Administrative Professionals Association, or APA, members have less than a week to institute positive changes in their union.
March 30 marks the end of the 2009 APA elections where members decide whether the APA continues down a dark path or evolves into a union reflecting the needs and demands of its members.
In the last several years, the APA executive board has failed to produce a single written report to its members at monthly board and annual meetings.
It wasn’t 18 months ago — when APA union members began posting the closely guarded board meeting minutes online themselves — that the board decided they should also, and it’s been less than a year since union members began receiving monthly board meeting agendas.
Yet this board contends that the APA members did speak in 2004 by somehow voting to eliminate the requirement to have the entire collective bargaining agreement (a four-year contract with MSU) presented before ratification.
When questioned, the board refuses to reveal how the issue appeared on the ballot, declined to provide the ballots for inspection, somehow lost all the board meeting minutes prior to 2006 and routinely boasts that APA union members can’t get the information even if they file a Freedom of Information Act request.
APA union members need this information — financial statements, committee reports, accurate and complete board meeting minutes, historical notes, etc. — so they can properly assess the value of their leaders.
By depriving members of information, the current APA executive board has declared war on all union member actions except those that promote the status quo.
The only way for union members to pierce this veil of secrecy is to elect board members who will allow members to ask questions, expect answers and respond accordingly.
Danny Layne
director, Julian Samora Research Institute at MSU
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