A Messsage From Dan Franco

Dan Franco for EST.

Dear fellow union members:

My name is Dan Franco. I am running for Executive Secretary-Treasurer (EST) to the District Council of NYC and Vicinity (NYCDCC), United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA).

I joined Local Union 257 in October of 1989 at the age of 19. I enrolled in the NYCDCC Labor Technical College (LTC) as a first-year apprentice and subsequently completed my four-year apprenticeship.

I would not be running for EST if I did not assuredly know that I could perform the duties of the position competently, honestly, openly, and fairly. I am the EST candidate free of corrupt influence and willing to call-out anyone who I have witnessed or have evidence of subverting our union's laws, rules and principles. My over-all goal is to inform, educate, and train all the membership so that we can all be empowered to work collectively and independently to achieve our organization's goals and to live by the principles of organized labor; to renew and reaffirm our solidarity and that labor conquers all.

Our union has many past and present issues that need to be addressed and addressed as soon as possible: corruption and the ignoring and circumvention of democratic processes; not holding all contractors or union officials accountable for willful violations; resistance or refusal to disclose non-confidential/private information; irregular, incomplete, and or incorrect contract enforcement; refusal to accept and mishandling of grievances and arbitration's; the forecasted shortages of the NYCDCC benefit funds; not having a comprehensive organizing plan to organize all facets of the carpentry trade and in all markets; the Out-of-Work-List system; the listing of skills on the OWL's; the dispatching of non-NYC local union members before NYC local union members; the supposed number of incompetent members dispatched via the OWL; 'Full Mobility'; stewards not being backed-up on legitimate issues; lackluster training standards; pre-apprenticeship/helper/ scrapper; skills assessment for new members; and much more.

My two principle issues are organizing and transparency. I view all of our other issues as interrelated and largely addressed by initially addressing these two. We must continuously work at the retention of current and the seeking of new honest and competent signatories and carpenters and the eradication of unscrupulous, fly-by-night contractors and criminal members that undermine our labor principles, area standards, and union. The relationship between our union and the contractors is that of a partnership. Both sides must be able to symbiotically and legitimately support one another. In order to sustain prosperity one or both sides cannot be parasitic. Moreover, in order to achieve any of our lasting prosperity we must first have transparency and disclosure of all our collective information, knowledge and actions to the entirety of the membership. (Of course, this does not include the release of private and/or confidential information.) Without transparency and disclosure we will never be informed, educated, trained or coordinated enough to achieve and sustain a productive and prosperous union.

I am the EST candidate that is willing and able to address all the aforementioned issues and all other legitimate concerns of the membership. I am the candidate that can and will achieve a sustainable more prosperous future for us all. We have a great union now, but lets make it better!

For further information and additional issues which I seek to remedy, please visit http://franco4est.blogspot.com/. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me at any time. You can contact me via email at danieljfranco1@gmail.com and by mobile phone or text at (917) 226-3447.

In solidarity,
Daniel J. Franco