Friends, please post and circulate. Thanks, Matt Noyes

1. New Articles from Union Democracy Review: Ironworkers and Pipefitters rig trusteeships; UFCW pressures witnesses; IBEW local fights "right to reject"; Operating Engineers confront corruption; and reflections on the Teamster elections.
2. Internet Exclusive: Union officials "condone and endorse" attacks on members' internet free speech.
3. New on Benson's Blog:  "An injury to one? Not my problem!"
4. New Links: Team 150 Operating Engineers; Concerned Operators Unity Party; Sisters in the Building Trades.
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1. New articles from Union Democracy Review:

How the Ironworkers and Pipefitters rig trusteeships

Before the LMRDA, union-imposed trusteeships over recalcitrant locals could be forever...The federal law adopted in 1959 gave locals some protection against retaliation. Trusteeships lost any presumption of validity after 18 months. Legislators may have imagined that the law corrected most abuses, but they did not count upon the ingenious ability of top leaders to invent devices to circumvent the law. Here come the Ironworkers and the Plumbers-Pipefitters unions...

Pressuring witnesses to save a suspect election in UFCW Local 951

In September 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor filed suit to overturn August-September 2004 mail ballot results and order new elections for president and three regional vice-presidents of Local 951, United Food and Commercial Workers. With some 33,000 members throughout Michigan, the local is one of the largest in the UFCW. The union's next regular election is scheduled for Summer - Fall 2007 and the lawsuit is still pending...

IBEW Local fights employers' "right to reject"

Sentiment in favor of dumping this "right to reject" is growing throughout the international, mainly because it arms employers with a powerful device for blacklisting the most vocal, loyal, union members, those likely to police jobs to ensure that union standards are defended at the job...

Confronting corruption charges in Operating Engineers Local 3

Members of Operating Engineers Local 3 on the West Coast did not wait upon law enforcement authorities after they discovered that their business manager had misdirected the local's money. ... They organized an insurgent slate which defeated the business manager and ended his control over the local. Then the local sued to try to get the money back. It was not an easy undertaking. This is a construction local with over 40,000 members scattered over four states, including Hawaii. Here, according to informed local members, is how they did it...

Teamster elections: inspiration from the ground up

The outcome warrants reflection on the process by those who believe robust political opposition within unions to be in the best long-term interests of organized labor. The supervised Teamsters elections represent this country's most significant continuing experiment with the direct election of officers...

Find all the articles here: http://www.uniondemocracy.org/UDR/UDRhome.htm

2. Internet Exclusive: Union Officials "condone and endorse" attacks on members' internet free speech

Perry Speranza a 32 year electrician and active member of IBEW Local 353 in Toronto, Canada, who operates an "open forum" called OurLocal353 was found guilty of "supplying confidential information... about IBEW business" to the public. He was fined $1,000, with an additional $5,000 fine again"held in abeyance of non-reoccurrence," and ordered to "cease and desist operating the OurLocal353.ca website for 5 years. [Note: Speranza won his case on appeal to IBEW president Ed Hill. A forthcoming article will analyze the decision.]

Read the article here: http://www.uniondemocracy.org/UDR/138-Union_officials_condone_and_endorse_attacks_on_member_free_speech_online.htm

3. New on Benson's Blog: "An Injury to One? Not my problem!"

Are unionists' grievances against their employers an obstacle to organizing? That odd question is brought to mind by Andy Stern, SEIU president, in an interview with Kris Maher of the Wall Street Journal...Stern's talk with writer Maher helps us understand the philosophy that already shapes the evolving organizational structure of the SEIU and that underlies Stern's image of the kind of labor movement that he hopes to create... See Benson's Union Democracy Blog: http://bensonsudblog.blogspot.com/ 

4. New Links: Team 150 Operating Engineers. Concerned Operators Unity Party. Sisters in the Building Trades.

See our Rank-and-File links page: http://www.uniondemocracy.org/AUDLinks/RNFLinks.htm