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So you want to shove old Local 237 out the door.

   I believe I have some street cred when it comes to getting out of Local 237. During the last and best get out of Local 237 drives I was a supporter of getting out of the union and more importantly an associate of Pete Gutierrez one of the leaders of that movement. I was an associate because I was one of the creators of the Peace Officers Journal and Pete Gutierrez was in charge of distribution and lined up most of our site correspondents. As I mentioned on another page the teamsters both at the local and international level were a pretty ruthless and arrogant group. Twice they pressured central office to bring charges against me on stuff I didn't do. Eventually I was transferred to the newly opened Woodhull Hospital and any thoughts I had of during a newspaper got lost in the problems of helping to create a decent Hospital Police operation in a new hospital. When my Hospital Police career abruptly ended no one from Local 237 offered me any help. I'm not here to defend Local 237.

   So when I tell you that Pete Gutierrez had no idea on what it would take to create a professional Hospital Police organization I am speaking from the experiernce of knowing the man. Pete Guterrez wanted to be the new President or Vice President of the new union that escaped from the Teamster Union. Pete Guterrez was a man who realized he was in the wrong job. He was a man who was good at getting people organized an excited about something.  And yes, there is nothing wrong with having a career goal. What he wasn't good at was doing research to find a weakness in Local 237 that would enable him to achieve his goals of being in the leadership position of his own union. Had he done his research or even talked to me he would have realized he wasn't going to get a fair ruling from the Office of Collective Bargaining. Although it isn't as obvious as it was in my time when board members of this organization were leaders of most of the cities big union, if you look at how this organization was founded and the composition of the current board you can see that this organization is an exclusive club of the city and city unions. Small time outsiders like the LIRR police union weren't going to get their way with OOCB.

   One of the smartest things that Local 237 did was to bury their law enforcement titles in with a marjority of non-law enforcement titles. And you can be pretty that there are many ruling and laws backing up Local 237's right to do just that.

   In the end Pete Gutierrez and his followers failed. He was offered a job with Local 237 just like the other people who were involved in get out of Local 237 drives and he took that job. Some people called Gutierrez a sellout, but how many people had the courage to do what he did. Pete Gutierrez found his career field and since he has been promoted he seems to be doing good in a career that he is well suited for.

   So if you can't get out of Local 237 by the normal route, what can you do. One answer would be to have a constitutional state lawyer who has a background in union law look at Local 237's contract with the city. Can a case be made that there is something unconstitutional about how they fit the titles into each bargaining certificate? That is an idea that can be pretty expensive for the members and if the case has to go all the way to the US Supreme Court than it will take many years of litigation.

   Of course, there is one sure-fire way to destroy not only the Teamsters union but all the other unions in the city. Vote Republican and urge all your friends to vote Republican. Once they have control of the Senate, Assembly and Governor's office, they will start the process of dismantling unionism brick by brick. If you are a loyal republican voter, they will take care of you with a nice $10 an hour guard job in a newly for extreme profit, formally city, hospital. If you are a substantial Republican supporter you may even get a $15 an hour job and get to parade around with an assault weapon with a super big ammunition cartridge.

  What you won't get is a pension, and all the other benefits that your so called crappy union has negotiated for you during the last 30-some years. 

This all seems pretty bleak. If you are interested in my opinion, I suggest you check my Hospital Police future page.