the CDC level, at one time having the CDC attorney advise the CDC delegate body that they could not be mandated. He explained that CDC delegates were just like members of Congress, they did NOT have to follow a mandate because each could make their own decision without regard of a local mandate of the members they are suppose to represent. Just like Congress the ONLY recourse the membership had left was to VOTE these CDC delegates out of office at the next election cycle for NOT voting as mandated by the local members. WHY has TERRY reversed his position? Simple since my mail out CDC delegates are getting hundreds of calls at home from angry members wanting a change. Many our being lobbied on their jobsites byfellow members daily and Terry’s attempts to send his BA’s, Organizers, supporters, etc., out to the jobsites in mass have BACKFIRED on him!

3.        Instead of the members BUYING into their story that their working hard everyday to represent the members wishes, the MEMBERSHIP is in OPEN REVOLT to Terry’s re-election, existing PAID STAFF as voting delegates, opposed to the illegal campaign tactics of having paid CDC staff suddenly visiting ALL major jobsites, and MEMBERS are telling Terry’s SUPPORTERS to get the hell off our jobsites. It is very apparent that the vast majority of working members want a CHANGE and Terry supporters are being directly challenged to SUPPORT my election if they truly represent the people they work for! Abraham Lincoln once stated that, “you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people, all of the time but, you can’t fool all of people all of the time”. Do you think Terry EVER thought that member opposition to him would reach the level it has? Did he think that he and his supporters would lose CONTROL of the issues? I am extremely PROUD of ALL the working, Retired, and Apprentice members of this Council, for standing up and VOICING their opinion, that its time for a CHANGE come election day!

TO ALL VOTING CDC DELGATES: PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE MEMBERSHIP ON ELECTION DAY!

This will be the most important decision of your life upon Election Day, it may be the most historic event in this District Council’s history and YOU have the power & the DUTY to represent the will of the membership. LARGE numbers of CONCERNED MEMBERS are going to attend this election wanting a CHANGE of LEADERSHIP!

THEY are going to lobby you, THEY are staying to see the results, and THEY are NOT going away if TERRY is RE-ELECTED! Do not think for a minute that THEY won’t be at their next LU meeting in force. Do not think that THEY won’t look you up on your jobsites. Do not think that MY defeat will mean that the CDC will be going back to business as usual either because CHANGE is HERE and its here to STAY! I know that your phones are ringing off the wall and I know that YOU are seeing the biggest outpouring of membership participation EVER, not since the members voted the dues check-off down 3 separate times. YOUR political life is at stake AUG. 26th, and I ask EACH of YOU to listen to your members,do the math, and respect the memberships desire for CHANGE! And VOTE FOR ME.

·          ONLY you & GOD will know how you voted, this is by SECRET-BALLOT election.

·          There are ONLY two orders of business Aug. 26th, election of CDC officers & the immediate installation of those elected CDC officers. If TERRY is defeated I will be sworn into office that same day and there will be NO RETRIBUTION from ANY of his supporters from that day forward. The MEMBERSHIP is speaking. WE WILL LISTEN and do the right thing by REPRESENTING THEIR WISHES!

Do NOT believe that the UBC is going to close down, and MERGE the KC CDC, into some other District Council because TERRY is defeated, they are NOT stupid. Also, do not believe for one minute that I am going to dismantle good working programs already in place, or make changes on the staff level that would jeopardize this council’s ability to function or service our membership! I will be taking a crash course from these very same people to learn everything I can about its programs in place and learn the job. I am NOT stupid either. I have spent almost half my life working for this UNION, I am the third generation of my family that has belonged to Cabinetmakers LU#1635 which is 102 years old, do you really think my goal would be to destroy the very thing most dear to my heart outside of my family? I ask for YOUR VOTE on Election Day NOT just for me but for THOSE who support a change in leadership! The choice is YOURS will you support a leader who’s had 14 years of abusing his power but, who ignored the PEOPLE he represented? Or will YOU JOIN me in RESTORING the GOD given RIGHTS of the membership to run THEIR own UNION as they see fit? TERRY DAVIS has already LOST his ability to lead this District Council by his own arrogant ACTIONS against those he should have represented. Do YOU really want to FOLLOW him down the road of his OWN destruction?

Douglas M. Cornett
Candidate for KCMO CDC EST

TUESDAY AUG. 22, 2006 -- BMA BUILDING JOBSITE--A Brother Carpenter called me Monday night that was working on the remodel of the BMA Towers Building, located on the corner of

& Southwest Traffic way KCMO. It’s a large project and he was working around a lot of brother carpenters employed by Allied. He asked if I would come and speak to them about the upcoming election Aug. 26, 2006 at our Carpenters District Council offices at 9:00AM. I told him that I would be there and arrived at 11:55 AM, where he met me and took me down to the Carpenters break room. At noon about 20-25 Union members arrived to eat lunch and hear me speak and ask me questions.

We had not gathered more than 10 minutes, when two CDC Business Agents came through the door, BA Jack Early LU # 61 and BA Dave Simmons LU # 1904. I was in the middle of speaking when the business agents began to challenge what I was saying to the members. To their surprise several Brothers stood up and said that I had been invited there to speak to them. And they should not walk in and begin interrupting our time or me. I asked them if they were here campaigning on behalf of EST Terry Davis, on union time? Jack Early replied no he & Simmons were just expressing their opinions on what I was telling the members. When one Brother asked how was it that they just happen to be here at the very same time I had arrived, they said they were suppose to meet someone (I didn’t catch that someone’s name), that had called Jack last Thursday. One Brother asked Jack why would you be here, when the man you want to talk to is down at the Cold Storage building? They didn’t have an answer for that one. Jack did say he was sorry for interrupting my time and I accepted it and continued talking and answering questions asked by them.

It seems though that they could not keep quite trying to interject excuses about how our voting rights had been taken away. It was NOT Terry’s fault that it happened, it was the UBC General President who took them away starting at the 1995 UBC Convention. If you have gone to my website you will find that the 1995 UBC Convention was the one that LU# 1635 was prevented to attend by Terry and action of the council. We had filed a Federal Lawsuit over that & many other actions taken against us (read documents provided on this site). Our lawsuit was based upon that existing UBC Constitution & Laws and we beat them to death with it! They had violated their own RULES and that’s why they wanted to settle the case almost two years later, plus the fact that we wanted a trial by jury, you know WORKING PEOPLE! They realized that the MEMBERS had RIGHTS guaranteed by their own constitution, so they set to work to REWRITE IT!

Jack Early, is right the UBC began its dirty work at the 1995 UBC Convention and has added to it (baby-steps so you would not notice it,) at the 2000 UBC convention and finally at the 2005 convention held in Las Vegas! This was done with the FULL COOPERATION of EST Terry Davis and his convention delegates & SUPPORTERS! I will post both of his campaign mail outs that he has sent to the voting CDC delegates for the upcoming election so you can see HIS WORDS. You might ask yourself why he and the UBC General Office are so close and WHY our Council is so honored at conventions? Because, he delivered your right, to run your Union, to the UBC on a silver platter. He did not protect your rights; he helped them take them AWAY! So lets tell the truth here the UBC took them but, TERRY & his TEAM gave them away and have enjoyed the high life ever since on your dues money & sweat! The other new SCARE tactic being used by Terry’s paid staff is this, if Doug Cornett is elected to office the UBC will come into Kansas City and MERGE our District Council out of existence! What kind of crap is that coming out of a Ba’s mouth? You mean if I win, the UBC will take out a 10,742 member District Council, just because Terry Davis LOSSES the election? Anyway, these fine Brothers did not buy their crap and raked them over the coals!

Toward the end of the meeting BA David Simmons LU# 1904, just could not debate me like a man or maintain any self-control. He could be the POSTER-CHILD for what’s wrong with the TERRY DAVIS LEADERSHIP! BA Simmons went into BULLY-mode, getting up into my face saying, “Lets get it on.” It was provoked, as usual, by my words of dissent and underlines the “PACK” mentality used by Davis supporters when they face any difference of opinion by any working member who has the guts to disagree with them or CDC policy. Before anything could happen two Brothers jumped between us and began telling both business agents that they were tired of this kind of action and that it has been done before against other dues paying members. The men told them that they wanted their rights back and if they were there to work for the members, they had better start representing them this Saturday by voting for a change of leadership and quit threatening those they are suppose to work for.

I would like to thank BA Simmons, for making my point that it’s TIME for a CHANGE! Most of all I want to thank each & every Brother Carpenter present at that meeting for allowing me to speak to them, for their time, and most of all for standing up and doing the right thing for another Union member! I will do my best to SERVE the working members of this council and keep my word. I am not running against the BA’s, Organizers, or staff, as Terry’s supporters have tried to portray. I am running against only one man and if I defeat him this Council will survive it, better men than him have left it’s service!

Douglas M. Cornett

VOTE FOR A CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP
TELL YOUR DELEGATES
DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS AUG.26TH!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2006  -  ILLEGAL CAMPAIGNING BY CDC STAFF

I am receiving reports from various working members that BA’s are now traveling (in pairs) to various jobsites, and taking the members out to lunch. All the while, they are campaigning for Terry Davis, and condemning my mail out. They’re representing themselves as truthful, informed, union officials serving your best interests.

Yesterday, I reported on my visit to the BMA jobsite and later I received a report that BA, Dallas Darrow, had gone to the Bass Pro jobsite located in Olathe, KS. He STOPPED work production on that site, calling the men into two separate groups to campaign for DAVIS. E&K had about 20-30 employees working there who Dallas met with so that he could go through my mail-out…point-by-point. Dugan Construction (an out of state contractor) has about 15 members employed there who were asked to stop their work so that Dallas could meet with them...also on the employers time! At one point, he claimed that the dropping Pension pay out was NOT important since that rate only effected members who retired in that time period, that’s NOT TRUE! That rate will be included to factor any members retiring after that date when they retire years from now…not just those retiring now. He even stated as a fact that it is NOT THE MEMBERS MONEY anyway. Because their union employers pay into the fund for them for every hour worked. YOUR Pension money paid by union employers CERTAINLY IS YOUR MONEY, it is a benefit paid on your behalf for every hour you work, it’s in your union contract just like the Health & Welfare insurance monies paid by them for YOUR medical insurance! Dallas would have you believe that this union employer paid money into the pension fund, on your behalf, but IT’S NOT YOURS!

Today at the JATC Apprenticeship Training Center, a 2-hour meeting was held with the members during class hours. Travis Davis, Frank Anderson, Joe Hudson, and others (about 6 in all) went through my mail-out, point-by-point, just as the others reported above. They even stated that the CDC attorney had told them that they were not to campaign on union time but apparently Travis & his TEAM don’t need to abide by the LAWS!

Here is some of the latest pabulum from your hard working; member representing; looking out for your best interest; while supporting Terry Davis union officials.

1.        If Doug Cornett is elected to office the UBC International will shut down the KC District Council and merge it into another Council in retaliation for Terry losing the election. Do YOU really think they would be so stupid as to do that? What do YOU think our, more than 10,000, members would do if they did, just sit back and TAKE IT! I don’t! This is a SCARE TACTIC!!! Its purpose is to prevent large numbers of members from showing up at the election on Saturday. They don’t want you to lobby the CDC Delegates, and they want to quite the uproar created by my expose of their ANTI-MEMBER RIGHTS actions since Terry Davis has taken power.

2.        They are spreading the LIE that, while I was employed as the Mill-Cabinet & Industrial organizer 1989-1991 (only a year and a half), that I was paid by the District Council & enjoyed the same perks that they do. Nothing could be further from the truth! LU #1635 and the UBC International paid for my organizing position. LU 1635 paid 40% of the costs, and the UBC paid for 60%. NO CDC MONEY was used at all, and I WAS NOT employed by the Council. The CDC was merely the pay master (cut my check), the money paid to me was paid DIRECTLY to the CDC by LU1635 & the UBC, and it was a UBC pilot program, NOT the CDC’s, as they want you to believe.

While we are on this subject, let me tell you a MAJOR FACT they left out. I was working as an outside carpenter before being elected to this new position by defeating another 1635 member running for it, by a majority vote of the 1635 membership. I was getting outside carpenters scale & benefits just like everyone else working outside. When I became 1635’s Mill-Cabinet & Industrial organizer in 1989, I SLASHED my own wages & benefit package to Cabinetmaker Shop Foreman rate & Cabinetmaker fringes. This amounted to more than a $5.00-$6.00 per hour CUT for me to take this job, I had no YUKON to drive. I drove my old beater pick up, no GAS allowance… only mileage, which was restricted by a very tight budget, and my expenses were tracked weekly by both the UBC & 1635. They amounted to office supplies, postage, phone, bills, etc. I did not receive any $850 in gas allowance, large expense account, car, etc. that the CDC staff gets now. I received ONLY pension & fringes, at Cabinetmaker Foreman rate, paid for me while I had this position & NO UBC PENSION at all!

Yes, I held local union office as Fin. Sec./Treas. of 1635… and yes I was also a 1635 CDC delegate. I had been ELECTED to these offices PRIOR to taking this newly created position, so why would I have resigned. It was never suggested that I do so by 1635 or the UBC who set up the program? Paid vacation now that’s funny I don’t care who you are but, untrue! Cabinetmakers & Industrial members are the LOWEST PAID and have the LOWEST PAID fringes in the entire CDC areas. If you go to the CDC website you will NOT even find them listed on their wages & fringes page like everyone else who make up our trade members! There are two reasons for this 1. Terry does not even recognize that we exist. 2. He does NOT want you to KNOW that we are the LOWEST PAID members of this CDC because you might ask WHY? Since he heads the “hardest working full time staff in four States”. LU1635 is the ONLY, local and the ONLY industry, which shows not only ZERO-GROWTH (with a full-time staff of CDC paid organizers), but also, LOSS of market share since Terry Davis took office! Information is power and he does not want you to have either.

Their contention that I am after Terry’s high paying salary is false too. Yesterday on the BMA jobsite a Brother Carpenter asked me about that. I replied to him that if I took Terry’s pay, I would be the same as he was! I will REDUCE my own salary if I am elected to office asking for CDC delegate approval at the very next meeting of the CDC. I SLASHED my own pay & fringes when I became Mill-Cabinet organizer because I believed it was the right thing for me to do. Why should I RAPE those I am suppose to represent, I was honored that I was chosen to represent them. MONEY & GREED are NOT my motivation for running against TERRY. Informing the membership, RESTORING your rights, empowering the locals, ending the nepotism, and ending the DICTATORSHIP & BULLYING MEMBERS is my motivation!

3.        I make NO apology for looking like a “biker”, or as any working carpenter, working in our trades. I do ride a Harley to work and have done so for more than 30 years now. I can CLEAN UP as well as anyone. And I won’t need the $600.00 p/mo. Clothing allowance that Terry has in his contract. At least I’ll say this; I worked for every Harley I own! Sweating on the same jobsites, just like every other member who owns a bike, or any vehicle.

4.        Terry left 1635’s entire UBC convention delegation at home without funds, hotel rooms, airfare, or anything else provided to EVERY other CDC local delegation or GUESTS that attended the 05 convention?

5.        I do NOT judge my brother & sister members by there looks, race, sexual preferences, education, or political affiliations. This is NOT the way Terry or his no-name supporters do though. Oh let me respond to the idiot asking me where I got the money to pay for my campaign, you NO BALLED accuser, I EARNED IT, just like the rest of the rank & file members do and I have NOT asked or accepted any monies from members or union contractors to fund my campaign.

One of the features of my website allows direct e-mail to be sent to me, the other allows members to post them on site for everyone to see. The one directly to me is a secured site, for my eyes ONLY. I am asking for ANY working member to log on to this site to report any ILLEGAL campaigning they have witnessed either before my mail out or afterwards. Any local union meetings where Davis or his paid CDC staff campaigned against me too, I need the time, place, date, who was there, and what was reported or said about me. You can send to me without being exposed to Terry or his supporters.

This is ILLEGAL ACTIVITY and violates FEDERAL LAWS of the LMRDA & possible other Federal statues if members were harassed, threatened, verbally or physically assaulted, or bullied during these illegal events or meetings. There is nothing FAIR about this upcoming election since TERRY already has 45% or more of his PAID VOTING Delegates in his pocket. ILLEGAL campaigning on union time, or what I already mentioned above, shows that THEY are scared and desperate! THEY will try by ANY means to ensure that the MEMBERS are DISCOURAGED to ATTEND in mass or that CDC delegates can be encouraged to vote for ME on SAT. 8/26/06! He has already sent out a SECOND campaign letter to all the delegates, received yesterday, promoting his TEAM. I am NOT running against the TEAM, I am running against TERRY only! Please HELP me STOP these ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES by reporting them directly to my e-mail site ASP or to the Department of Labor! You will be protected for turning them in and will be PROTECTING the democratic principals on which OUR UNION was founded upon! Do the RIGHT THING! Turn the RATS IN! Thank you for your time & support, it’s ALL about YOU & YOURS! It’s all about THE MEMBERSHIP!

Douglas M. Cornett/ Candidate for the WORKING MEMBERS!