Democracy In Action!

Our first General Meeting went well and I was very pleased to see the participation of all attending members. We conducted our meeting under Roberts Rule of Order and those in attendance caught on very quickly.

I was equally proud to witness democracy in action when establishing our dues. As was said from the very beginning, the membership will determine and vote on the dues we will be paying monthly.

The Executive Board in last weeks meeting approved a motion to set dues at 2 hours per month to remain consistent with the amount that was stated during organizing.
The members in attendance did not approved the 2 hours per month and a motion to set the dues at a flat rate was voted on and approved.

A motion to pay $70.00 per month was made, and a vote by majority was made against this amount also. A motion to pay $60.00 per month immediately followed, was voted on and approved by majority of the membership in attendance.

I understand some were reluctant to submit a dues check-off authorization prior to knowing an amount and encourage everyone to complete your Membership Application and Dues Check-off Authorization and submit them so you too can participate in your Union and have your voice heard like everyone in attendance did today.

We had a very spirited question and answer and I hope we answered all your questions.
The one answer we all want to know is how the pending cuts will effect our shops, and how deep those cuts will be. There are many rumors and I can only say that we wont know the specifics until we sit down with management. As soon as we have any definite information, we will make that information available.

It sickens me to know that we have to yet again endure another exodus of our brothers and sisters, especially in these difficult economic times. It equally sickens me that this is always the method of choice by management to correct budget shortfalls. We have many ideas that have potential to help our newspaper economically and are more than willing to share these ideas as well as work with management to implement them. All it requires is management to accept our decision to form a union and cease their campaign against our shops. As I stated before, we are not, nor should we be viewed or treated as enemies of the Los Angeles Times.

Ronnie Pineda
President,
GCC/IBT Local 140-N