A Look Back on the Election

[CouriersPerspective ()]

Hi,

As some of you who are reading this know, OPEIU, Local 30, just had an election of officers. David Kessinger, Donald Murphey and myself ran on the same ticket. It was we who were the first candidates within our local Union to create a website and utilize this tool in order to try to provide easily accessable information about all of the candidates, for Members. In contrast, those in charge of our Union's official website, Walter Allen Jr, essentially provided ZERO information about the election on his website. Next, we bought "Vote for..." pins and were able to hand out a few of them as well as a few of our joint flyers...before being contacted by Kaiser Permanente, Corporate Compliance Director, Donna Lupinacci, who informed us that no compaigning of any kind was permitted on an Kaiser campuses (either during the candidates working time or during their non-working time. Before, during and after that time (and in fact throughout the weeks leading up to to the election end time) we were aware of the 'Winning Team' which was doing exactly that - and in fact campaigned at nearly every Kasier Permanente facility in San Diego. Candidates such as Walter Allen Jr., Marianne Giordano, Carmen Corral, and Hector Peralta campaigned on Kaiser Permanente property, handing out their literature to Workers while those Workers were on 'Kaiser's Time' and commonly within their work areas, posting their flyers in break areas and non-break areas alike and Employee areas and non-Employees areas as well. Corporate Compliance was contacted but the candiates who had broken the rules had already gotten their message out.

Our Team, Team: New Directions, New Strength, is considering how next to proceed in order to best address this election process. While considering the next course of action, we will consider the many violations of the 'Winning Team' and other factors. Factors such as the fact that despite fact that the 'Team: New Directions, New Strength' forged more new ground for our Union by being the first to mail informational flyers to each and every Member's home (the 'Winning Team' then followed our lead by mailing a post card), still, LESS THAN 23% of our Members participated in the election! 77% of the Members of our Union didn't even vote during this mail-in election!!

Even though I lost, I don't regret all the work I put into this election. I learned a lot through out the process. But the one thing I learned which absolutely disappointed me the most was that with as much effort that was placed into letting everyone know about this election and trying to provide them with easy access to as much information about it as possible, 77% of the Members didn't even vote. As much as I love what Unions are supposed to stand for, the question that begs to be answered is, "If they don't care, why should I?"

Dustin

[CouriersPerspective]

Well, as you may notice, I have had a couple days to really think about the question I had wondered of myself. During this time, I recalled a story told to me by my Pastor from Church and this story seemed to relate to my question. The story went something like this...

There was a man who lived near the beach and, during the evening, decided he'd wake up early the next morning and go for a walk on the beach to see the sunrise. While on his walk, he noticed a man just above the shoreline, taking a few steps, then, stopping to bend down, pick something up and toss whatever it was into the water. The observing man watched as the the man repeated this process for quite some distance down the shoreline, until he was out of sight. The man watched as the sun rose and the thought of the strange man on the shoreline faded from his thoughts.

The next day, the man again awoke in time to walk on the beach in time to see the sunrise and, once again, he noticed the same man, walking along the shoreline, bending over to pick something up and then tossing it into the water. The man studied this behavior and thought to himself how arduous the task looked for the other man. The other man was older and leaned on a cane for support and it was obvious it was difficult for him to bend over each time in order to pick up whatever thing he was getting from the sand. The man on the shoreline came closer, while performing this task. When within earshot, the observing man said to him, "I noticed you here yesterday doing the same thing you're doing now. What is it that you're doing?"

"The starfish get washed up on the beach, above the shoreline during the evening. If they aren't back in the water soon after sun up, the sun will dry them out and they will die" the man answered him.

The observing man scouffed, "But that's a lot of work, I can see it's not easy for you to pick them up. And surely you can't save them all before the sun is up and it gets too hot. What difference can you possibly hope to make?"

The man looked down at the starfish by his feet and stooped to pick it up. He then gently tossed it into the water. "I made a difference for that one," he answered.