"The mind revels in conjecture. Where information is lacking, it will gladly fill in the gaps."James Geary
Why is it that union officials can never grasp this basic truth? Why do they so often fail to realize where it is exactly that rumors come from? In his latest handbill, Mr Harlow states that the shop committee simply can not take the time to answer each and every rumor that hits the shop floor. While i obviously agree with that, i would however argue that our union leaders have the power to stop the vast majority of the plant floor rumors in their tracks.
You see when you get right down to it, rumors stem from a lack of information hitting the floor. It is when people are left guessing that they begin to concoct and spread rumors. Too often information is a scarce resource within our plant walls. Obviously we all know that management has there reasons for with holding information from us, but why does it seem so many times that even our own union is a little afraid to give it to us straight?
We feel as though our very lively hood is left hanging in the balance. "Whats going on?" "Whats being discussed?" "What are the possibilities?" "What are the probabilities?. "Where do we stand?" These aren't really tough questions, but they really sum up what we want to know. It's what we NEED to know so we can go home and tell our wives and our husbands and our children that everything is going to be alright....even when we are pretty sure its not. There is a peace of mind that comes with feeling as though you are informed.
Mr. Harlow mentions in his latest handbill that it is his desire to have "ALL members on the shop committee." I would like to challenge Mr. Harlow to make it his duty to keep us "ALL" informed as if we were on the shop committee. Here are just a few ideas for how this can be accomplished:
* Get our union website up to date and actually UTILIZE it. In todays computer driven age, a web site is an invaluable tool if used to its potential. Why not post all handbills on the website the same day they are delivered to the plant? Why not have a moderated message board where union members can interact and discuss plant issues? Why not post regular video messages from union leaders addressing the membership on important plant issues? Why not stream audio or even possibly video of union meetings? Why not have a regularly scheduled LIVE chat session online where the union President and or SC spend and hour or so interacting with members and fielding questions and concerns?
* Have the President and SC setup simple blogs such as this one and keep it updated with regular journal entries detailing the events of their day or even week. This doesn't have to be a huge commitment or a formalized process. Its just a matter of the SC or Pres sitting down for maybe a 15 minutes every few days or even once a week, and saying "hey guys, this is whats going on....." I'm not asking for full detailed essays on all the events taking place in the work center or Hall....but even just short messages relaying the general "goings on" within the union would be a HUGE benefit to the members. This can be easily set up on sites such as this and linked directly off of our own union home page. There would be absolutely no cost and would only result in a more informed membership. Of course this would also introduce a degree of accountability for union leaders...but i cant imagine anyone would argue with that.
* Make union committeemen more accessible on the plant floor....but FIRST educate them as to whats going on with major plant issues so that they are prepared to relay information and answer questions. During the last election it was mentioned multiple times that too often our union representatives spend most of their days holed up in the union work center. Heck, i can't really blame them. They know the members on the plant floor are starved for information, but they themselves aren't even in the loop. The information needs to come from the top and work its way down. If not the rumors will start on the floor and work their way up. Simple as that.
I am sure there are MANY more ideas that others have for educating and informing our membership. Occasional handbills and monthly union meetings just don't cut it when our plants future seemingly hangs by a thread.
All we want is information. Is that too much to ask??
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