Charges
Under Article XIX, Section 8 of the IBT Constitution
June
27 , 2007
Brothers and Sisters,
The most frequently asked question at the moment seems to be "What
is going to be done about the strikebreakers?"
On June 26th, David Brown and I met with President Bouvier and
Teamsters Canada counsel, Stephane Lacoste to discuss this issue.
As there is a great desire to charge all strikebreakers with violations
under the IBT Constitution, and in particular Article XIX, Section
8, we are presently insuring that this is done according to the
constitution and the law. We want to make sure that anyone charged
is entitled to, and receives, a fair hearing. We also want to
insure that there are no frivolous charges and/or charges entered
that are not supported by the requisite proof.
This is a very serious matter and will be handled with the gravity
that it deserves. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and
they will have a fair chance to present their defence and refute
any evidence presented.
We did have a number of procedural and constitutional questions
and Mr. Lacoste has confirmed that he will answer all of these
in writing over the next few weeks.
If you wish to examine the IBT Constitution on this issue, you
can find a copy of the document at:
http://www.teamster.org/about/const/constitution_June2006.pdf
I am going to request at this time, that you collect up all of
the evidence that you have (pictures, documents, video,etc.) and
insure that everything is as complete as you can get it. This
means that all pictures must be accompanied by the name of the
photographer and the date, time and location that the picture
was taken.
Anyone in the photographs that you recognize should be identified.
Once you have done this with your pictures and videos, please
send them to the Ottawa office at lcyr@tcrcmwed.ca . This is very
important because we will share the photographs and videos with
other strike captains across the country to properly identify
the scabs in your pictures.
One company manager gave us evidence (name, address, etc) of a
'member' from Alberta who was shipped all the way to Thunder Bay,
Ontario to work so that he would escape identification. As you
can see, the company went to great lengths to cover for their
scabs and the scabs went to great lengths to hide what they were
doing. Thanks to a number of company managers we do have information
on eight (8) rank and file members that crossed the line. There
are rumours on a few more that we will follow up on, as well.
I realize that it will take time to gather all the evidence, but
if you want the charges to be sustained, they must be accompanied
by evidence. We will not be accepting any charges on simply hearsay.
As I said, this too serious a matter for that.
Fraternally,
Bill Brehl
President
TCRC MWED
