Montreal's Blue Collars - Answer to allegations regarding the confidence vote in favour of the President
MONTREAL, le 14 janv. 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - The Syndicat des Cols Bleus regroupés de Montréal SCFP 301/FTQ wishes to correct and comment certain allegations published in the medias at the outset of the confidence vote in favour of its president, Mrs. Chantal Racette. Let us remind that 66% of the members of the Union who exercised their voting right expressed their confidence in Mrs. Racette, who has been the president of the Union for 20 months.
Thus, the Union deplores the remarks of Mr. Luc Bisson, who is not, as was reported in some medias, a member of the executive of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) to which our Union is affiliated, but is a Director of the local Union elected under the banner of the opposition. "To claim that the vote of yesterday, which was spread out during a period of 14 hours, constituted a masquerade, is an insult to the 914 blue collar workers who exercised their democratic right to express their opinion as well as to the seven members of the independent panel who supervised the vote and concluded that it was held without any irregularities", declared Mr. André Lepage, attaché to the President.
The Union is surprised that the dissidents refer to yesterday's turnout rate as being "only" 14% of the members whereas they consider the confidence vote of December 10th, 2016 representative, when the turnout rate of that vote was 4% of the members.
To the contrary, when this turnout is compared to the participation at our statutory general meetings or to the 3500 to 3800 members who take part to our triennial general elections that are held after a long electoral campaign and where all the candidates solicit their votes and where the members have the benefit of one hour during their working schedule to go vote, we believe that this was a very democratic opportunity.
The Union also finds ironic that the dissidents raise questions of statutory procedure to repudiate the result of a democratic vote in favour of the President whereas these same individuals require that a special assembly be held to dismiss four duly elected members of the executive when the by-laws do not permit such an action. "It is obvious that certain dissidents have a political agenda in mind and will do anything to achieve their goal with disregard to union democracy and to the opinion of the members who want to move on to other business, like the negotiation of their working conditions", stated Mrs. Racette on this subject.
SOURCE SYNDICAT DES COLS BLEUS REGROUPES DE MONTREAL
André Lepage 514-772-7730
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