Local 1923 Baltimore Blocks Retired Members

June 29, 2008

By RALPH LUCAS
Local 1923
INDIAN HEAD, MD

Despite lip service regarding the value of retired Federal Employees that are still union members, the Baltimore office refuses to allow them to run for union office positions.

It is ironic that the president of 1923 is a retired government employee as are other holders of offices throughout AFGE. When question about the reason for this discrimination, no rational explanation is forthcoming. The irrational answer is that non-federal employees are exempt from holding office in the union. Such a statement is incongruent with the second sentence of this paragraph! There is however, the obvious reason of preventing the possibility of competition in the election process.

Baltimore is intent on keeping the present 23rd and 24th vice president personnel, which have outlived their uselessness in local 1923, eternal. Realizing that there was NO competition in the last election, the prospect of a retired Federal employee and present union member as a possible candidate in an election is an anathema for Baltimore. Baltimore is content with the status-quo of a quiescent-Agency friendly union office in that Baltimore has virtually no grievances to bother with. The threat of a newly elected president that will change that status-quo is horrifying to Baltimore. Why Baltimore has singularly tailored its bi-laws to discriminate against retirees wishing to run as candidates for local union offices displays malevolence at odds with the scope of AFGE policy.

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Author: xx xx, of Local 9, on Aug 16, 2009 1:21 AM

I'm responding to your email Ralph. It sounds like your union is like the previous union that my husband and I were members in. The now president even had it put in the bylaws that you had to be actively employed to hold office That is false as it plainly says in the National Constitution the only requirement to hold office is this: You have ot be a member in good standing. ,Be a memer for 1 year of an AFGE local, and must not be a member in any labor organization not affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The National Constitution does not say that you have to be actively emplyed to hold office or anythihg like that. I think that AFGE dicriminates against the retirees really bad My husbnad is a 2nd generation member his daddy helped get the local started where we live at now. Us retirees need to pull together to get thi straightened out with AFGE.

xx xx.


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