NOTICE OF ELECTIONS FOR CWA LOCAL OFFICERS

The CWA Local 9408 Election Committee is announcing the Candidates for Local Officers. Those candidates are as follows: Local 9408 President; Thomas Franklin, Don Adams, Local 9408 2nd Vice-President; Eddie Granados, Aaron Moore, and Local 9408 Executive Board Members; Viva McCray Straughter, Donna Apraricio, Brett Comer, Keith Renge, Irene Santos, and Marie Keyes. Congratulations to Executive Vice-President Peggy Bissell, 1st Vice-President Stan Santos, and Secretary-Treasurer Delia Molina on their positions. They we’re unopposed and will take those offices in January 2012.

The Election Committee would like to clarify some issues that have been brought to our attention concerning the use of bulletin boards at company work locations. First of all we are talking about two types of bulletin boards, the “Union” board and the “Company” board.

The Union board is “owned” by the Local and is provided for communication between the Local and members of the Local. It is not provided as a chat room for the members. The Local board is a Local asset and as such cannot by Federal law be use to promote any candidate for Local Officer in an election. This is considered a use of Local funds for campaign purposes and the Local is forbidden by law from participation in any campaign of Local Officers. In short please do not post campaign material on the “Union bulletin boards. Stewards in offices where this is being done are instructed to remove such literature and if possible return that material to the candidate or the person who posted the material and explain the reason for the removal of material.

The “Company” board is provided by the Company and is under Company control. What is posted and stays on that board is up to the Managers at that site. It must be noted that Employers are strictly forbidden from any participation in any Union Election of any type by Federal labor laws. Candidates who post campaign material on company boards are using company assets those assets are considered assistance from the company and could make them libel under the Federal labor laws as providing assistance to a candidate, in violation of Federal Labor Laws prohibiting them from participation in Union Election. Please refrain from using Company bulletin board to post campaign materials.

We know that these rules may seem like changes from past Elections, and they are, but these are things the Election Committee learned from a very recent Election training held at CWA District 9 offices in Sacramento. The training was done by District 9 “reps” and an Officer from the U.S. Dept. of Labor. These are items that had tainted elections they had investigated in the past.

If there are further questions please address them to the Election Committee at the Local 9408 office at 559-248-9408. We will respond as soon as possible.

For more information send email to: cwa9408@pacbell.net