Day four featured two dynamic speakers Donna Brazile and Ed Shultz.
It took speakers who are not President’s of Unions to get this crowd really fired up.
Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile took the microphone and encouraged us to “Take names and kick ass.”
“There is a war going on against service employees, we need to get tough and stand up. Hell no we won’t let those jobs go.”
She affirmed that she is a Democrat. But she was very clear that she is “not the happy talk person of the party.” She is the person to speak truth to power. “We have more toppings and flavors in the Democratic Party than Papa John’s and Ben n’ Jerry’s”
“We are not going to apologize to BP or to anyone.”
We have the power to put a black man in the White House and any man or woman in the state house.”
Progressive Radio and Cable TV host Ed Shultz was the next to take the stage.
Recognized AFSCME as the organization of 1.6 million members who care about America”
We need to remind Congress and the White House who put them there!
We just lived through the most selfish years in America.
The road we are on now is one of the filthy rich and the dirt poor.
To change that we must stick with organized labor.
We don’t like how the Employee Free Choice Act has been thrown under the bus by the Democrats.
All of a sudden the Repugs are concerned about deficits. Dick Cheney said “Deficits don’t matter.” When we were cruising toward the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush had a successful presidency because he was able to appoint two conservative members to the Supreme Court and cut taxes for the top 2%.
Ed went on, we need to ask Democratic Candidates for local, state and federal office, “Are you for labor or are you gonna run from labor?”
“Are you for the EFCA as it is written?”
“We must have the guts to find that moment to do a little more.”
“This is the generational and ideological fight for America.”
The working folks of America did not cause the problems but it is up to us to fix it.
During Ed’s presentation he showed videos of there members. One of them had this great quote to add to the day. “It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a Union to save the village.”
I wonder what Ed thought when he gave big praises and thanks to Gerry McEntee and the hall was pretty much quiet in response.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Day Four: Election Day
The cast has been introduced and their roles are clear,
We’ve got McEntee, the Ayatollah of AFSCME, Kim Jung Lee (Saunders), the heir apparent, and our man from the grassroots, Danny “Braveheart” Donohue.
The ballots have all been cast, and then some, and we are patiently waiting for the gavel to fall to start Day Four on the Convention Floor.
First Order of business is the video footage from yesterday’s rally. “NO more Bullshit!” was the theme of the rally.
Great images and McEntee says that Senator Scott Brown has introduced legislation to preserve public sector jobs. Could that be because we came to his town and let him know how important Public Employees are.
Stay Tuned
The cast has been introduced and their roles are clear,
We’ve got McEntee, the Ayatollah of AFSCME, Kim Jung Lee (Saunders), the heir apparent, and our man from the grassroots, Danny “Braveheart” Donohue.
The ballots have all been cast, and then some, and we are patiently waiting for the gavel to fall to start Day Four on the Convention Floor.
First Order of business is the video footage from yesterday’s rally. “NO more Bullshit!” was the theme of the rally.
Great images and McEntee says that Senator Scott Brown has introduced legislation to preserve public sector jobs. Could that be because we came to his town and let him know how important Public Employees are.
Stay Tuned
Wednesday; Day Three of Convention.
I wish I could say that the day was all about the coalescing of factions which had, just a day earlier been at each others throats into a unified group ready to take on the business of the members. But that was not the case. We did take on a number of Resolutions put forth by the members, many of them designed to prod the Inter into funding putting staff onto issues that.
Many resolutions are generated in the Locals and come up through the Councils. If the resolutions have merit they pass the Council and onto the Resolution Committee which make the recccomndation to the voting delegates; thumbs up or thumbs down. Many resolutions get voted on the way of the committee recommendation. At the highest levels member representation or expression is not tolerated or allowed for.
From my vantage point in the bleachers it seems that 1/3 to ½ of the delegates and alternates are participating in their first International Convention. Many like this blogger and his roommate are disenchanted by the leadership and its antics around this election.
To catch up on the case of the Juvenile Corrections worker from Nevada who had decided he wanted to change his previously pledged block vote for Lee Saunders for Secretary-Treasurer to his individual vote for Donohue. He had made that pledge before leaving Nevada. Lee Saunders had been the only candidate invited to the Nevada state convention so he was the only candidate they had heard from.
There is tons of money being spent on the Lee campaign; including rumor has it many drinks poured last night at the Beantown Pub. Yellow T-Shirts, posters, noise makers, buttons. I hope the member from Nevada does not have too many of those free beers tonight. He will have to get up early and get to voting before the block votes are cast for his whole Local.
The elections committee moved the start time for voting up from 7 a.m to 6 a.m. since it is such an important election. This means that our Nevada member must get to the convention center before 6 a.m. in order to wrest his vote back from the Local block vote.
More about the Rally on Wednesday and the voting Thursday coming up shortly.
Stay Tuned.
Many resolutions are generated in the Locals and come up through the Councils. If the resolutions have merit they pass the Council and onto the Resolution Committee which make the recccomndation to the voting delegates; thumbs up or thumbs down. Many resolutions get voted on the way of the committee recommendation. At the highest levels member representation or expression is not tolerated or allowed for.
From my vantage point in the bleachers it seems that 1/3 to ½ of the delegates and alternates are participating in their first International Convention. Many like this blogger and his roommate are disenchanted by the leadership and its antics around this election.
To catch up on the case of the Juvenile Corrections worker from Nevada who had decided he wanted to change his previously pledged block vote for Lee Saunders for Secretary-Treasurer to his individual vote for Donohue. He had made that pledge before leaving Nevada. Lee Saunders had been the only candidate invited to the Nevada state convention so he was the only candidate they had heard from.
There is tons of money being spent on the Lee campaign; including rumor has it many drinks poured last night at the Beantown Pub. Yellow T-Shirts, posters, noise makers, buttons. I hope the member from Nevada does not have too many of those free beers tonight. He will have to get up early and get to voting before the block votes are cast for his whole Local.
The elections committee moved the start time for voting up from 7 a.m to 6 a.m. since it is such an important election. This means that our Nevada member must get to the convention center before 6 a.m. in order to wrest his vote back from the Local block vote.
More about the Rally on Wednesday and the voting Thursday coming up shortly.
Stay Tuned.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Is t
Is There a Problem Over at Mic #5?
That was one of the many questions asked during today’s Special Nominating Session.
The answer to this question was that a brawl was almost taking place at microphone 5. Most of the central microphones on the floor had been surrounded by the Yellow Shirts and all access to other delegates was affectively blocked. At Microphone 5 a member who was not wearing a yellow United for Lee T-shirt had managed to beat the Yellows to the mic and was holding her own while waiting to be heard. When she was finally allowed to be heard by President Gerry McEntee she told a story of being threatened, disrespected and even handled by the Yellow Shirts because she had risen to nominate Danny Donohue for Secretary Treasurer. She had to threaten back that if anyone else laid a hand on her she “was going to #%$& them up.”
So what could have led to a near brawl around one of the 15 or so microphones dispersed throughout the convention floor? It was nothing short of a political maneuver to present Secretary-Treasurer Candidate Lee Saunders in the best light and the other candidate Danny Donohue less dramatically.
Mr. Saunders is currently Mr. McEntee’s right hand man at the International in D.C. and Gerry is determined that Saunders is the one to replace him when the President decides to retire, perhaps as soon as the next International in 2012, during the U.S. Presidential Primary Election Season.
While hand picking one’s successor in office has been quite popular with monarchs the world over our AFSCME International Union is intended to be a democratic organization that works for and by the members themselves. Our leaders earn the respect and support of the membership and are then elected to positions of greater and greater responsibility as they prove themselves capable of truly democratic leadership.
Earlier in the day many members had brought up that it seemed unfair that the Convention’s daily newsletter today was yellow. Members brought up that this was inconsistent with the traditional color scheme of AFSCME which is of course green.
Gerry answered this by holding up a newsletter from some prior convention that had been printed in red. Even that red had a green streak through it. And how is it that an International staffer happens to have a newsletter from some bygone convention just handy at the podium?
Well the yellow newsletter was just the beginning of the unfair practices employed today by McEntee and his followers to try and get their man, Saunders elected to the powerful Secretary-Treasurer office recently vacated by the retirement of Bill Luce.
With legions of Yellow Shirts surrounding most of the microphones and the Donohue for AFSCME supporters trying to get to microphones to nominate their candidate the crowd began a cacophonous yelling and banging that the chair could not be heard and the nominations could not proceed. This went on for 15 solid minutes and was almost about to subside when the chair yelled out that he could go on like this all day. At that point the noise increased again and caused even more frustration with the chair and other folks on the stage. The sound out was a show of the power of the membership that we could shut the whole show down if the dirty politics was going to be the order of the day.
Finally after the tension at microphone 5 was relaxed some we could get on with nominations. And who is first called upon but Gerry McEntee, this time not wearing his Presidential hat but acting as a member, down on the floor to give a less than inspiring speech about the great qualities of Lee Saunders. Now I don’t know Lee but I do know that I would not want to be represented in the International by someone who would stand by and allow the kind of political antics on the convention floor that we saw today.
Throughout the nomination of Saunders the Yellow Shirts dominated the microphones and gave testimonial after testimonial regarding Saunders. When they were finally through talking about Saunders they all went up in front of the stage and clapped and cheered for him while some groovy tune played.
No sooner had this wrapped up and the Yellow Shirts returned to their seat than there is McEntee again back on the stage, still wearing his yellow shirt and calling for any other nominations for the open position. Members subsequently nominated and seconded Danny Donohue for the position. A number of members took the microphone to call for a point of Order that the President remove the yellow United for Lee T-shirt he was wearing on the stage in front of all the delegates.
He refused to take off the shirt, claiming that he can do whatever he wants and even threatening a member who was blowing a whistle.
Another important question asked on the floor today was whether a member who had earlier agreed to add their vote along with all the members of their Local delegation to vote as a block for the same candidate, could back out of that agreement and cast his or her own ballot for the candidate of their choice.
This question was never answered to the satisfaction of the member who asked it or the rest of the body. It seems that some delegates signed a page before coming to the convention that they would add their vote to a block vote for Saunders. A member in Juvenile Corrections from Nevada I met today at the Red Sox game told me that he had signed a page pledging to block vote but after seeing the shenanigans on the convention floor today He wanted to switch his vote to Donohue but was not sure how to do it. Again it was not adequately explained by the Elections Committee Co-Chair.
After Danny’s nomination the question of the Yellow Shirts on the stage and the return of McEntee to the role of Chair even after he had gone to the floor to nominate Saunders. It was heard around the convention by me that Mr McEntee should have remained on the floor until after all the nominations had been completed and the Special Nomination Session had ended. He took control once again and cut short Donohue supporters who wished to speak on his behalf.
So where does this go from here? Firstly there had better be a blue newsletter tomorrow. Blue is the color of the Danny Donohue campaign.
Ed Shultz is rumored to be joining us tomorrow. Perhaps we can get word to him of the improprieties going on at the AFSCME Convention and he can share it with his radio listeners on progressive stations across the country and on his MSNBC cable show.
We must make sure that delegates who have pledged to vote as a block are allowed to be released from that pledge and vote their own conscience. I have heard from more than one member who wants to change their voted based on what they saw Tuesday on the convention floor.
I think that the President has shot his buddy’s campaign in the foot by trying to show Saunders down the memberships throat because he wants to work with someone hwo knows how to be his subordinant. AFSCME is a last bastion of democracy in America and the members are determined to keep it that way and come out of convention strong and able to build and grow the membership. We can not allow an attempt to unduly influence the election of Bill Luce’s successor as Secretary-Treasurer. Mr Luce has said the he supports Danny Donohue, now McEntee needs to lead a fair and clean election or get out of the way and let us do it.
More tomorrow from the convention floor.
That was one of the many questions asked during today’s Special Nominating Session.
The answer to this question was that a brawl was almost taking place at microphone 5. Most of the central microphones on the floor had been surrounded by the Yellow Shirts and all access to other delegates was affectively blocked. At Microphone 5 a member who was not wearing a yellow United for Lee T-shirt had managed to beat the Yellows to the mic and was holding her own while waiting to be heard. When she was finally allowed to be heard by President Gerry McEntee she told a story of being threatened, disrespected and even handled by the Yellow Shirts because she had risen to nominate Danny Donohue for Secretary Treasurer. She had to threaten back that if anyone else laid a hand on her she “was going to #%$& them up.”
So what could have led to a near brawl around one of the 15 or so microphones dispersed throughout the convention floor? It was nothing short of a political maneuver to present Secretary-Treasurer Candidate Lee Saunders in the best light and the other candidate Danny Donohue less dramatically.
Mr. Saunders is currently Mr. McEntee’s right hand man at the International in D.C. and Gerry is determined that Saunders is the one to replace him when the President decides to retire, perhaps as soon as the next International in 2012, during the U.S. Presidential Primary Election Season.
While hand picking one’s successor in office has been quite popular with monarchs the world over our AFSCME International Union is intended to be a democratic organization that works for and by the members themselves. Our leaders earn the respect and support of the membership and are then elected to positions of greater and greater responsibility as they prove themselves capable of truly democratic leadership.
Earlier in the day many members had brought up that it seemed unfair that the Convention’s daily newsletter today was yellow. Members brought up that this was inconsistent with the traditional color scheme of AFSCME which is of course green.
Gerry answered this by holding up a newsletter from some prior convention that had been printed in red. Even that red had a green streak through it. And how is it that an International staffer happens to have a newsletter from some bygone convention just handy at the podium?
Well the yellow newsletter was just the beginning of the unfair practices employed today by McEntee and his followers to try and get their man, Saunders elected to the powerful Secretary-Treasurer office recently vacated by the retirement of Bill Luce.
With legions of Yellow Shirts surrounding most of the microphones and the Donohue for AFSCME supporters trying to get to microphones to nominate their candidate the crowd began a cacophonous yelling and banging that the chair could not be heard and the nominations could not proceed. This went on for 15 solid minutes and was almost about to subside when the chair yelled out that he could go on like this all day. At that point the noise increased again and caused even more frustration with the chair and other folks on the stage. The sound out was a show of the power of the membership that we could shut the whole show down if the dirty politics was going to be the order of the day.
Finally after the tension at microphone 5 was relaxed some we could get on with nominations. And who is first called upon but Gerry McEntee, this time not wearing his Presidential hat but acting as a member, down on the floor to give a less than inspiring speech about the great qualities of Lee Saunders. Now I don’t know Lee but I do know that I would not want to be represented in the International by someone who would stand by and allow the kind of political antics on the convention floor that we saw today.
Throughout the nomination of Saunders the Yellow Shirts dominated the microphones and gave testimonial after testimonial regarding Saunders. When they were finally through talking about Saunders they all went up in front of the stage and clapped and cheered for him while some groovy tune played.
No sooner had this wrapped up and the Yellow Shirts returned to their seat than there is McEntee again back on the stage, still wearing his yellow shirt and calling for any other nominations for the open position. Members subsequently nominated and seconded Danny Donohue for the position. A number of members took the microphone to call for a point of Order that the President remove the yellow United for Lee T-shirt he was wearing on the stage in front of all the delegates.
He refused to take off the shirt, claiming that he can do whatever he wants and even threatening a member who was blowing a whistle.
Another important question asked on the floor today was whether a member who had earlier agreed to add their vote along with all the members of their Local delegation to vote as a block for the same candidate, could back out of that agreement and cast his or her own ballot for the candidate of their choice.
This question was never answered to the satisfaction of the member who asked it or the rest of the body. It seems that some delegates signed a page before coming to the convention that they would add their vote to a block vote for Saunders. A member in Juvenile Corrections from Nevada I met today at the Red Sox game told me that he had signed a page pledging to block vote but after seeing the shenanigans on the convention floor today He wanted to switch his vote to Donohue but was not sure how to do it. Again it was not adequately explained by the Elections Committee Co-Chair.
After Danny’s nomination the question of the Yellow Shirts on the stage and the return of McEntee to the role of Chair even after he had gone to the floor to nominate Saunders. It was heard around the convention by me that Mr McEntee should have remained on the floor until after all the nominations had been completed and the Special Nomination Session had ended. He took control once again and cut short Donohue supporters who wished to speak on his behalf.
So where does this go from here? Firstly there had better be a blue newsletter tomorrow. Blue is the color of the Danny Donohue campaign.
Ed Shultz is rumored to be joining us tomorrow. Perhaps we can get word to him of the improprieties going on at the AFSCME Convention and he can share it with his radio listeners on progressive stations across the country and on his MSNBC cable show.
We must make sure that delegates who have pledged to vote as a block are allowed to be released from that pledge and vote their own conscience. I have heard from more than one member who wants to change their voted based on what they saw Tuesday on the convention floor.
I think that the President has shot his buddy’s campaign in the foot by trying to show Saunders down the memberships throat because he wants to work with someone hwo knows how to be his subordinant. AFSCME is a last bastion of democracy in America and the members are determined to keep it that way and come out of convention strong and able to build and grow the membership. We can not allow an attempt to unduly influence the election of Bill Luce’s successor as Secretary-Treasurer. Mr Luce has said the he supports Danny Donohue, now McEntee needs to lead a fair and clean election or get out of the way and let us do it.
More tomorrow from the convention floor.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Vicki Kennedy In The House!
We jsut saw a short tribute video of Ted Kennedy. He spelt Kennedy...L-A-B-O-R!
Now Vicki has welcomed us to Teddy's home town, BOSTON!
She is reminding us of the Kennedy family committment to Labor, John, Bobby, Teddy, Patrick...91 years of Kennedys standing for Labor in the Congress.
There are still over 100 Kennedy children and grandchildren. There will be more Kennedys in Government advocating for Labor.
She acknowledges Teddy's gratitude for AFSCME's members working so hard for health care reform when we already have health care. We stood up and continue to stand for those who have less than we do.
Vicki has plrdged that she will always stand with us as her husband did during his life.
Standing Ovation and Hugs on the stage.
Stay Tuned--we are back to resolutions.
Now Vicki has welcomed us to Teddy's home town, BOSTON!
She is reminding us of the Kennedy family committment to Labor, John, Bobby, Teddy, Patrick...91 years of Kennedys standing for Labor in the Congress.
There are still over 100 Kennedy children and grandchildren. There will be more Kennedys in Government advocating for Labor.
She acknowledges Teddy's gratitude for AFSCME's members working so hard for health care reform when we already have health care. We stood up and continue to stand for those who have less than we do.
Vicki has plrdged that she will always stand with us as her husband did during his life.
Standing Ovation and Hugs on the stage.
Stay Tuned--we are back to resolutions.
Resolutions Resolutions Resolutions
Mid-Day Update from the Floor.
Many Local 53 Alternates have been invited to the floor while the delegates are out having lunch or a smoke break. We are grateful for the opportunity to take part in the proceedings, adding our yeah's or nay's to the collective voice of the Convention.
There are three books full of 70 Resolutions. Will we get to all of them? Probably not. Will we get to most of them? Probably not.
Most of the Resolutions coming to the floor right now involve reaffirming our commitment to workers in child care, corrections, Head Start, and the myriad of other important jobs and programs AFSCME members do every day. These resolutions are all passing with no opposition.
Now we are into the "Special Order of Business", honoring Ted Kennedy. McEntee calls him "Labor's True Champion".
Stay Tuned.
Many Local 53 Alternates have been invited to the floor while the delegates are out having lunch or a smoke break. We are grateful for the opportunity to take part in the proceedings, adding our yeah's or nay's to the collective voice of the Convention.
There are three books full of 70 Resolutions. Will we get to all of them? Probably not. Will we get to most of them? Probably not.
Most of the Resolutions coming to the floor right now involve reaffirming our commitment to workers in child care, corrections, Head Start, and the myriad of other important jobs and programs AFSCME members do every day. These resolutions are all passing with no opposition.
Now we are into the "Special Order of Business", honoring Ted Kennedy. McEntee calls him "Labor's True Champion".
Stay Tuned.
Day Two:Live from the Convention Hall
I'm up here in the nosebleed section of the bleechers where Alternate Delegates are relegated.
The other 53 Alternates are up here with me flattening our asses on the metal bleechers.
The Donohue supporters in their blue shirts and the Saunders supporters in their yellow shirts are marching around the hall making tons of noise. They have been called to shut up and sit down as McEntee gavels the group to order.
The Minnesota Delegation is still at it screaming, "We want Danny" but everybody else seems to have quieted down. No that's not it they are screaming for more tables and chairs because they don't have enough to seat their deleates from the Great State of Minnesota.
Council 28 delegates are currently behaving themselves as McEntee begins to honor the Retirees and the Next Wave members.
Stay tuned for updates all week.
The other 53 Alternates are up here with me flattening our asses on the metal bleechers.
The Donohue supporters in their blue shirts and the Saunders supporters in their yellow shirts are marching around the hall making tons of noise. They have been called to shut up and sit down as McEntee gavels the group to order.
The Minnesota Delegation is still at it screaming, "We want Danny" but everybody else seems to have quieted down. No that's not it they are screaming for more tables and chairs because they don't have enough to seat their deleates from the Great State of Minnesota.
Council 28 delegates are currently behaving themselves as McEntee begins to honor the Retirees and the Next Wave members.
Stay tuned for updates all week.
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