IBEW brass undercuts members' vote petition

In November 2010, members of the International Brotherhood of Electricians started a Facebook group to organize a movement for one member, one vote in elections for international union officers. [OMOV!]  

They proposed constitutional amendments to change the current system of election by delegates at conventions every five years to direct election by the membership for international president, vice presidents, and executive council. According to the IBEW constitution, if the proposed amendment was supported by petition of at least 15 locals from 15 different states and submitted to the international secretary treasurer by March first in a convention year, the international executive council could order an international referendum to decide the question. 

 

The petition for a referendum was initiated in 2002 by vote of members of Local 666 in Richmond VA. It provided that candidates could qualify by submitting nominating petitions signed by at least 1,000 members from  four locals.  Up to 2004, nine locals passed supporting motions. Since the movement has been revived by the Facebook campaign, 14 more locals have voted for the petition bringing the total to 23 locals from 18 states.  Apparently more than enough to trigger action by the international executive committee. But action has been blocked by bureaucratic resistance.

 

In April, speaking to a group of electricians--supporters of OMOV--who paraded in front of the IBEW headquarters in Washington, International President Ed Hill made it clear that he adamantly opposes the change and supports the current delegate voting system. 

 

Officers of local unions where members have passed motions to support the OMOV petition have devised various pretexts for not forwarding the technically required letters of support. Jim Jones, business manager of Texas Local 898, claimed that the supporting motion was not properly presented and that the international office had upheld his position.  Charges against him presented by a local member are in the hands of the international. In New York Local 236, a supporting motion was passed after the local executive board allowed informational literature to be sent to members followed by discussion at a meeting. However, according to one local 236 member, an international vice president ordered the local president and business manager not to send out any letter of confirmation.  In North Dakota Local 1426, a supporting motion was overwhelmingly passed at a local meeting, but the executive board reversed the action. The same nullifying action was taken by the executive board of Local 46 in Seattle.

 

The movement ran into difficulty from the business manager of Virginia local 666, the very local  that had initially sponsored the petition in 2002. At one point he stated that he would transmit letters of support to the international office only after receiving fifteen letters from locals.  Later he stated that his local was no longer sponsoring the petition. Although the local had not rescinded its action, it had  not recently reaffirmed it. He claimed that his lawyer had advised him that the original petition had expired after the 2006 convention.  One of the leaders of the OMOV campaign, replied that nothing in the IBEW constitution made the petition untimely. [Editors note: Expired in the IBEW after a few years! The Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was first submitted for ratification in 1789. It was finally adopted when the last of the required 3/4 of the states ratified it in 1992. Timely in America for 203 years!]

 

In other locals, where officers are hostile, members never got a  chance to vote because, in one way or another, supporting motions were ruled out of order. A sad case was Local 3 in  New York City where discussion on a motion was cut short, and only 10 members were brave enough to vote in favor after the business manager spoke against it.