Your union has constantly and consistently asserted that we work for YOU, the entire workforce of our station. There are naysayers who criticize our union by insisting they serve one department more than another. Those who make this claim often ignore their own negligence in taking an active part in supporting and working within the union to make differences that matter to their particular work center.
it’s undeniable that some departments within our union get better results than others. The reason is that they stand in solidarity in supporting each other, they use the power of the grievance procedure, and they work with and communicate with our union’s leadership. In other words, they do all the things they are supposed to do as active union members to take ownership and have a voice in the workplace.
If you’ve forgone this right to some carnival barker who spouts only complaints and no solutions, that’s on you. If you want to take the word of the inner workings of Local 304 from someone who’s never at our meetings, that’s on you. If you want to cower in the corner and let management walk all over you, again, that’s on you.
The reality is that we, as Utility Workers, have a moral and social responsibility of producing power for our fellow citizens and a profit for the company we work for. This often requires long hours spread across various and often overlapping shifts. We operate, monitor, adjust, start, and stop equipment placed in our charge to keep the plant running.
Considering the unprecedented turn over from the older generation of plant workers to the younger ones we have now, we do a stellar job executing those duties.
In our hands we have the awesome responsibility of either making our plant millions of dollars or losing millions with a misstep, accident, or simply a moment of inattention. Every valve turned, every button pushed has the potential of putting any of us, as employees and Utility Workers, at risk of disciplinary action or termination.
This extends into our record keeping. Everything from timecards, LOTO forms, Hot Work Permits, Liquid Transfer Procedures, Equipment Operating Procedures, Safety Rosters, and anything else you sign YOUR name too can come back to haunt you anytime anything happens and creates a situation in which a scapegoat is needed to lay the blame on by those in charge.
It is the hope of every union officer that they not to be placed in a position of having to fight for a member’s job. It is also a duty and responsibility to do exactly that, bringing all the Local’s, National’s, and whatever legal resources available to do exactly that. It’s something every union officer takes very seriously.
We hope you never need us, but as long as there is a UWUA Local 304, we will be there doing what unions do. This is despite constant attacks from within and without our organization, and cowardly “Right To Work” laws that make it legal for members to ignore their responsibilities to their union.
