Update #1...NAGE shaking you down for $5.4 million per year?

Wow, the NAGE national is taking approx $5.4 million dollars in dues out of our collective pockets every year! (based on published January 2007 FTE counts.)

oh, they MIGHT be kicking back ("per capitas") a small portion of OUR dues to OUR actual unions (the locals)....(MAYBE around $114K per year....and that's a big maybe).....

So the National pockets 98% of our $5.4 million per year in check-offs.... to do with as they please..... that's what I would call a nice racket!

Seriously folks, do you think our units 1,3 & 6 members are getting anything even remotely approaching that value in services from the Burgin Parkway Bandits? No?, well I don't either......

Instead, it appears to me they are living the hi-life of high rollers...with our money!,
....that is attending "meetings" held in resort settings,
....jetting around the country staying in nice hotels while on union "business"
....enjoying lavish Christmas parties for themselves-(no members invited....) and
.....duking hundreds of thousands of our dues money to their favorite charity the national SIEU, an orgainization that probably wouldn't know a mass state employee if they fell over one.....

.....Now, such largess shown to these ultra -leftwing causes might be commendable (to some maybe, personally I find it obscene...)... except they are spending your money!.....AND THEY CAN'T EVEN GET YOU A STINKING ONE PERCENT PAY HIKE SPREAD OVER TWO YEARS!!!!!

......you never got to vote on whether these LAVISH expenditures of your dues should be undertaken, DID YOU?

(GIVEN THE MISERABLE TRACK RECORD OF FAILURE BY NAGE IN ADVOCATING FOR YOUR INTERESSTS...WOULD YOU HAVE VOTED TO SEND THEM TO DISNEYLAND FOR SOME MEANINGLESS CHIN MUSIC CONCERT SESSION?, neither would I.....

I would have said "HAVE A CONFERENCE CALL".... maybe if you can get me some kind a pay raise we can talk about you having a conference in DISNEYLAND.....NEXT YEAR....

Hey Burgin Parkway-ites.... if I'm wrong about any of this, why don't you entlighten me by posting some financial reports or activity reports showing exactly what the hell you are doing WITH OUR MONEY AND EXACTLY HOW IT IS BENEFITING units 1, 3, 6 members?

It's not easy to figure out how NAGE operates, and my guess is that's NO ACCIDENT!....
In my opinion NAGE is WAY TO SECRETIVE about itself....here's why I say that:
....they provide no financial reports of any kind to the members, ....
....no minutes of meetings,
.......no operational statistics on greivances processed, arbitrations undertaken,
......they rarely ever hold a meeting for members,
.......they provide no on-line open forum for discussion or participation by members in union business..... ........in other words they go out of their way to keep us in the dark, and as a result they deny us MEANINGFUL PARATICIPATION in UNION BUSINESS.... ( AND $5.4 MILLION PER YEAR IS ONE HELL OF A LOT OF BUSINESS WE SHOULD BE HAVING A SAY IN!!!!)

(oh sure, I know they conduct these super-short-notice "quickie" mail in ballot "elections" from time to time, ....
....where you don't know who the hell is running, or
....what they do or are going to do,
....you never have an opportunity to meet the candidates and assk questions... and
....you never hear from them again after they are elected....
that's what i call meaningless participation, if you ask me........ maybe it meets the bare bones requirements of the LMRDA, but it ain't meaningfully democratic thats' for sure.

NAGE publications?.....
..... generally limited to very occaisional self serving puff pieces LONG ON BS AND VERY SHORT ON FACT in which they cast themselves as white knights coming to the rescue of some poor beleageuerd employees.....
.....Indoor air quality seems to be their favorite theme of late...... hey how many more DOR employees must DIE! at the that toxic waste dump/office in Salem.....
......what a joke....

Back to the NAGE/SEIU shakedown (uhh, I mean dues collection)

As a member of UNit 6....For example, you belong to either Local 207/McGoldrick or to Local 282/Sorozan.... these are your unions (Not SEIU "Local 5000/aka NAGE National")..... but they don't get your dues money!!!! uhhh....No.

Your dues money goes directly to the NAGE National Union (aka SEIU Local 5000) headquarters at Burgin parkway. NAGE national is itself a "local"(SEIU Local 5000) within the SEIU .... (viewed by many as an ultra-leftwing organziation.....allegedly with ties to that wonderful organization called ACORN.)

Signifcant sums of dues money are transferred from NAGE NAtional into the coffers of SEIU... which they use to promote their politcial agenda (for example, according to their recent LM-2,  NAGE transferred $125,000 to SEIU for their political fund called the "American Dream" fund....(some would argue that a better moniker would be the "American Nightmare Fund".....)
.....The single largest expenditure on the 2005 LM-2 was for a "charitable donation" for a boondoggle called "SEIU FIGHT FOR the FUTURE!"....$363,0000!!!!!

You've got to be kidding me!..... Mass State Employees, who are being milked for a lions share of the $19 million in dues collected each year by NAGE, and they are funding these dopey experiments in social engineering by the SEIU international union? (oh and by the way, along with rubber-staamping this absolutely egregious transfer of your dues money, Sorozan & McGoldrick also  voted to increase your dues)

Hey, I'm sure the SEIU are spending our money wisely on those worthy and gnarly issues like immigration reform/amnesty and healthcare "reform", etc...and I'm sure they are having a heck of a good time while doing it.....

.....but what does any of that have to do with our local collective bargaining issues?...or for that matter with Massachsuetts local politics---- which does affect our interests....(getting repeatedly screwed by the legislature when they renege on negotiated contracts comes to mind...) anyway, I thinks it's fair to say that whatever it that SEIU is doing with our hard earned dues money has little or nothing to do with our intersts and it certainly is not helping us one damn bit....

Look, Do you think SEIU/NAGE is going to spread any of that "political walking around money" here in Massachusetts??? (a significant portion of which has been taken from Mass State Employees dues) 

... I don't think so, here in the bluest of blue states, do you think SEIU has to spend any money convincing local pols that giving amnesty to illegal aliens would be a good thing?, that taxing "Cadillac health insurance plans (like ours) to pay for free insurance for millions of illegals is a good idea?....... I don't think so either, they'd just be preachin' to the choir.....

AND.... it ought to be obvious they are are not spreading any of that largess around the halls of Golden Dome in order to help get us our stinkin' 1 % raise (spread over two years!)..... No way Jose'.... Your concerns, your livelihood are obviously of little concern to NAGE/SEIU.....

NAGE would rather you settle for more level funding of your salary, and take a few Furlough days while you at it...... it is sickening I tell you.....


This excerpt form the National Constitution lays out the dues collection process

SECTION 3.
Local Units meeting the requirements of voluntary dues allotments (Dues Check-Off)
will sign an agreement with their Agency whereby the Agency will deduct the specified
dues and make all payments directly to:

NATIONAL TREASURER, FISCAL OFFICE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
159 BURGIN PARKWAY
QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS 02169-4213

or such other address as the National Treasurer shall designate to each Local Unit by
written notice.

SECTION 4.
The dues structure of the Union and any division thereof shall not be changed except by a
majority vote of duly constituted delegates to a regularly scheduled or special National
Convention, or by a seventy five percent (75%), or more, vote of the National Executive
Board. (this is another "FEATURE" of the NAGE structure.... they can increase you dues, and you don't get to vote on it.... they jsut do it to you while they are being wined and dined at some tropical resort....)

SECTION 5.
Between National Conventions, the National Executive Board shall have the authority to
take such steps it determines are needed to insure that the NAGE shall be able to meet its
obligations.

SECTION 6.
Upon receipt of said dues, the National Treasurer will return to said Local (every month
for the previous month) the Local’s Per Capita. Per Capita shall be paid at the rate of
$3.00 per member, per month, based on full-time-equivalents.
Any Local Unit may notify the National Treasurer to suspend Per Capita payments to
said Local Union. (WHy the hell would anyone do that?..... who know maybe McGoldrick has done ?.... who knows?)

Enough for this post..... thinking about this situation is making me sick.....