Slug OC

Sing-a-long at the Berkeley UAW sit-in

sarars — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:42:45 +0000

To the tune of “Rocky Racoon” by the Beatles.

AWDU walked into the room
only to find lonely ballots
AWDU had come to spoil the fun
of all those Admin Caucus bosses

Our rivals it seems had broken our dreams
by ditching the votes of our members

The turnout was high, but USEJ denied to count Berkeley’s 800 ballots

A nice volunteer, got caught in a smear for putting together the boxes
The big guy walked in and grinning his grin, said, “kenny, boy, smile for the camera!”

We got on HuffPo, it wasn’t enough though,
they kept up their tactical stalling.

We said, “USEJ you met your match!
You better count that last batch
or the rank-n-file, the rank-n-file will come calling!”

A.W.D.U kept watching the room,
forced USEJ back to the table.
The ballots checked out and they left no doubt
of union democracy’s revival!

With votes counted, a victory and a changed union

sarars — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:27:15 +0000

Dear fellow graduate and undergraduate students,

We are excited to announce that our votes have finally been counted and our reform slate has won 75% of positions on our UAW 2865 union Joint Council! The 80-member Joint Council is the highest elected body of our union with representatives from every campus.

55% of voters also cast their ballots for our Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU) reform slate for the UAW 2865 Executive Board – electing our candidates to all 10 positions on the Board. The Elections Committee has certified these election results as true and fair. You can get the full results at www.awdu.org.

The election itself and our struggle to count every vote has already transformed our union. The debate and struggle were contentious. But this struggle opened up a huge new space for thousands of our members to participate in deciding how to defend our interests as a union. Turnout in the election increased to about 3,400 votes from just a few hundred votes in the last Triennial Election for the Joint Council and Executive Board.

The struggle to count the votes also deepened member involvement in our union. Last Saturday, when three members of the election committee halted the vote count, abandoning the ballots of 1500 members regardless of their votes, UAW members spoke up. Thousands of members wrote letters, signed petitions, and made phone calls to demand that the votes be counted. Members organized to guard the ballots that the statewide officials abandoned in the UCLA office. Members rallied, marched, and sat-down at the UAW statewide office. It was an unprecedented display of member power and the result was the resumption of vote counting by the statewide officials.

Now it is time for us to bring this strength to our fight against the attacks on higher education. As a next step, we are calling on all graduate students and undergraduate tutors – no matter who they supported in the election – to come together for a statewide membership meeting of the union on May 21st to chart the way forward. We’ll get you more details soon. But high on the agenda is stepping up the fight against increasing class sizes, fee hikes, rising housing costs, new budget cuts, and UC management’s capping of funding for fee remissions and health benefits for graduate student employees.

We will stand together against the attacks on higher education, in real unity borne of fruitful discussion that includes disagreement. A grassroots, bottom-up union is strong when it provides space for open debate, and we hope that every member continues to express criticism when necessary. We also know that many members of the USEJ slate and many USEJ supporters never wanted to stop the vote count in the first place. We hope that the Elections Committee’s dismissal of the fabricated allegations by some of the outgoing union officers will help up us begin a more honest dialogue with each other.

The incredible diversity of our newly elected Joint Council and entire union is a vital strength that we must actively build upon. By working together, including with the new Joint Council members from USEJ, we will win historic advances for the rights of student-workers and the expansion of public education. We look forward to building a new kind of union together.

In Solidarity,

Amanda Armstrong, Rhetoric – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Matt Bonal, Rhetoric – UC Berkeley

Rachel Brahinsky, Geography – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Shane Boyle, Performance Studies – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Dan Buch, Sociology – UC Berkeley

Chris Chen, English – UC Berkeley

Kfir Cohen, Comparative Literature – UC Berkeley

Mandy Cohen, Comparative Literature – UC Berkeley – Statewide Recording Secretary-Elect

Rob Connell, African-American Studies – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Alex Dubilet, Rhetoric – UC Berkeley

Charlie Eaton, Sociology – UC Berkeley – Financial Secretary-Elect

Barry Eidlin, Sociology – UC Berkeley

Eli Friedman, Sociology – UC Berkeley

Pablo Gaston – Sociology – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Jessie Hock, Comparative Literature – UC Berkeley

Nick Kardahji, History – UC Berkeley – Trustee-Elect

Sarah Knuth, Geography – UC Berkeley

Katy Fox-Hodess, Sociology – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Zachary Levenson, Sociology – UC Berkeley

Munira Lokhandwala, Film – UC Berkeley

Katherine Maich, Sociology, Berkeley

Callie Maidhof, Anthropology – UC Berkeley

Larissa Mann, Jurisprudence & Social Policy – UC Berkeley

Daniel Marcus, Art History – UC Berkeley

Micki McCoy, History of Art – UC Berkeley — Head Steward-Elect

Blanca Missé, French – UC Berkeley – Guide Elect

Megan O’Connor, English, Berkeley

Aaron Platt, Sociology – UC Berkeley

Manuel Rosaldo, Sociology – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Gustavo Oliveira, Geography – UC Berkeley

Chris Schildt, City and Regional Planning – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Jessica Smith, Chemistry – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

John Stehlin, Geography – UC Berkeley

Cate Talley, French – UC Berkeley

Alex Tarr, Geography – UC Berkeley

Jennifer Tucker, City and Regional Planning – UC Berkeley – Campus Unit Chair-Elect

Daniela Urban, Law – UC Berkeley

Megan Wachspress, Jurisprudence & Social Policy – UC Berkeley – Campus Recording Secretary-Elect

Josh Williams, Performance Studies – UC Berkeley – Head Steward-Elect

Brandon Wolf, Performance Studies – UC Berkeley

Molly Ball, English – UC Davis – Outgoing Campus Recording Secretary

Justin Clement, History – UC Davis – Campus Unit Chair-Elect

Tim Gutierrez, Sociology – UC Davis – Head Steward-Elect

Brenda Medina-Hernandez, History – UC Davis – Trustee-Elect

Andrew Morgan, History – UC Davis – Head Steward-Elect

Tom O’Donnell, History – UC Davis – Candidate for Head Steward

Nickolas Perrone, History – UC Davis – Campus Recording Secretary-Elect

Brian Riley, Education – UC Davis – Graduate Student Association Chair

Blake Ringeisen, Biological Systems Engineering – UC Davis

Jordan Scavo, History – UC Davis – Head Steward-Elect

Jessica Taal, Education – UC Davis – Head Steward-Elect

Chima Anyadike-Danes, Anthropology – UC Irvine – Head Steward-Elect

Jordan Brocious, Physics – UC Irvine – Sergeant-at-Arms-Elect

Ben Cox, Anthropology – UC Irvine – Head Steward-Elect

Cheryl Deutsch, Anthropology – UC Irvine – President-Elect

Anne Kelly, Earth System Science – UC Irvine – Campus Recording Secretary-Elect

Seneca Lindsey, Earth System Science – UC Irvine – Head Steward-Elect

Nick Seaver, Anthropolgy – UC Irvine

Bron Tamulis, Political Science – UC Irvine

Natali Valdez, Anthropology – UC Irvine

Robert Wood, Comparative Literature – UC Irvine – Campus Unit Chair-Elect

Carolina Beltran, Spanish & Portuguese – UCLA

Mindy Chen, Social Welfare – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Will Clark, English – UCLA

Erin Conley, English – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Yu-ting Huang, Comparative Literature – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Renee Hudson, English – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Dan Lichtenstein-Boris, Public Health – UCLA

Dustianne North, Social Welfare – UCLA

Alexei Nowak, Comparative Literature – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Jeremy Schmidt, English – UCLA – Candidate for Unit Chair

Hadley Theodara Suter, French – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Julia Tomassetti, Sociology – UCLA – Candidate for Recording Secretary

Zachary Williams, Political Science – UCLA – Candidate for Head Steward

Elise Youn, Urban Planning – UCLA

Chris Carlson, Mathematics – UC Riverside – Steward-Elect

Elliott Kim, History – UC Riverside – Southern Vice President-Elect

John Armenta, Communications – UC San Diego – Candidate for Campus Recording Secretary

Muni Citrin, Communications – UC San Diego

John Higgins, Literature – UC San Diego – Candidate for Campus Unit Chair

Megan Turner, Literature, UC San Diego

Olivier Dufault, History – UC Santa Barbara

Sunny Lim, History – UC Santa Barbara

Josh Brahinsky, History of Consciousness – UC Santa Cruz – Campus Recording Secretary-Elect

Erin Ellison, Psychology – UC Santa Cruz

Rachel Fabian, Ocean Studies – UC Santa Cruz

Michelle Glowa, Environmental Studies – UC Santa Cruz – Head Steward-Elect

Donald Kingsbury, Politics – UC Santa Cruz

Jessy Lancaster, Psychology – UC Santa Cruz – Outgoing Campus Recording Secretary

Brian Malone, Literature – UC Santa Cruz – Outgoing Campus Unit Chair

Mark Paschal, History of Consciousness – UC Santa Cruz

Jeb Purucker, Literature – UC Santa Cruz

Sophie Rollins, Literature – UC Santa Cruz

Jeff Sanceri, History – UC Santa Cruz – Graduate Student Assembly President

Trevor Joy Sangrey, History of Consciousness – UC Santa Cruz

Sara Smith, Labor History – UC Santa Cruz – Northern Vice President-Elect

Anika Walke, History of Consciousness – UC Santa Cruz

Mary Virginia Watson, Politics – UC Santa Cruz – Campus Unit Chair-Elect

Tired but Steadfast: AWDU Candidate at UCLA Responds to USEJ Slander

sarars — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:28:20 +0000

From the sit-in at the UCLA UAW office. Yuting Huang, AWDU candidate for Head Steward at UCLA, responds to USEJ’s slander.

We are very tired.

We are tired from sleeping on the office floor for the fifth night, only to make sure of the integrity of the ballots. When no attempts whatsoever had been made from either the current administrations of UAW 2865 or the candidates from USEJ (many of whom serve as current staff and leaders) to attend to the boxes, we took it upon ourselves to guard the two locked doors 24/7 because we respect the members who voted and we want their ballots to be counted.

We do not know whether counting the ballots will win us the election. Given how heavily outnumbered I was when campaigning at certain polling locations at UCLA, I personally do not think I will win a position. But this is an election, and counting the votes is what we should do. To do that, we must secure the integrity of the ballots. That is why we are doing what we are doing. We do not understand why the current leadership never made any attempt to secure the ballots. I believe they owe the voters the responsibility to secure the fairness of the ballots.

But while we struggle to do the job of the election committee neglected to do, everyday we wake up to yet another public slander on our friends from the current president of UAW 2865. They are slanders that use shiny keywords with immediate effect and little content, but they hurt, deeply.

I started the campaign talking to members on campus what we envision to be a better union. I was ecstatic to hold long conversations with students across the campus who share my concern for the budget cuts and the same devotion to our students. But four o’clock in the morning last Wednesday, the night after the first election day, I found myself writing a response to accusations of racism targeted at my slate. At noon on the same day, I found myself outside math science building, bewildered, trying to tell voters that we do not hate scientists, if ever the four canvassers from USEJ were not physically blocking me from getting near the voters. Today, I found myself reading another email from the UAW president telling me I am probably an intimidating, harrasing thug since I am an AWDU candidate.

I am five feet five, Asian, an international student, and a woman. I am indeed a humanities student, but I teach at least 10 science students every quarter in the past 6 quarters. I never thought of emphasizing any of these things because I am not running for identity, I am running for a vision of a democratic union.

I care to win only because I think the campus deserves a more involved union. But if the strategy to win requires public slanders and personal attacks, I do not care to win enough. I refuse to dance around their accusation and provocation any longer. I have never called anybody names, and I am not about to start. I will not stop fighting for public education, and it will just be a pity if I am not able to be involved in the union.

All my friends in AWDU share the same sentiment, and I am deeply sorry for my friends whose name have been thrown about in careless accusations.

Victory For UAW 2865 Members in Fight to Get Count Restarted!

sarars — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:37:56 +0000

We have just learned that the elections committee of our local convened today at 12:30pm and agreed to restart the counting at 9am on Thursday (5/5)! This is a huge victory for rank-and-file members who joined or supported the sit-in at the statewide offices in Berkeley and LA and for everyone who helped with emails, media contacts, petitions and with securing support from progressive faculty and labor activists!! By drawing on the proud tradition of rank-and-file activism and direct action in the US labor movement, the tradition which built the UAW in the first place, members made clear that they would not stand by and allow themselves to be disenfranchised.

AWDU candidates and supporters look forward to the resumption of the count and will be present to help ensure it proceeds without unnecessary delays or suspensions. It has been our position all along that win or lose, AWDU is committed to an elections process that is free and fair, and that allows ordinary members to decide how their union should be run, and by whom. Given the extraordinary and outrageous circumstances in which the count was suspended, we plan to continue the sit-in until the voting process is fully complete and a certified result has been issued.

Letter to UAW Leadership about Sit Down

sarars — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:28:24 +0000

To the elections committee, the incumbent Executive Board, Regional Director Jim Wells
and International Representatives Mike Miller and Ken Lang:

We are members of UAW 2865 from UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz. We
are writing from the statewide office of our local where members have been present since
9am. At 11:30am today more than 100 members rallied on Berkeley campus and more
than 60 joined the ongoing sit down in the office to make one demand: count our votes.

We understand that the USEJ candidates and Daraka Larimore-Hall have publicly
committed in an email sent Saturday night to resume the vote count, and Mike Miller has
expressed his commitment to resuming the vote count as soon as possible in a call with
Cheryl Deutsch and Charlie Eaton today. We are very happy to hear this commitment.
From the moment that Travis Knowles, chair of the elections committee, passed an out of
order motion to end the vote count and then abandon the ballots we have been waiting for
the vote count to resume.

We believe that the vote count must resume immediately and we are committed to remain
in our union office until the counting of the votes is finished. We find it outrageous that
the elections committee left the vote count without any plan for ensuring the security of
the ballots at the UCLA union office. It has been left up to the goodwill of members—
the same members who are being accused of disrupting the vote count—to secure and
monitor the ballots.

We take inspiration from the sit down strikes of the 1930s upon which UAW’ s strength
was founded that showed that the best way to enforce our rights as workers and union
members is to take collective action. As union members we affirm our right to be in
our union office, especially at this moment when so many members are confused,
disappointed and frustrated and are seeking to discuss and coordinate our response to this
shocking suspension of our democratic rights.

Of course, we also believe that the organizing and clerical staff of the local have every
right to be here and continue their work given that our presence in no way impedes their
work. It goes without saying that we will respect this space which after all belongs to us,
the members.

We await your immediate reply affirming your commitment to restart the vote count.

Members of UAW 2865

Demand the UAW Count Every Vote!!

sarars — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:38:07 +0000

Right now, a group of students is holding an indefinite sit in at statewide UAW office in Berkeley. We are UAW members and AWDU supporters, and we are demanding that all votes be counted. Right now, the elections committee is refusing to count all the ballots from both UCLA and UC Berkeley, meaning that nearly half of the votes from the recent election have not been counted. This means that nearly half of all students who voted do not get a say in who will run our union for the next three years. This is outrageous and unacceptable.

I urge you to make the short trip up to Berkeley to join us. We are at 2070 Allston Way, Suite 205, in Berkeley. We need to send a strong message that ALL our voices must be heard.

In addition, there is a RALLY happening at Berkeley right now. You can find details about the rally here: http://berkeleyuaw.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/today-may-2-2011-rally-to-count-all-the-votes/

In Solidarity,
Jessy Lancaster, Former Recording Secretary

Responding to Daraka Larimore-Hall’s unhinged late-night email.

BEM — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:33:41 +0000

After halting the vote count last night (in the face of a possible AWDU victory), UAW President Daraka Larimore-Hall sent a frantic (and bizarre) email to thousands of members across the UC system. While we assume that most members will treat this email much like they treat any spam, a friend and colleague at UCSD has responded to Larimore-Hall reasonably and patiently. We think this response effectively demolishes Larimore-Hall’s late-night ramblings and we publish relevant excerpts below:

“Later in the evening, I was forwarded an e-mail that Mr. Larimore-Hall allegedly sent to a list of supporters making allegations of vote tampering and homophobic slurs from AWDU representatives. Regardless of truth value, the decision to air this kind of dirty laundry in public seems to pose a threat to the bargaining strength of our union. It suggests to the University and the public more broadly that we are incapable of settling disputes and differences of opinion within our ranks in an orderly manner. It feeds popular misconceptions about union corruption. It also feeds misconceptions within the University about the immaturity of graduate students. Surely there must have been a tactful way to address your concerns of fraud and bullying that would have more properly balanced the rights of members to know the nature of the current disputes over the election, and yet also would have stopped short of feeding the types of popular misconceptions about the lack of process, democracy and maturity within graduate student communities and within organized labor.

“More alarmingly, some of the evidence to which Mr. Larimore-Hall points is dubious in the extreme. He provides a photograph of an unnamed “AWDU supporter” that he claims is “opening and rummaging through” a ballot box while polls are open. The photographic evidence does not seem to justify this claim in any way; the poll worker’s face is not visible, making him impossible to identify as an “AWDU supporter.” The contents of the box are not visible, meaning that this could easily be a picture of somebody assembling an empty box rather than someone rummaging through a filled box. Moreover, there is no tape on the top of the box (as there would be had it been sealed shut in order to accept ballots) further suggesting that the photograph does not actually depict what Mr. Larimore-Hall claims it does. The supposed infraction is taking place in broad daylight and in a very public place (with neutral parties in plain sight); this seems a wholly unlikely scenario in which fraud would occur without being detected and stopped by a member of the public or of the union. No explanation is given as to why the person who took the photo did not immediately step in to prevent and report the alleged fraud as it was taking place. I could probably go on and on.

“Once again, what’s at stake here is much larger than the substance of the claim that has been submitted. Even if one were to assume that this is genuine evidence of election fraud – and nothing about the photo adequately justifies this claim – the decision to release such poor evidence of fraud in such a public manner, prior to any review hearings or any systematic response has been made, places Mr. Larimore-Hall’s judgment and discretion under suspicion and sheds a poor light on the union.

“My point in writing this letter is not to diminish the serious nature of the allegations of fraud being made at the moment. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Charges of election fraud cast a long shadow on the actions of our union, and should be dealt with systematically, swiftly and with a realization that any verifiable instances of fraud stain not only to the person found guilty, but also the democratic structures and representative capabilities of our union as a whole. Given this seriousness, and given the gravity of the charges being made, it seems wholly inappropriate for evidence of fraud to be released to the public before it has been vetted and judged for accuracy by a systematic, neutral body of our union like the elections committee or a full, closed membership meeting. When the evidence carries with it the obvious problems that I’ve noted in this case, the public release of these allegations is downright shameful.

“My hope is that the e-mail released under Mr. Larimore-Hall’s name was either a forgery, or was released publicly in error and haste. If this is not the case, I urge him to retract these allegations pending a formal hearing and publicly acknowledge the impropriety of his e-mail. This seems fully warranted regardless of the truth of the allegations and the outcome of the elections. Should Mr. Larimore- Hall fail to take these actions, he risks embarrassing our union and himself, something that I’m sure he’s not eager to do given his long service to UAW 2865.”

Elections Committee Abandons Vote Count

Sammy — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:16:59 +0000

An open letter to UAW 2865 Elections Committee chair Travis Knowles

***

Travis:

Last night three members of the elections committee hastily abandoned the vote count underway at the UCLA office without counting any ballots from Berkeley or UCLA. You presented three motions, certifying the results of the election which had already been tabulated, referring the count to the next Joint Council meeting, and adjourning the meeting. None of these motions passed, since only three members of the committee participated in the “votes.” These “votes” were conducted over the course of less than 10 seconds without any time for discussion or even time for the other three members of the committee to be informed about what was happening. The proposed motion referring the election to the Joint Council is in violation of the UAW constitution, which stipulates, “All elections shall be held under the supervision of a democratically elected Election Committee” (Article 38, Section 15 c). Section 11 stipulates, “Following each election, the Election Committee shall report in writing the canvass of the results of the election to the membership’s next membership meeting.”

The three members of the committee who abandoned the count are in violation of the constitution and are impeding the work of the committee. Please return to the UCLA office immediately to resume the count.

If you refuse to resume the count, I would ask that you submit your resignations effective immediately.

Adam Hefty
Santa Cruz Election Committee member

Daraka Larimore-Hall’s conflict of interest

BEM — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:16:44 +0000

Daraka Larimore-Hall has two jobs. He is currently the President of UAW Local 2865 and is seeking a full three-year term in next week’s elections. He is also the Chair of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. I think this is a problem.

As UAW president, Larimore-Hall participates in the disbursement of thousands of dollars of members’ voluntary political action contributions to California candidates. Undoubtedly, most if not all of these candidates are Democrats. I am not accusing Larimore-Hall of any improprieties, but there is a clear conflict of interest here. I think UAW members should be uncomfortable with an elected Democratic leader being in a position to help make contributions directly from our union coffers to Democratic candidates that he helps to choose–especially when the success of those candidates will undoubtedly help his own political career in the Democratic Party.

What makes this even more problematic is the lack of transparency in this process in our union. There is absolutely no mechanism in place to keep members informed of the political contributions that the UAW makes using our voluntary political action contributions (VCAP). Members–including those who contribute to VCAP–do not receive reports on VCAP spending, nor do members of our Local’s ostensible governing body, the Joint Council.

There is a broader question here, of course. While the interests of the ASEs in our union indeed often overlap with the interests of Democratic politicians, there are certainly situations in which this is not the case. In the current California budget debacle, Democratic politicians are well on their way to endorsing cuts to unions and to public education. As a union, we will need to make tough decisions about how to fight back and we will soon need to consider the question of whether, as a union, we can support certain Democratic politicians. If we are going to have that discussion, we need a leader whose political commitments aren’t entirely determined by his other job. As long as Daraka Larimore-Hall holds both his current jobs, there is no way for UAW members to have confidence that his political decisions are in our best interests.

There is an alternative, of course. Instead of a Democratic UAW, we can choose a democratic UAW–a union run by rank-and-file members who do not serve the interests of major political parties. Daraka should keep his job with the Santa Barbara Democratic Party. And we should elect a new president.

Brian Malone
Graduate Student in Literature
Santa Cruz Unit Chair 2009-11

Elections committee agrees to election protocol with holes so big you could drive an armored truck through them

Sammy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:49:41 +0000

I’ve been catching a lot of flak lately in the form of politically motivated attacks about private emails I’ve written which have been forwarded, distorted, and characterized out of context, so I decided to make my latest report on the goings-on in the UAW 2865 elections committee a public note.

In short, the committee agreed to an election protocol which has few serious protections against vote tampering, despite strenuous objections. Despite the fact that we are a very large, complicated local with many worksites, next week’s election is highly contested, and our most recent statewide vote was challenged as containing irregularities by members from around the state, the committee was not interested in listening to serious proposals for change.

It’s worth pointing out that when objections were raised at the vote count for December’s ratification vote and at January’s Joint Council meeting, the leadership of the union said repeatedly: “These are very legitimate concerns moving forward; you should raise them on the elections committee, where they belong.” Well, they’ve now been raised on the elections committee, and most of the concerns raised were dismissed without a serious hearing.

There are two substantial changes from the procedure we followed for the contract ratification vote. 1) All ballots, not just challenged ballots, will be placed inside two envelopes: a small envelope to guarantee vote privacy, and a larger one which the voter will sign. This measure is designed to prevent voters from voting twice in the same day at different polling places, given that several copies of the voting list will be circulating on each campus. 2) Each voting period will have its own ballot box, which will be used only once and then (supposedly) sealed until the vote count. Though I wonder how San Diego and Berkeley elections reps are going to travel to a central location in the state, possibly on a plane, carrying 25-30 ballot boxes.

The double envelope system is probably a good measure. If the inner envelope is to be sealed, then it will not only provide some protections against double voting, it might provide some protections against vote tampering.

However, the committee refused serious consideration of several more substantial proposals:

During Voting Hours

Ballot boxes shall be uniform, not easily subject to tampering, and shall be opened and closed with a key which the election committee member shall keep at all times. Ballot boxes will not be transparent or translucent on any side. Ballot boxes will be compact enough to fit in the overhead compartment of an airplane. [Not discussed. Ballot boxes will be made of cardboard, assembled by elections committee members.]
Each polling location shall have at least one “voting booth” available for privacy in voting; a booth may be constructed using 3 sides of a large, cardboard box. [Not discussed.]
Members shall be asked to show either state or student ID to vote. New, eligible members signing up at the polls shall be asked to show student identification and vote by provisional ballot. [Proposed and rejected, 5-2.]
Poll workers shall cross off member names on the voter list using different color ink pens for different days and initial next to each name they cross off. Voters shall sign next to their name, using the colored pen for that day, and shall vote using the colored pen for that day. [The first clause of this proposal was policy for the contract ratification vote, and shall continue with this vote. The remainder of the proposal was dismissed as "crazy" by the chair.]
After each voter votes, the poll worker shall stamp the top of every her or his right hand with an ink stamp. [The purpose of this proposal was to defeat double-voting; the double-envelope proposal the committee adopted should adequately address this concern.]
International staff shall not be involved in working the polls. [Not discussed.]
Upon the close of voting each day, the elections committee member shall use a digital camera to take a picture of the ballot box, which will have been sealed with tape with signatures from the elections committee member and any challengers or observers present at the close of voting. Elections committee members shall also take pictures of the tally sheets. All of these pictures shall be distributed each night to all elections committee representatives. [Discussed in part, but never raised for a vote.]
The elections representative shall pack and seal in boxes all used and unused ballots, tally sheets, voter registers, voter eligibility lists, and other election materials upon completion of the vote every day. [Basically included in the chair's proposal.]

Challengers, member observers, and impartial, non-member observers

Challengers may observe all aspects of the voting process, including setting up the polling places, transporting materials, voting, and storage of ballots. Challengers must register before voting begins on any campus by sending an email to elections@uaw2865.org. [The second sentence was already policy; the rest was not discussed.]
Members may observe all aspects of the voting process, including setting up the polling places, transporting materials, voting, and storage of ballots. If members want to observe part of the process that takes place away from the announced site (like transportation of materials or storage of ballots) they should make arrangements with the elections committee member for their campus the previous day, or at the polling station that day. [Not discussed.]
Impartial, non-member observers such as law students and National Lawyers’ Guild observers acting as election observers shall be permitted. Observers may observe all aspects of the voting process, including setting up the polling places, transporting materials, voting, and storage of ballots. Observers should register before voting begins on any campus by sending an email to elections@uaw2865.org, stating which campus(es) they will be observing. [Not discussed.]

Overnight Storage of Ballots

Hire security guards to sit with the ballot boxes overnight or hire them to take the boxes to a bank vault. [Discussed informally, and criticized by several committee members as way too expensive, but never raised for a vote.]
Members should have a right to observe the ballot boxes at all times, including (and especially) at night after the polls close and before they open again in the morning. There’s no reason members should not be able to observe the ballot boxes at any given moment. [Not discussed.]
Other options:
1. Get an armored truck to store the ballots overnight at every campus; put them in the box every evening with challengers and observers present; take them out in the morning with challengers and observers present. (A UAW local in Detroit did this for one election.) [Not discussed, except via derisive side-comments. For sure, this proposal has a dramatic air to it, and it didn't seem one of the more likely options for dealing with the problem given an in-person vote at nine UC campuses. Nevertheless, I thought it was worth having out there: when union elections are heavily contested, responsible union leaders who want to hold a credible vote sometimes resort to dramatic measures to ensure the vote is recognized by all as legitimate.]
2. Upon the close of voting every day, the elections committee member, along with the challengers and any observers, shall take the ballots to an approved, secure, neutral location, such as a bank safe deposit box, for overnight storage. Ballots shall be deposited there within 45 minutes of the close of voting every day, and shall be picked up no more than 45 minutes before the beginning of voting the next day, by the elections committee member along with challengers and any observers who have made arrangements to be present. In the case of evening balloting where no bank is open upon the nightly close of balloting, a separate ballot box shall be used for evening balloting, and that box shall be stored in the campus unit office overnight. [Discussed informally, but never raised for a vote.]

Counting the Votes

The vote count should be left up to the elections committee, candidates’ challengers, and non-candidate members who want to observe the vote count. None of the current elected officers running for re-election or international staff shall be present at the vote count. [Not discussed.]
On Thursday, April 28, upon conclusion of the vote, elections committee members along with challengers shall bring the ballots to the statewide office in Berkeley. The ballots shall be stored there overnight under the observation of any challengers or non-candidate, non-staff member observers who wish to be there. The count shall begin Friday, April 29, at 9 AM. [Not discussed. The chair said he did not have time to come up with a proposal on the vote count. Discussion of this aspect of the process will continue Friday.]
Upon conclusion of the vote, copies of the voter rolls from all campuses shall be made available at each campus union office for the inspection of members. [Not discussed. The chair said he did not have time to come up with a proposal on the vote count. Discussion of this aspect of the process will continue Friday.]

Despite my very serious concerns about weaknesses in the process – and perhaps also because of them – I strongly encourage grad students, union members, TAs, readers, and tutors to get out to vote next week. A good turnout will be one of our best protections against small, localized fraud which could influence the outcome. Our union matters, and members can still make it what they want it to be. You can find voting locations and times here: http://www.uaw2865.org/?page_id=3131

-Adam Hefty, UAW 2865 Election Committee member, Santa Cruz

PhD Candidate, History of Consciousness