Suspended for 3 Years
Good morning.
Last night Mari Thomson, the member who authored the appeals linked below, the very same appeals that NALC Branch 70 used as the basis to charge and suspend me for sharing with the membership, has now been suspended from the union for 36 months.
Three full years.
Think about what that means.
A member wrote appeals. Another member shared them so the rank and file could read them for themselves. Both actions are protected by our rights as union members and by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.
Members were disciplined and exiled for exercising their rights.
If that does not alarm you, if that does not raise serious concerns about the state of democracy and due process within our branch, within our union, then we need to ask ourselves a difficult question:
Has our union lost sight of the very principles it was created to defend?
A union is only as strong as the rights of its members. When members are punished for speaking, writing, and sharing information, every member should take notice.
The entire Branch 70 executive board stood by and allowed Mari Thomson to be suspended for 36 months for exercising her rights as a union member.
Many of the same people once again wore the black and gold of the Concerned Letter Carriers.
Mari wore light blue: the color of the rank and file.
That tells you everything you need to know.
When political loyalty matters more than member rights, the union stops serving its members.
If they can silence Mari, they can silence any of us.