THE BURNING EMBER 1

HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR LOCAL PRESIDENT?

It seems that the APWU Portland Area APWU Local President, who shall be referred to as the Bullfrog, since he croaks a lot and dives for cover when he sees trouble, has decided that he can do as he pleases. A far as anyone knows, since he bolted from the November 18th General Membership meeting well before the meeting was finished, he has only appeared at the Local office twice; both times only to pick up his check. This was after he ran away from the Executive Board meeting on November 15th. As a note, the Local President is required, under our Local Constitution, not only to attend both of these meetings, but to conduct them as well. We should have known something was afoot when the Bullfrog attempted to get the Local Vice-President to chair the meeting before the meeting started. It was not surprising then, after his leaving the e-board meeting two days previous, that during a break to count an important vote at the Membership meeting that he abandoned his duties again and left without telling anyone. It seems he thinks that he can hold the office, collect the pay, and not perform his duties. Even in his absence though, he does manages to continue to harm the local.

At that Membership meeting, a long time member stood up and spoke about the changes that management is making at the AMF. This member asked for some help, in response the Clerk Craft Director scheduled a meeting with management for December 4th to discuss the changes at the AMF. When the Clerk Craft director e-mailed the Bullfrog to notify him of the meeting, the Bullfrog then took it upon himself to cancel that meeting, saying he would meet when he was ready. Since then he has not rescheduled the meeting and now the changes are upon us without any meetings with management leaving our members in the dark and unrepresented. All of this happened without the Bullfrog even showing up at the office. The Bullfrog reportedly told some people that he would return to the office on the 24th or 26th of December, yet as far as anyone knows he has failed to return to the office. He still however collected his check. I suppose that if he had check-to-bank, he probably would not show at all. He has continued to be absent even from a special e-board meeting in December. That would not be so bad if he would not ignore the directives of the Membership Meeting.

The General Membership Meeting is the highest governing body of the local. It is the ultimate voice and the Local President is bound to follow the directives of that body. It seems that the Bullfrog thinks he is above the members and can do as he pleases. At the November Membership Meeting, the members tasked the Constitution Committee to meet and report to the membership on a constitutional issue. That issue being that if an officer left a required meeting, before they the meeting concluded, if they would still be counted as being in attendance for the purposes of being paid under our constitution. By vote of the membership, the Bullfrog was to have called the meeting by the December 2nd he has however refused to do so; completely disregarding the directives and will of the membership.

Makes one wonder how much longer we can allow a president who continues to be absent from the office, shirk his duties, and defy you the membership.