PBA LOCAL 109 HUDSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS 30 S. Hackensack Avenue Kearny, NJ

Transcription

1 PBA LOCAL 109 HUDSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS 30 S. Hackensack Avenue Kearny, NJ May 1, 2016 Members: As you know, the PBA will be holding nominations for our executive board on May 11, 2016 and our election will be on June 10, I m proud and confident to announce that I will be seeking re-election in my position as president of our local and I ask for your support so that I can continue to lead our local on a forward and positive path. My hope is not only that you will support me to continue in this position, but I also hope that our members will use these nominations as an opportunity to start fresh, that members will seek to be nominated and members will nominate and elect potential board members based on genuine interest and dedication to the job of a PBA representative and not based on an individual s personal agenda or falsehoods. The duty of a PBA representative is to serve the membership and it s the memberships needs that matter, but what I ve experienced in the past several years being on the board and then after stepping up into the president s position, is that we will never move forward as a group if the executive board bickers with one another and lose sight of our priorities. Some board members seem to think that it s only their need to win a personal argument with other board members that s important and they forget the basics of the job that they hold on the board. Yes, there are times when legitimate disagreements will occur, but those disagreements can t be allowed to be turned into personal vendettas that end up overshadowing the collective needs of the membership.

2 I am well aware that support for me, other board members and the PBA in general varies, but before you decide to support or not support individual current board members, potential newly nominated board members or the PBA in general, I ask that you first seek the truth and base your opinion and support on facts and not get caught up picking sides in battles that most times if not all times are built on lies and slanted opinion. In corrections, we work in a very stressful and aggravating environment where being extremely frustrated is a large part of the job. Therefore, it s clear as to why union reps seem to become the target of the membership s frustration. We, as union reps accept that criticism comes with the territory, but we don t become union reps to be disrespected, to have our personal lives and family issues scrutinized and to become the victim of lies and deceit. I know about these personal and slanted attacks first hand and we need to get back to basics, back to what our priorities should be and to base our PBA expectations on actual issues, how those issues were addressed up to this point and how they will be addressed in the future. I ask the members to run for positions, to nominate for those positions and to elect people into those positions based on who you believe is capable of doing the job and those who won t continue to cause the personal negativity. Please keep in mind that a brick wall is many times built by the administration that causes the membership to lose faith and that wall is admittedly hard to get beyond when trying to legally address our issues because that s how our public labor system is set up. Public unions are constantly slowed down by these walls of misguided and misused authority where unions are forced into legal battles even when they are fully entitled to what they re asking for and even when we win a point, the appeal process is most times used by management just because they can and they refuse to concede to the union. However, regardless of any opinions caused by slanted information, I have protected the members at every turn whether on the job or off the job and as a matter of fact I conduct more union business on my own personal time than when I m on the county clock and I have taken all the appropriate actions allowed by law to have our issues addressed on a 24/7 basis.

3 Therefore, when nominating and electing a PBA board member, the membership needs to accept how our legal recourse really works according to legal guidelines as opposed to how we want our legal recourse to work according to baseless opinion when deciding to support us or not support us. Our legal recourse in public labor law is a long, drawn-out, slow moving and tedious process that many times, I m sorry to admit, gives the employer the upper hand in ways to slow the process down even more. It s the slow process that causes the frustration and false perception that the PBA is not doing anything to address our issues, but I can assure you that every issue for which the law allows PBA recourse, we have taken that recourse. Over the past few years as your president, I have taken steps to put aside much of the negativity that existed between us and management and if you remember, I started a new agenda to pick our battles wisely and to stay away for the rock throwing that does nothing or means nothing to the necessary protection and advancement of our membership. I no longer found it necessary or helpful to continue to be part of any publicly embarrassing tactics that do only that. Embarrass a few people to give us a few laughs, but at the end of the day, not only do nothing to advance the careers of our members, but in fact made it that much harder for the PBA to be taken seriously. Most supported that notion of being more proactive and less inclined to attack just for the sake of attacking, but some took that and ran with it in a negative way saying that I was showing weakness in the eyes of the administration. Sarcasm and antagonism does not equate to being effective nor does cooperation and a willingness to negotiate, equate to weakness. It s all about keeping our priorities in order. If you noticed over the past few years, I have no problem calling negative attention to management and have in fact done so through several media outlets, but it s only done when the membership has something to lose or gain through legitimate union concerns, and after all more proactive attempts to rectify an issue are made. There s a time and place. If you rather attack aimlessly than seek cooperative solutions, ask yourselves this one important question.

4 What positive thing ever happened by throwing embarrassing rocks and making a public spectacle when there was no end game for us by doing so? I m not saying that the issues brought weren t real and that those who engage in corrupted activities aren t guilty of wrongdoing, but what has the PBA actually accomplished for ourselves by being on the outside all the time and to keep feeding the negativity when the issues exposed don t change the lives of our members in a positive way? All it s done is created personal lawsuits and in fact is costing us unnecessary legal fees within those personal lawsuits after the PBA was named. There is nothing I want more than to see our department run legitimately, free of corruption on any level and for our officers to be treated fairly, lawfully and given all their rights and protections allowed and prescribed in law, policy and contract and that will continue to be my agenda should I be re-elected. However, I or any other PBA rep can only be as effective as the membership allows us to be and that allowance is shown through unbroken support. I mentioned the brick wall earlier and we will never get beyond that wall if our own members assist management in building the wall and defending the wall. How can we create fair and balanced working conditions such as better seniority rights, better job bids, the use of appropriate job titles, the inappropriate use of personnel doing our jobs, unfair and unbalanced job assignments, unfair and unbalanced disciplinary practices etc., if we can t pursue these issues as a unified group? The word UNION comes from the words UNITY and UNIFICATION and if management doesn t see UNIFICATION they will continue to play us against one another, but who can blame them when we sometimes play ourselves against one another and for the past few years, operated a broken and divided executive board. The members need to first see UNITY on the executive board before we can expect overall UNITY or to be taken seriously by management and the entire county administration as a UNIFIED group.

5 We have an opportunity to fix it and the fix begins at our nominations and though the upcoming elections. The opposite of UNITY is DIVISION, so the choice is yours to build and be part of a PBA local that either UNITES or DIVIDES. We can t have it both ways nor can we continue to elect union reps who expect it to be both ways just to fit their personal agendas. Thank you for your time and continued support. Respectfully, Alexander Rosario, III Alexander Rosario III, President PBA Local 109