At the January Board of Directors meeting, it was proposed to put together a subcommittee to rewrite the SEIU Local 503 Constitution and Bylaws. Anyone who has read them can find numerous areas that are poorly written, inconsistent, or sometimes even contradictory. I have been a proponent of rewriting them for a long time now. On the surface, we seem to be in synch with each other.

What worries me is the level that this work will be done at. The Executive Committee decided how this would all be handled during their February meeting. The plan leaves this major undertaking completely invisible to the average member--unless you happen to follow Eye On The 503! A committe hand-picked by Local 503 President Linda Burgin will be responsible for the rewrite. Then the Rules Committee will review the updates. At that point, the Board of Directors is expected to rubber-stamp the whole package for presentation (and another rubber-stamp) at the next General Council in 2010. There is supposed to be input from other leadership. This probably means they'll talk with some of the leaders that are likely to agree with whatever is written, just so they can say they consulted with the rest of the Local.

As members, we have two important things we can do. First, we all need to contact our Sub-local leaders. Make sure they are aware that this rewrite is being worked on, and they be kept in the loop. They can bring it down to our level for review and opinions.

The second, and more important, thing we can do is our own rewrite!  With the backing of the sub-locals, we can move our own changes forward to the General Council.  And by electing the right people as our General Council representatives, we can have a fair chance of succeeding in representing the membership in changes to the C&Bs.

Perhaps, if we join together, our officers will see that we are serious. If we work together, we can come up with a stronger set of proposed changes. Something that represnets the membership, and not just the wishes of the Executive Committee.