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SEIU in court over union governance issues

8/5/2013: Jeff Mapes has the story in the Oregonian:

A Salem judge has ruled that Local 503 of the Service Employees International Union has violated the state’s nonprofit laws by failing to hold annual membership meetings, withholding certain records from members and improperly trying to change its corporate structure.

The constitution for UO’s faculty union is here. Relentlessly democratic, but of course you need to join to get a vote (signing the card-check card doesn’t make you a member.) More than half the TTF’s and NTTF’s have joined so far.

Yes, the faculty union has a legally enforceable constitution – a protection that President Gottfredson has adamantly refused to give the UO Senate.

On the subject of secrecy, obviously the union is playing its bargaining cards close to the vest. But the UO administration takes the prize: They are still claiming that Barbara Altmann writes their bargaining updates, and now the Lane County DA is looking into why, 7 weeks and $214.50 later, they still won’t even release the March-June invoices for Rudnick and their various consultants:

Dear District Attorney Gardner: 

It has now been more than 7 weeks since I made this public records request, and 2 weeks since I paid the fee requested by UO’s Public Records Office. 

I have not received any documents. UO PR Officer Lisa Thornton, her supervisor Dave Hubin, and UO General Counsel Randy Geller have not responded to follow up emails. The 7/2 response from UO’s PR office denies my fee waiver request, but does not explain why. 

Therefore this is a petition to Lane County DA Alex Gardner, asking that he 

a) treat this delay as a denial and order UO to produce these invoices without further delay, and 

b) order UO to provide an explanation for their fee waiver denial that is consistent with the requirement of Oregon’s public records law.

We should have a response from the DA’s office later this week. And Multnomah County DA Ron Underhill is looking into OUS’s refusal to provide public records showing it’s review of UO’s implementation of the legal services policy under which Randy Geller hired HLGR to represent “The University” to bargain against the faculty.

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