You just described why many BOP union members represented by the Council of Prison Locals 33 would happily dump our affiliation with the American Federation of Government Employees, and be even more happy to sever all ties with AFL/CIO. While we are a union, that Labor focus doesn't win any friends, and often is completely contrary to our interest.srothstein wrote:Charles, way back when i was a shift director for SAPD, I went to one of the CLEAT conferences and heard Ron Delord (then President) explain why the union so often takes positions against what the membership thinks. I wish we could get this out to most people too.
He pointed out that CLEAT is NOT a police organization. It is a LABOR organization for police officers. It has a primary obligation to look at things from a labor point of view and take the position that benefits its members as a labor organization. Thus, many times it has a very Democratic position, since that is the party that does work best with labor. This is true and correct, even though most of its members have a much more Republican point of view. Unfortunately, many times it has to take a position it knows is not going to win in order to make political deals work that will benefit it from a labor point of view.
I've requested membership info from the Grand Lodge of the FOP. They can't represent me in labor matters, but they've done a heckuva lot more for me re: LEOSA than AFGE ever did.
For those of you keeping score, I'm an anarcho/capitalist-leaning libertarian who works for the federal government and is a union official, who hopes his job (along with most of the feral gummint) is eliminated. Confuzzled? Welcome to my world!
Kevin