We are on the ballot!!! Last night, Tuesday 9/17/19 about 40 Rebuild supporters attended the Teamster Membership Meeting to nominate our candidates and make sure that we’re getting a fair election. There were two Teamster brothers from UPS Freight in attendance and I believe one retiree; the rest were staff for Local 695 and the current Officers.

President Brugger handed the meeting over to Matthew Fitch from Merriman River Group to be the election consultant. We then took turns nominating for each office between the incumbents and our slate. No surprise, the incumbents were nominated by their Business Agents and we were nominated by rank and file Teamsters. We will be running a full slate, and after a coin toss the ballot will be divided left/right, with REBUILD 695 slate and candidates on the RIGHT side.

Ballots will be printed September 26th in Skokie, IL and sent to every member of 695 by mail on Friday, September 27th — you should have it in your mailbox starting Monday, September 30th (it will be mailed from Chicago, so there might be a day or two extra depending). Ballots will be returned by mail to the election consultant’s address in Connecticut, so they are not being delivered to Local 695; same thing for undeliverable ballots, they go back to CT. More details on the voting process as it becomes available.

Other things: the nominations were at the beginning of the meeting and the election details were at the end, so everyone sat through the membership meeting. Meetings are suspended over the summer, so Recording Secretary Whedan read four months worth of meeting minutes to be approved. A few highlights:

• They gave themselves and all the staff a $500 bonus at the beginning of the summer
• They bought a new car
• They contracted new carpet cleaning and snow removal for the Hall
• They spent $150 on candy/flag hats for the Labor Day parades in La Crosse and Janesville each
• They read statements thanking them for said candy and hats

With the exception of Business Agent Rob Moss’s report on negotiations at Saputo Cheese, all the Business Agents quickly reported their activity as “general barn maintenance and negotiations” and moved on — we heard more about the candy than the activity of the union.