Members are talking

After forwarding my friends' letter and updating this blog, we are hearing from Chrysler members. Some have verified what is written here, others want to help because they are embarrassed with this EFAP appointment. Plus they are scared. They know that Brampton now has a huge non-white population and they know how this can affect sales of their product.
They know how people in general feel about Unions and bailouts and concessions.
I asked one or two who mailed me and also know the Selection Committee to get me specific information regarding this EFAP appointment. Certain selection committee members are nervous and feel they are being blamed for a wrong decision that actually involved one of their number, a certain Jaspal Brar.

I will now piece together what I found out;

The selection committee mostly felt that Mr. Heaton should get appointed, but the final decision was made by the Plant Chair Terry Browne and the President Mr. Leon Rideout alone and they selected Sid..................as a favour to Jaspal Brar.
Seems that Jaspal Brar wanted to avoid letting Mr. Heaton get a full-time position, in case the new National President Ken Lewenza appointed him to a Staff job that Jaspal himself wanted.

Plus it is past practice in this Union that to get ahead, people of colour had to assasinate someone feared or disliked by the racist core of the Staff union.

With Human Rights Director Raj Dhaliwal about to retire from the Union, there was no-one to protect Jaspals interests, by keeping Mr. Heaton out.
He could not rely on Paulo Ribeiro and Vince Bailey alone.
People of colour who are on staff did not know who the new Director of Human Rights would be, so on their advice Jaspal needed insurance.
I was stunned by this, so I asked one member who had detailed knowledge to approach Jaspal. This member told me the conversation already took place last year and it went like this;

Member: Why did you oppose Mr. Heatons appointment?
Jaspal: Well, you cannot pick someone who may have attended one more meeting or one more education course.

Member: But Jaspal, you know Mr. Heaton has 15-16 years Union involvement, was an alternate EFAP Rep before, Executive Board member, Discussion Leader, etc. etc., whereas Sid has only 3 years as alternate Skilled Trades Rep.
Jaspal: Same response as above.

Member: Jaspal, don't you remember that Mr. Heaton took you on the Election Committee, encouraged you and gave you a start in the Union?
Jaspal: Same response...Whats one more Union meeting, one more Union course?

Member: But you are minimizing Mr. Heatons experience like you always did. You used to say he was too radical etc.etc. and now this.
Jaspal: Same response as above. Whats one more union meeting, one more union course, one more rally?

Can anyone deny that Jaspal Brar is a Proxy Racist with solid self interest?
Can anyone believe that in this climate of what could be called a crisis for unions Leon and the boys still put their pals interests ahead of the Unions?

It would be interesting if the new National President actually appoints Jaspal Brar to the staff because Jaspal was the Chief Trustee of Local 1285 during the unexplained Millions Dollar cost overrun.
In a stronger, more democratic Union he would not have been allowed to even run for office again until a forensic audit cleared him. Same with the other million dollar Trustees.
He was a very much more co-operative Chief Trustee, more loyal to Vince and Paulo instead of the members of the Union.
This is so unlike Mr. Heaton and previous Trustees, whose loyalty lay with the membership.
Whats happens if members of the Local demand a forensic audit of the kind that is common in most democracies whenever there is this kind of cost overrun?
After all, in the past another person of colour, a former President of his Local who was helping out Raj Dhaliwal, was thrown out for a mere $20,000. and barred from holding Union office for 5 years!!
This answers my earlier question about who keeps qualified people out of good jobs.
Companies-OR-Unions!!