UAW Local 7902 - Notice of Nominations for Election 2006-1

Published March 27, 2006

UAW Local 7902 will hold a midterm election for the following offices:

The roles and responsibilities of each office, and the terms "midterm election" and "member in continuous good standing," are explained below. In accordance with the UAW constitution, our Local's President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, and Recording Secretary serve as our UAW State, County, City and Area CAP Council Delegates.

On March 27, 2006, all UAW Local 7902 members who were eligible for each office were automatically nominated. In addition, any member may nominate any other members s/he desires for any position. To nominate a fellow member, you must send notification in writing, either by certified mail (return receipt requested) or by hand delivery, to the address below, by April 10, 2006. You must also notify the nominee, so that s/he will be aware of his or her obligation to accept the nomination as set forth below. Failure to give the nominee notice will not invalidate his or her nomination, nor excuse the nominee's obligation to accept before the deadline below. If a nominee does not respond, it shall be deemed a rejection of the nomination.

You may accept nominations for two or more offices, with these exceptions:

• If you accept the nomination for Election Committee Member, you cannot accept the nomination for any other office.
• You may accept the nomination for only one of these offices: First Vice President, Trustee, Unit Chairperson, Joint Council Delegate.
• Unit Chairpersons, Joint Council Delegates, Stewards, and Convention Delegates represent a single Unit (New School or NYU), and are elected only by members of that Unit. If you are a member of both Units, you may accept both Units' nominations for Steward, but you may accept only one Unit's nomination for Unit Chairperson, Joint Council Delegate, or Convention Delegate.
• You may accept the nomination for only one of these offices: Constutional Convention Regular Delegate, Constutional Convention Alternate Delegate.

The Election Committee will confirm each accepting nominee's eligibility, and meet with all candidates for contested offices on April 21, 2006 at 7:00pm in the Conference Room of UAW Region 9A's office at 113 University Place, 6th Floor, New York NY. Pursuant to the approval of the election date by the membership, the Election Committee will mail the Election Notice to all eligible voters on April 24, 2006, and voting will occur on May 15, 2006.

We urge all nominees to read and understand the Election Rules, which are available on our website at http://actuaw.org/election_rules.html. If you have questions, please contact the Election Committee at election@actuaw.org. Printed copies of this notice and the Election Rules are available in the UAW Local 7902 office.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE & POST PROMINENTLY

DESCRIPTION OF OFFICES

First Vice President assists the President in all duties. In the absence of the President, the First Vice President performs all the duties of the President. The term of this office is three years; because this is a midterm election, the elected officer will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

Trustee conducts biannual audits of the Local's funds and property. There are three Trustees (one seat is vacant in this election). The term of this office is three years; because this is a midterm election, the elected officer will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

Unit Chairperson is the chief executive of the Unit, has a vote on the Joint Council, and is a member at large of the Executive Committee. The term of this office is three years; because this is a midterm election, the elected officer will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

Joint Council Delegates have a vote on the Joint Council, along with the local's Executive Officers and Unit Chairpersons. In an amalgamated Local like ours (a Local with more than one contract, and therefore one Unit per contract), the Joint Council is considered the membership body of the Local, and the Local's highest authority; it approves the Local's Financial Report, has a say in political action, and is a forum for the Units to report and discuss concerns of the membership, contract negotiations, and important issues. The Executive Committee reports to the Joint Council. Joint Council meetings are held monthly. The term of this office is three years; because this is a midterm election, elected officers will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

Other major responsibilities: Representing members in grievances. To do this effectively, a delegate must be knowledgeable about our contract and legal union rights; we train all new delegates. Introducing new employees to the Union. We ask all delegates to take responsibility for contacting new employees to make sure they sign up for the union, receive their union information packet, and get a good first impression of our union. Each Delegate will be assigned a School or Department. Assist in organizing Membership Meetings, rallies and other union events. We depend upon Delegates to get the word out and encourage the membership to participate in union activities. This could involve distributing flyers in your assigned area, sending out an encouraging email to the members, or phone banking members to come to a rally.

Qualifications Needed: You must be a committed person who cares about fellow faculty, is willing to stand up against injustice in the workplace, and is dedicated to keeping our union strong and united. Delegates need to be leaders, whether they're standing up for our contract in one teacher's grievance, or standing up for our union as a whole.

Our proposed Bylaws specify that there will be one Delegate for every 75 Unit members. The exact number of open Delegate seats will be calculated once the membership adopts the bylaws (which will be voted upon on April 10, 2006). If the Bylaws are not adopted by the beginning of this election, the election of this office will be rescheduled, and new nominations will be solicited.

Stewards have the same responsibilities as Joint Council Delegates, but do not attend Joint Council meetings. A member can be both a Steward and a Joint Council Delegate. The Local will determine the number of Stewards. The term of this office is three years; because this is a midterm election, elected officers will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

Constitutional Convention Delegates will represent our Local at the UAW 34th Constitutional Convention, which begins on June 12, 2006. The International has allocated the NYU Unit one Regular Delegate and one Alternate Delegate. You must declare whether you are accepting the nomination for Regular Delegate or Alternate Delegate.

Election Committee Members formulate and interpret the rules for our Local's elections, and run those elections. This Committee currently has three members, who have served approximately one year of their three-year term, and nine vacancies. Normally, a midterm election for this committee would not be held, but because our Local has so many new members, and so many who expressed a strong interest in the Election Rules during the last election, the Election Committee has voted to make these seat available now. The term of committee membership is three years; because this is a midterm election, elected committee members will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends in Spring 2008.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

Midterm election. A regular election of officers normally occurs once every three years, coinciding with the term of all offices. Our local's first regular election occurred on March 29, 2005; the next regular election will occur in Spring 2008. From time to time, events may dictate that an election be held sooner than the next regular election - this is a midterm election. Officers elected in midterm elections serve the remainder of the regular term.

Member in continuous good standing: a person who has signed a UAW Local 7902 Membership Card, and has either paid dues or signed a dues authorization card allowing his or her employer to deduct dues from his or her pay. This is not the same as a member in good standing, which is a person who has signed a UAW Local 7902 Membership Card, and has not notified the Local of his or her permanent separation from the Local's Units. Nominees for elected office must be members in continuous good standing, for the periods listed above; whereas voters must simply be members in good standing.