Voting rights for the rank and file have been a sticky point for unions from the earliest years.
Do you have more about this? I am active in my union, and one of my pet peeves is that some of our dues-paying union members only get 1/4 of a vote compared to my full vote. A number of us believe this is not only unfair but actually against state law, but we need a 2/3 majority to change our bylaws, and most of the people who agree with us only get 1/4 of a vote...
I doubt that it's illegal, but I'm not exactly familiar with labor law in Massachusetts. Later, I'll flip through a book I've been reading, Which Side Are You On? Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan, and parrot some of the examples of major union voting rights, or lack thereof.
There's something in Massachusetts General Law (maybe Chapter 150 as that covers a lot of higher ed and labor issues) that says that unions must represent all members fairly or equally or some similar language. Giving some members more or less of a vote is arguably against that law. Even if it's not, both our state affiliate and national say that all locals and chapters (hierarchy is national, state, local, chapter) must give all members an equal vote, so we are in violation of that and if the state or national cared they could revoke our affiliation.
And even if it's not against laws or rules, it's just plain wrong. It's not like we give different people in the US a different vote depending upon whether they work more for the country's benefit, or if they pay more taxes. (People against the full vote argue that adjuncts work fewer hours or less hard, or that they pay less union dues.)
If you're active in union politics you probably knew this. If you somehow specialize in labor law and need to keep up on the politics for professional reasons, you probably knew this. Without that, most people really had no reason to know any of this. Welcome to the long tail of the Internet.
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Do you have more about this? I am active in my union, and one of my pet peeves is that some of our dues-paying union members only get 1/4 of a vote compared to my full vote. A number of us believe this is not only unfair but actually against state law, but we need a 2/3 majority to change our bylaws, and most of the people who agree with us only get 1/4 of a vote...
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And even if it's not against laws or rules, it's just plain wrong. It's not like we give different people in the US a different vote depending upon whether they work more for the country's benefit, or if they pay more taxes. (People against the full vote argue that adjuncts work fewer hours or less hard, or that they pay less union dues.)
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