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David Barron

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Friday, 6 April 2007
Ten Lessons I Learned From The Crucifixion Of Christ
  1. When confronting evil, there is no retreat and no surrender
  2. Be true to your master game plan.
  3. Be willing to stand alone against evil of any magnitude.
  4. Never go into agreement with anti-life and anti-spirit conditions.
  5. Be willing to move outside of mass, energy, time and space with the help of God.
  6. Make sure the memories of your life are preserved.
  7. Have a vision of triumph during times of despair and pain.
  8. Never desert a friend in need or in trouble.
  9. Ask for forgiveness and give it to others.
  10. Be willing to move up to greater responsibilities

Good Friday


Posted by qualteam at 11:45 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 7 April 2007 9:55 AM EDT
Thursday, 5 April 2007
My Own Personal CUPW Domain Name

Thanks to "Godaddy.com", I've managed to accumulate a list of some great domain names. Godaddy is usually very cheap. Domain names can run over $20 a year for those most in demand like "cc" to $7.99 for "com", "net" and "org". URL forwarding is offered free with the name at Godaddys.

The CUPW name which I purchased on special for .99 cents is www.cupw.info.

CUPW has been a part of my life for 34 years so I decided to write my memoirs on a few webpages.

My other personal websites that you can check out are www.daveandirene.ca., www.qualteam.info, www.davidbarron.biz.

This personal blog is identified as www.barronblog.com.

Domain names are easy to remember and use. Check out www.godaddy.com. for your names.


Posted by qualteam at 1:10 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 6 April 2007 2:55 PM EDT
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
My Personal CUPW Website Is Up And Running
Mood:  caffeinated

I've finally created a "home" for all of my CUPW material. There's still much more I could put on this website (https://qualteam.tripod.com/cupw/) if I can find it. My history with the union goes back 34 years.

At some point in time, I'll go through each major CUPW conflict and how I responded to it.

As well as the articles, I've put cartoons and memorable pictures that you might find meaningful or funny.

Most of the content in my blog (1090 entries) and on my webpages have nothing to with CUPW, unions or politics.

I have a life outside of the Post Office and CUPW and I'm looking forward to enjoying it without contract fixations and conflicts.

A CUPW Guy In CUPW Land


Posted by qualteam at 1:28 PM EDT
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Tentative Agreement Holds The Line On Cost Of Retirement Benefits
Mood:  a-ok

Retirement benefits can be expensive. I know of one retiree who paid $200 a month for himself and his wife. Ontario nurses don't even have a retirement benefits plan.

Before the tenative agreement, there was a proposal by Canada Post to increase retiree benefits premiums by 30%. With the tentative agreement, this rollback and 15 other negative suggestions are off the table.

With 10,000 senior workers retiring over the next four years including me, the above is a big gain for us.

 


Posted by qualteam at 9:55 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 1 April 2007 10:16 PM EDT
Saturday, 31 March 2007
CUPW Is More Than The 5% That Attend Union Meetings
Mood:  bright

For various reasons, most CUPW members are not able to attend union meetings.

The members who go to union meetings are not first-class members with all the others classified as second-class members.

Dues-paying members still have a right to have their concerns heard. Their imput, feedback, and creative ideas should be encouraged, not discouraged.

There are many ways to encourage member imput on shop issues without going to union meetings. The following are a few suggestions:

  1. National and local web forums should be created to handle questions, suggestions, or opinions from fellow union members and executives.
  2. Questionaires and surveys concerning member's views on important issues should be sent through the mail and/or placed on a local or national website.
  3. A policy that any letter witten to an executive should be answered.
  4. Local discussion groups should be formed at work to discuss union issues with or without senior executives being present.
  5. A 1-800 number should be used for those who are shy about speaking up in front of others and for those without internet access.

I believe there is great strength in knowing where the majority is on any given issue. Everyone counts, and every opinion should be counted.

Political parties and news media survey the public often. Why not CUPW?


Posted by qualteam at 11:19 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 31 March 2007 11:27 PM EDT
Friday, 30 March 2007
My Great Grandmother And Great Grandfather Wilson

Reprinted below is a newspaper article from the Perth Courier celebrating my great grandmother and my great grandfather 65th wedding anniversary. The article appeared in this paper in the late 1950s.

"Work is the secret of long life." says Margaret. "The trouble with most young people is they haven't got enough to do. They're bored with themselves."

Albert was born on Mill St., served 35 years with the Wampole company and put in a well-rounded athletic career. Margaret (his wife) was born near Balderson. Her maiden name was McVeigh, and she put in at athletic carerr too, raising those ten healthy children of hers (One of them was my grandmother Edna who died at 95).

Neither man nor wife smoke, drink or even plays cards, yet there's no question both have gotten as much out of life as they could.

Best 65th Anniversary wishes go out to the most wonderful couple this writer has ever had to the pleasure to interview.(Both Albert and Margaret Wilson lived into their late 90s.)


  Perth, Home Of My Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather

Pembroke My Birthplace And My Mother's


Posted by qualteam at 11:40 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 31 March 2007 12:08 AM EDT
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
A Major Recommendation To CUPW In 1997 and 2007
Mood:  a-ok

I would recommend the election of all national union executives by universal vote of the membership.

The question that confronts the union now is: Can the membership come up with a better national executive or negotiating committee than the one in existence? The present one was elected by delegates at a National Convention. 

Lets have open competition for the senior positions in the union.

The negotiating committee and national executive should have full accountability to all CUPW members.

We either stand by them or impeach them.

What do you think? Contact me at qualteam@yahoo.com.

 


Posted by qualteam at 10:58 PM EDT
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
The CUPW Ratification Marathon Continues
Mood:  don't ask

It's hard to believe a tentative agreement was reached almost two months ago.

We've now entered the second phase of our unionized journey which is cross-country voting that won't end until Apr/22/04.  Those voting in Frederiction New Brunswick, Val o' Or Quebec, London Ontario, Estevan  Saskatchwan, and Kimberly British Columbia will have to wait until the end of April to find out the results.

It would be easier if a few nights were set aside for electronic townhouse debates followed by mailed ballots to each CUPW member in Canada. Mailed ballots are given out for local elections. Why not ratifications? It's less expensive, time consuming and gets more members participating. However, that would involve changing some processes and constitutional by-laws and both local and national CUPW executives don't like change.

Federal elections are shorter than CUPW ratifications.

While the national and local CUPW management are using their shovels, you can visit the websites of the above scenic cities in Canada.

Fredericton New Brunswick

Val-d'Or,_Quebec

London, Ontario

Estevan, Saskatchewan

Kimberley, British Columbia

Toronto, Ontario

 


Posted by qualteam at 10:12 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007 10:17 PM EDT
Sunday, 25 March 2007
The Corporate Team Incentive With Job Security
Any incentive program has to provide an incentive, a reasonable payout, or it becomes a disincentive program. If Canada Post manipulated its profit sharing so it didn't pay out or paid out poorly, the results would be worse than having nothing at all. Remember CUPW members have control over the tools of productivity and delivery. It's quite easy for members to:
  1. Work Slow
  2. Work Stupid
  3. Work Without Shortcuts
  4. Work Without Favors To Supervision
Screwing around with an incentive program would have a powerful negative effect on the business of Canada Post. Moya Green has gone on record concerning the CTI with this statement: "Targets have to be reasonably achievable or the whole purpose of a bonus becomes meaningless."  Please, hold her to this statement and be willing to negotiate the terms and scope (including temps) of the bonus next contract. 

 


Posted by qualteam at 10:44 PM EDT
Saturday, 24 March 2007
Top Ten Reasons To Vote "Yes" To The CUPW/CPC Tentative Agreement
Mood:  a-ok

1. "The Corporate Team Incentive" opens the door to a renewed severance package that was lost in 2003. My vision of this severance package (Article 28 in the old contract) is that it will include rewards for unused sick leave and profit bonuses. As Jean Claude-Parrot stated to CUPW members when Canada Post became a crown corporation in 1981, everything is now negotiable.
 
2. Arguments against the CTI bonus system would probably look ridiculous in the press and on the floor of Parliament. This could lead to unpleasant rollbacks in third party arbitration.
 
3. Whether we like it or not, the CTI program has been around for some time and APOC members have profited from it while CUPW members haven't.
 
4. I discussed CTI payouts with some APOC supervisors and they were quite happy with them.
 
5. Very soon air mail products from and to Canada Post will have to be scanned and delivered on time in order to receive payment. It helps if employees are on board with this operation in order to process air mail parcels quickly. If employees (i.e. CUPW members), get a bonus for meeting delivery targets, it's highly likely that profits will continue to go up and we'll get part of this "Corporate Team Incentive Bonus" that only management gets now. If the incentive isn't there, delivery targets could be missed which could cost Canada Post millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. There would be pressure to cut back on our benefits, wages and full time jobs. Sections of the Post Office could be privatized which would result in job losses and a worse work environment.
 
With job security, high wages are not an incentive for posties to work hard or even work at all. You get paid just for showing up. How is management suppose to meet its delivery targets when many posties only care about their pay checks?
 
6. If a CUPW member doesn't want his/her CTI bonus, he/she can always donate it to charity.
 
7. It appears the National Executive Board has been weakened by internal dissent and lack of support from some local unions. The odds of achieving more in Collective Bargaining at this point are slim and none.
 
8. I believe that postal management will try to make the CTI bonus system work well over the next four years to win over the hearts and minds of non-believing posties("Targets have to be reasonably achievable or the whole purpose of a bonus becomes meaningless."-Moya Greene).
 
9. The wage increase in practically the same as PSAC and APOC wage increases. However, the 2.75% in the last two years of the proposed agreement looks better than 2.5% across the board. The 20% increase in shift premium isn't too shabby either (This is the first increase in 20 years.).
 
10. The recent wage increase in the U.S. postal service was something like 1.6% over four years.

CUPW's National President's Top Ten Reasons To Vote Yes


Posted by qualteam at 3:03 PM EDT

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