It is time to take back our country! It is time to reclaim our pride! It is time for all members and ALL unions to speak with the only thing Wall Street notices, our money.

If you wish to survive as a Union and as a force representing to working man and woman then you MUST transfer all of your banking transactions from the large national and international banks. Take the time to support your local communities and your futures and close the accounts NOW, tomorrow is too late.

Stand up in your local meetings and demand that the local Union divest of all large banking accounts. Stand up in you local meetings and demand that your representatives do as you demand. These are the membership’s locals and it is time that the membership take back our Unions.

Each of you has an opportunity to make a difference that individually means little but collectively means the transfer of 100s of billions of dollars from the theives who are destroying our country and our future.

Sincerely,

Rick Waller
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Dec, 10th 2009 TextMyUnion launched the first Unified group messaging service designed for Labor Union Locals. It’s function is to allow Union managers to stay in touch with its members in real time.

It’s first client Carpenters Union Local 743 in Bakersfield, CA. has elected to use the system to communicate membership dues, meetings, member retention, TextMyUnion is a unified group messaging system that allows Labor Leaders to send messages to their members within seconds.

On October 3, 2006, the AFT apparently made history by sending a message to its members urging them to volunteer in support of pro-union candidates in the upcoming elections.

What struck me as odd was the AFT’s claim to be the first union, at least in the US, to have done this.

After all, use of mobile phones and text messaging is far more widespread than the use of email and the web.

For many poor and working class people, a personal computer is an expensive luxury, but a mobile phone is — a phone. According to some reports, there will be two billion (two thousand million) mobile phone users worldwide by 2007. And by mid-2004, it was estimated that some 500 billion messages per annum were being sent out; that’s almost 100 messages per human being on the planet every year. Today, the numbers are certainly higher.

Unions in developed countries which do not use text messaging are not only failing to use a cheap and effective way to reach large numbers of their members, especially younger ones.

Unions need to begin by collecting the mobile phone numbers of members into the union membership database.

They also need to consider how text messaging changes the nature of the message. The limit on the number of characters you can send through a single text message is quite low, well under 200 characters. There are many trade union officials who can barely say “hello” in so few words. Unions will need to be able to condense their messages to the shortest possible length in order to use text messaging effectively.

But of course that’s a skill that useful for other things too, such as keeping an email message, or even an article or report, concise and to the point.

For a free 5 minute demo please contact Mike @ 800 741-2049 ext 101

or visit TextMyUnion
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On several occasions I ended up in the cottage hospital and their was never a cost applied to it, never a ream of paperwork. Incidentally, I choose my own doctor where I Lived. The longest I waited for surgery was three months, as it was not an emergency. No doctor, no hospital or specialist asking me for my Social Security number, drivers license or if I was covered by a predatory for-profit insurer. No premiums, no-cops and pre-existing condition clauses. Yes! Didn’t have a private room, but who cares? Today the British Isles is being submerged under a barrage of legal and illegal immigrants, who have never paid into the system, have caused some rationing. Prior to the importation of foreign labor my trips to doctor, to hospital, the eye or a dentist was paid from my taxation. Unless we pass a national health care agenda, Americans will never know what it’s like to breeze through their lives, without worrying about paying for health care? Tell your Senators and Congressman you want an alternative to the–GET RICH– insurance companies, before a Universal health care is killed. 202-224-312 REMEMBER THE INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS DON’T WANT THEIR PIECE OF THE $$$TRILLION$$$ DOLLAR PIE DISTURBED. EVEN SOME POLITICIANS HAVE THEIR DIRTY FINGERS IN THE PIE?
AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE, A GOVERNMENT SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM WILL ASSIST IN REVITALIZING THE WILTING US ECONOMY.
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Anyone out there work for a “Union”? How many of YOU are organized? NOT “organized” as in – your desk looks neat, or you have a kick-ass database of your “targets”… How many people, regular people – Union “Organizers” ARE EVEN IN A UNION? Do you know how hard UNIONS THEMSELVES FIGHT AGAINST EMPLOYEE UNIONS??? Do a little research – how many people, employees of Unions have PEOPLE OF COLOR IN DECISION-MAKING CAPACITIES??? I mean, REALLY…

Why is it that “we” are organizing people of color, people who are recent immigrants, people who have yet to master ‘English’? Because the old school, old guard of the white male dominated Unions are DYING OFF…(finally)…

So, before you throw all of your weight behind these organizations, take a look at “The Take” http://www.thetake.org/ and ask yourselves, “where is the Union??” And realize that the Union is YOU – and YOU and YOU, and YOU and YOU and ME – WORKING TOGETHER TO BE ON THE SAME PAGE, AND TO DECIDE TOGETHER WHAT WE NEED, WHAT WE WANT, AND HOW WE WANT TO GET THERE – and as long as we are UNITED (a novel concept, eh?) then WE, IN FACT, ARE A UNION
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To: IBEW Local 1212 represented employees at WPIX
From: Ralph Avigliano, Senior Representative
Date: 11 December 2008

As you know, Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 this past Monday.

Here is some information regarding the effect of this action on the IBEW represented employees at WPIX.

1) There are two types of bankruptcy:

Chapter 7 – Liquidation: closing the company and selling their assets and

Chapter 11 – Reorganization: their debt obligations are put on hold while the company restructures, reorganizes, renegotiates their debt obligations, and looks for new financing. Many companies, United Airlines for example, have gone through reorganization under Chapter 11 and emerged successfully.

2) Tribune has filed under Chapter 11. The company has been given 180 days to develop a reorganization plan acceptable to the bankruptcy court. Failing that, the court will consider alternate plans from Tribune’s creditors and other stakeholders.

3) Under Chapter 11, the company continues to operate, pay the employees and venders, and is under the supervision of a Judge, assisted by a committee of creditors (people Tribune owes money).

4) By law, Tribune must honor their union contracts. Although they can ask the union to modify the current contract and, if the union refuses, both parties present their case to the Judge. Even if the Judge rules in favor of Tribune, IBEW retains bargaining rights, requiring the company to negotiate with the union.

5) If the station is sold, IBEW retains the right to bargain with the new owners of WPIX.

6) The IBEW will review and share with the membership any changes proposed by Tribune.

7) Although pension and 401K plans can be affected, changes can only be made after all concerned parties have made their case to the Judge. If the court allows changes, the union can revisit this issue with the Judge at a later date to increase benefits.

8) The IBEW represented employees at WPIX were excluded from participation in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), so our members will not have to deal with the problems the bankruptcy will cause the “employee owners” of Tribune.

9) Tribune has stopped severance payments to all laid off employees. Fortunately, no full time staff members of IBEW have been laid off to date, so we remain unaffected by this as well.

10) The IBEW will continue to represent the interests of the members at WPIX throughout Tribune’s bankruptcy process.
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