November 19, 2011

NW11-044

 

To:         NW SPEEA Council Members

 

From:     Joel Funfar (P-2), Brent McFarlane (E-22), Judy Mogan (A-10), Bob Wilkerson (R-50), Chuck   Massie (RS-10), Dave Baine (A-40), Rich Basham (P-3),

 

Subject:  PRE-SUBMITTED NEW BUSINESS:  Continued Funding of JwJ – NW11-032

 

Background

 

SPEEA, IFPTE Local 2001 is known as a Facts and Data driven union local. We firmly believe in the Seven (7) Steps of Just Cause. We believe all NW Council members deserve all the facts before making an important and far reaching decision.  

 

At the 9/8/11 NW Council meeting, motion NW11-032 was submitted. This motion asked for rescinding the funding for Jobs with Justice (JwJ) of Washington State. The motion was amended and was referred to a special committee. This special committee did an investigation but only interviewed mostly people from the MLK Jr. County JwJ group and no one from WA. State JwJ was able to provide their side of the story. JwJ was asked about this and this was the reply given via email.

 

From: southsound [mailto:southsound@wsjwj.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 11:18 AM
To: Funfar, Joel W;
Cc: Wendy Hall; Ligayadomingo
Subject: Joel: RickH and Mike Andrew's attempts to defund JwJ at SPEEA

Dear Joel,
cc: JwJ Statewide Co-chairs

Per your request, this was JwJ's interaction with Ron Shoemaker:
Several weeks ago, Ron called the JwJ office in the early afternoon and left a message stating that a conference call meeting with SPEEA was to take place at 3:30pm that day and he was hoping that I would participate.  I got the message a few minutes before the meeting time and returned Ron's call.

I explained to Ron that I was rushing to the next scheduled commitment and needed to understand the subject and urgency of SPEEA's meeting to evaluate whether we could find a JwJ leader to participate or if I should reschedule my earlier scheduled JwJ appointment.  I explained that we were juggling numerous strikes, pending strikes, union campaigns and mobilizations, and various worker-community fightbacks in several different Western WA regions.

Ron assured me that he didn't think participating was urgent enough to cancel a scheduled JwJ commitment, that the SPEEA committee was likely to dismiss Rick Hoffman's request as "internal JwJ issues," and that if Rick Hoffman's motion were to continue to have life, that JwJ would have an opportunity to address issues raised by SPEEA.  I then informed Ron that I was accountable to elected JwJ leadership and that it would be helpful for the leadership to understand the questions that SPEEA had so that JwJ could decide how it wanted to answer and who should represent JwJ.  I have not heard from Ron since.

in solidarity,
Jake

Jacob Carton, staff organizer
Washington State Jobs with Justice
3049 S. 36 St, #201; Tacoma, WA 98409-5801
or PO Box 9662; Seattle, WA 98109
(253) 459-5107; website: wsjwj.org

 

 

Here are links for information on the issues, See attachments and Open in Mozilla if problems:

http://wsjwj.org/assets/docs/2010_Report-JwJ_Pledge_Card_Signer_Mobilization_in_MLK_Cty.v2.pdf

 

http://wsjwj.org/assets/docs/Comparative_Report_of_JwJ_Activity_by_Regional_Org_Committee.pdf

 

Seattle Rebuilding plan:

http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/c/207/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=42510

 

Motion

 

It is moved

  • THE NW SPEEA COUNCIL SUPPORTS continued funding of Jobs with Justice (JwJ) of Washington State.
  • It is further moved our delegates are authorized to send a motion to the MLKCLC (Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council) asking for a rescission of the MLKCLC motion to lower JwJ WA. funding. 
  • It is further moved the NW Council authorizes our MLKCLC delegates to support re-establishing funding at JwJ WA.
  • It is further moved our MLKCLC delegates ask MLKCLC to send out a letter to their affiliates in support of JwJ WA.
  • It is further moved that SPEEA establish a policy of Non-Interference in the internal politics of any other labor affiliates or unions.