October 22 2014 An Expanded Documentation of my reason for leaving: There seems to be an incredible attempt to undermine my credibility as to my reasons for leaving, it seems that I must expand on them to let the public know that my non-support of this merger was well known many months before convention. Anyone of NEC claiming that they were not aware of my feeling towards this merger either had their head in the sand, or they have no issue with lying to you. I advised the table officers that I did not support this merger at our table officer meeting Friday February 14, a motion had come for a recommendation, and as correspondence we had to deal with it. The following week while at Harrison for our NEC meeting, the USW was there as well for their meeting, on the evening of the USW hosted social I spoke to ken Neuman for over an hour and expressed that I did not and could not support taking this vote out again, I expressed things that I had also said to Mark Rollinson and Brad James (both USW staff people) while at lunch with them in Toronto late November 2013. I expressed that the finances did not add up, I had come into new information, that I did not have in September 2013, nor at the special convention, and I expressed that there needed to be a clear delineation of how all things will be paid for if this is to garner enough support to pass. None of my words were heeded with this new agreement. I also expressed the concern over the vitriol that was coming out from some of the yes delegates towards those on the no side, and expressed concerns that this type of behaviour could easily spill over into the media, and that none of us would look very good. None of that was heeded as within a few weeks members were charged. At the NEC meeting in February I abstained from the vote to endorse the motion to convention. At April NEC meeting In Edmonton, the motion came to us to make a recommendation to convention, there was considerable debate, and I took a lengthy amount of time expressing my misgivings to all of NEC as to why I could not support this, when the next member of NEC spoke, they criticized me for my opposition and my desire to abstain. When I spoke next, I said, well, I expressed as honestly and as candidly how I felt, and why I cannot support this, and if you cannot accept my reasons, and an abstention, then I guess I will be voting [NO] on this… Chaos ensued, and the president called for a break, and while on the break a table officer approached me and asked “ Mike, is it your intention to be campaigning against this as an officer? Because you know what happened to Liz”. I replied, not while an officer I will not, and I will keep silent at convention, but you must understand that I do not support this going out for another vote. After the break and things had calmed down and a few officers had talked me out of voting [no], I abstained. I expressed to another officer (in my office- and she will recall this as she was the same one who lashed out at me at NEC in Edmonton) two weeks prior convention that I was thinking of not running, this officer is not one of my friends on NEC and someone who was of a different political stripe. I also confided to some of our staff that I worked closely with, for many months that I was considering not running, the main reason was this push for a merger, and also the attitude that anyone who is opposed to it is being changed for speaking out and expressing themselves. I was and still am disgusted with those officers who have charged Liz Fletcher, and by those delegates who charged the two members in local 51. These are the same things that I cited in my open letter to the membership. I am not surprised that the TWU sought to postpone the arbitration as it is my belief that the those nine members of NEC who charged Liz will not like the decision to be rendered by Arbitrator Kinzie. I never wrote an election speech…but I had a speech written, one that I read to a trusted friend at 2 am Wednesday morning of convention, it was a speech that if I had delivered it, I may as well have had a cab waiting, as it told convention how wrong they were with this merger, and the delegates who were taking the [scorched earth} approach to anyone openly opposed to the merger were wrong in what they were doing. Come Wednesday morning, I thought about it some more and what my intent of giving a speech like that was about, and I came to the conclusion that this was not about me, and that the business of convention had to go on, and so in a surprise twist I just made a quick comment at the mic, and let it go. This quick announcement even caught those closest to me off guard, and anyone who was at convention will know as I spent the next hour or so consoling one of my closet friends on NEC at the time as it was such a shock to them as they had expected as least a long speech that would have indicated my intentions, and even though, they knew I was not happy with the situation at the TWU, I believe they were hoping I would find some way to continue on. My biggest fear was being re-elected , and I could not let that happen, and truly…I was only considering staying on as support for someone on NEC who I had grown close to, no other reason…, and ultimately, I realized, as difficult as it is to end those working relationships, the most important thing is to be true to one’s convictions, and if I had let my name stand, and had been re-elected, I would have been living a lie, and I could not let that happen. Seeing now, the questions that are arising, from those who would seek to discredit me, I wish I had delivered that speech because it would have told everyone who was taking the [scorched earth] approach, exactly what I felt about them in clear and certain terms. I decided to take the higher ground, but I still have the printed copy of that undelivered speech and I still have the word file that it was created, and a forensic exam of that file will clearly show when it was created. For anyone to suggest that I did not leave for the above reasons, is clearly a liar, and I will say that to their face and will shout it from the roof tops. All of NEC knew full well that I did not support this merger coming out for vote, and while not all may have known that I had been considering stepping down, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind why I could not continue on in an organization that seeks push forward something that is not member driven and seeks to stifle any debate by use of charges and threats of charges. My leaving the TWU was something I wrestled with for months, those closest to me can attest to that. It was not an easy decision to arrive at, but one that I am ever so fortunate for having the courage to make. In Solidarity Michael H Thompson
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:52:57 +0000