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Where's The Budget?

Jim Sweeney promised the members Local 150 would have and operate under a budget,(August 2008 150 Engineer)(Feb 2009) not a Dugan spend it all balance sheet. Unless I missed something I have not seen any hint of a budget in the newspaper, or heard from members on the street that one was being implemented. In these tough times I cant Imagine an operating engineer trying to provide for his family without a budget for his household, yet this administration continues in the Dugan tradition of send, spend, spend the members hard earned dues money. I know how important it is for families to to get together and appreciate your union and its great history, but to have a picnic for 5000 plus people during an economic crisis is insane. At a reasonable rate of ten dollars a head thats a minimum of $50 thousand dollars not including any other ancillary expenses. That money could have been used for the food bank and members who really need help, or money used to keep the halls open saturdays. This local should be about helping the members not ensuring votes for the next election. Bill Dugan refused to have a picnic for all the years I worked for the local even when the Local was flush with cash, but I guess when your stumping for popular votes and its not your money anything goes. Do you know how much is spent on the union newspaper? A couple hundred thousand dollars! We have great competent secretaries on staff that with a computer and a couple hours a week could produce a newspaper costing far less than what our printers are charging. But like the old hillbilly used to say, "you gotta go with the people that brung ya" or who pays you off. What about that project going on at the countryside hall? I hear that it is going to cost $4 million to retrofit and geothermal heating and cooling system for the District 1 hall. What is the payback for that? Was that in the budget ? Was it competitively bid? Who were the bidders? These are the questions members should be asking at every meeting, this is your money.Talk about spending money, local 150 has spent millions of dollars in vengeance lawsuits against the opposing party from the last Local elections. What they thought was a kill em all election strategy has turned into a money sucking black hole all in the name of vengeance. Someone needs to ask how much of our union lawyers time is spent on defending members and how much is spent on persecuting them? As long as Sweeney continues to listen to supposedly retired Bill Dugan (I am pretty sure he is still on the payroll) you will never see a budget in Local 150, just more of the same old Dugan bs.

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