Mailing title: UPDATE ON THE DECEPTIVE EMAIL SENT TO LOCAL 47 MEMBERS
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON THE FRAUDULENT EMAIL ADDRESS and SITUATION surrounding the MAILING.
Greetings Local 47 Colleagues!,
Someone is going to great lengths to pretend to be the COMMITTEE!
This past Saturday, a mailing was sent out from an e-mail address attempting to look like the COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47. The email address was a fraud. The deceptive e-mail address is [email protected].
Please know that the ONLY real e-mail for the COMMITTEE is [email protected]. If it doesn’t end with RESPONSIBLE47.com, it is fraudulent.
Your comments, your feedback, and our mailings are making a difference. Our brethren are better informed and are speaking out! They are realizing that even though we have not been able to have a meeting for over two years, we now have a forum, are forcing our voice on the administration and they are having to listen!
So what did this fraud send out? Hundreds of you already know. Some time back a long standing Local 47 member, Charles Fernandez, sent a letter of strongly worded complaints to the Officers and Board of the Local. We, the COMMITTEE, never sent this letter out.
A response, now confirmed to have been written or authorized as written by President Espinosa, was sent out using the Local 47 e-mail addresses to hundreds, perhaps thousands of our members (whoever has a working e-mail address). Along with President Espinosa’s response was the initial letter sent by Mr. Fernandez.
While the e-mail address is a fraud, the letters from President Espinosa and Charles Fernandez are real, though the format and paragraph breaks of President Espinosa’s letter were change considerably by the mailer.
AGAIN, THE LETTER FROM PRESIDENT ESPINOSA HAS BEEN VERIFIED BY LOCAL 47 AS LEGITIMATE, even though Fernandez had not received it 12 days after it was supposedly sent by email and regular post. It appears the fraudulent mailer intercepted the letter at the Local and stopped it’s mailing.
The story gets MUCH, MUCH better, but we’ll let Mr. Fernandez tell you himself.
This is an important story and well worth the read.
At the very least people should be fired over this.
THE COMMITTEE
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Dear Colleagues,
Over a month ago I sent a very strongly worded letter to President Espinosa and the entire board asking questions and asking for explanations of recent actions at the Local.
It was sent two additional times over the last month because I was not getting answers. For the record, bylaws require that the Local be responsive to members’ queries. See Article ¶XIII:
Section 2. Right to Information.
Last Saturday, April 15th, I received an email from a friend asking what I thought of Hal’s response to my letter. Only trouble was, I had never gotten President Espinosa’s response.
I called the Union and found out that President Espinosa’s response should have been sent to me by regular mail and email on or around April 7. Secretary Williams certainly thought it had been sent. Copies of his reply had been given to the board at that time, according to the Secretary. Since my e-mail address was incorrect in the union records, I did not receive the e-mail, IF it was sent. 12 days later I still have not received the snail mail. Not receiving the snail mail is still a mystery.
Someone created a deceptive account trying to look like the Committee to send to all the members with email my initial letter and Hal’s response. The only problem is they didn’t send it to me! The one asking the questions!
The Secretary was kind enough to read a portion of the letter to me over the phone, before I received the hard copy and it is indeed the same letter that went out Saturday, April 15th.
So the letters are real, but the question remains, who sent it? Let’s be crystal clear.
Either:
1) Someone INSIDE Local 47 created the deceptive email account and used union resources to send the material.
Or
2) Someone within Local 47 gave someone OUTSIDE the Local my letter, President Espinosa’s response, and all the Local 47 e-mail addresses to do the mailing.
Further, the mailer either had the actual file of the President’s letter, or re-typed the entire letter, because the appearance of the letter in the hard copy I acquired is significantly different from it’s appearance in the email.
Why do I believe these are the only options?
–ONLY THE OFFICERS AND THE BOARD WERE SENT THIS LETTER–. I also gave a copy to the Committee, not to send out, but for future reference. No one else outside of this group could have had it. It never went out to the Committee list or any other list.
The President wrote or authorized the response. I personally don’t think the President himself wrote the letter, since it is not like him, in my opinion, to make legal threats. I also don’t believe he authorized the creation of a fake account, it’s not his style.
Since the source of President Espinosa’s letter is confirmed, it was someone close to him with access to the email addresses who sent, or engineered the sending, of the letters.
TO RECAP:
– President Espinosa wrote the letter or authorized its writing by someone else.
– Only a Local 47 employee would have access to ALL the e-mail addresses of members, unless someone took the directory and copied every email address out of it.
– Whoever created the deceptive account had access to MY letter, President Espinosa’s letter and the Local 47 e-mail addresses.
This is as clear an example of how low someone at the Local will go in their attempts to intimidate and silence those who dare speak out against the administration as one could imagine.
This brings me to the letter itself. President Espinosa’s response is far more significant for what it DOESN’T say than for what it does say.
If you haven’t been part of the fun, my initial letter and the President’s (?) response are below my few comments.
My comments will be in brackets.
—Before you read the letters, suffice it to say that I owe President Espinosa and/or the writer of the response and the one at Local 47 who authorized the use of the emails and/or the one who attempted to steal the identity of the Committee by creating a deceptive e-mail address a HUGE, heartfelt thank you!
If they had not sent this out to all the members with e-mails, I would never have been able to voice my complaints to nearly so many members! Not even the COMMITTEE could get it out to so large a number!! Thank you very, very much!
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MY INITIAL LETTER
To the officers of Local 47,
It has come to my attention that Doug Caine has now been allowed to make the whole office lose the ability to have their 12 sick days happen all at once.
WHO AUTHORIZED THAT?
He apparently has changed the rule so that each employee has to now earn each sick day one week at a time, just like vacation time, so that if you’re going to get the flu, which can’t be cured in one or two days, you wouldn’t
be able to take more than a couple of days off. You would have to wait to get sick at the end of the year when you’ve accumulated the required 11 or 12 days!
Is this true? If it is not true, I apologize for the inference.
If this is true, what the hell is going on down there?
In either case, why are you allowing Doug Caine to run roughshod over OUR employees? Why has his arrogance, his threats, his intimidation, his insults and his demeaning games with employees male and female not resulted in his firing?
He has, through doing an officers’ bidding, who can only be the President or Vice-President, made the local a hostile work environment. Several people who work down there have told me they come into work waiting for another hammer to fall and how un-nerving it is. We’re talking about
people’s livings here! None of our work dues should be spent paying a bully to harrass, play games and scare employees. No decent company should ever employ such a person. Why is Doug Caine still employed at our local?
Is it your intention to make the Local such a hostile work environment that everyone quits?
– There has been a rumor for some time that Vice-President Vince Trombetta wants all services to members removed, saying that they are not the job of a Labor Union. Is that true?
– It’s also a rumor that the Vice-President would like to have a core number of 1000 members paying $1,200 to $1,400 each and just get rid of the non-recording musicians. Point blank, is it true Vince? People have said they’ve heard you in board meetings and membership meeting expressing that view.
– Why did our local pay for Doug Caine to attend the New York conference? He is no delegate, nor is he an officer. I understand he was sent as a guest,.. But why on our dime?
– Why has the board been giving Doug Caine between 4-5 thousand dollars in re-imbursement, while the Executive Officers are being reimbursed between two and three hundred for negotiations. It is in the minutes. If it is a difference in costs, why are they not itemized in the minutes.
-Why is a non-board member and NON-officer being allow to take part in or conduct negotiations for this local?
The aggregate effect of the officers actions over the last 2 years have been to destabilize our local, gut services to the live and freelance members and make employees afraid for their jobs because of the apparently unrestrained actions of Doug Cane. Also, some of this has gone on without the knowledge of the board.
And NOW one of the officers gets Doug Caine to put forward a resolution to raise the quorum to 150?
[Since the initial mailing, Mr. Caine pulled his resolution, which is why it did not appear in the agenda of the April 24th meeting.]
Considering the damage this administration has done in only 2 years without accountability, I can only imagine the destruction a further 2 years would bring to the Local I love and care deeply about. Certainly, if I didn’t care about the local or the welfare of its members you’d have never heard word one from me.
These are not idle questions. I respectfully request some answers. From previous experience of my correspondences not being brought to the board, I am forced to send this to the board members I know the e-mails of at the
same time as the officers.
Thank you for your timely reply.
Fraternally,
Charles Fernandez
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And here is the Response, allegedly written by HAL, but I don’t think so. I thank you for reading this in advance.
Again, my responses are in brackets.
Dear Chuck,
Although I don’t know you well, you have always seemed like
a straight talker and a proactive member.
In spite of these attributes, your recent emails are out of line.
In that letter, you make some comments and ask a series of
questions about General Manager Doug Caine and Vice President Vince Trombetta.
This is my response.
The sick leave policy was not a term or condition of employment unilaterally implemented by Mr. Caine or anyone else acting at Local 47.
Rather, the sick leave policy was negotiated by OPEIU, Local 537,
on behalf of their bargaining unit members who work here at the Local.
This policy was changed during their last bargaining session.
Article VI, Section A of the current collective bargaining agreement reads as follows:
“Each employee shall accrue one (1) sick day per month…”
If you believe that language should be changed, please contact OPEIU, Local 537, and provide them with your input.
[He answered my question, fair enough. Please note in my letter I say “If it is not true, I apologize for the inference.” Further, the INFERENCE was in a letter solely to the administration of the LOCAL, not to any large list. THEY chose to distributed it to a large audience!]
Second, regarding your questions about Mr. Caine’s travel to New York please be aware that he was there on union business.
Your allusion to his attendance at some form of “conference” while in New York is erroneous.
[It was negotiations, not a conference?,.. an immense faux pas I’m sure. Traveling to another city on business on the company dime. Completely different, I agree.]
In fact, Mr. Caine’s travel to New York was for the purpose of attending, as a representative of Local 47, negotiations for the Sound Recording Labor Agreement.
Mr. Caine was part of a team of Local 47 members who traveled there to participate in the Sound Recording negotiations.
According to all the reports that I have received, his participation there was greatly valued.
Third, with respect to your questions about what you claim to be reimbursement discrepancies, you can rest assured that reimbursements to those who travel on Local 47 business are all examined and approved by the Executive Board.
Simply put, no reimbursements are made by Local 47, for any reason or expense, without full and complete documentation that those expenses were incurred in the course and scope of Local 47 business and that those expenses were reasonable and authorized.
[So then, we should see the itemized costs, since the amounts reimbursed for Mr. Caine were so far above those from the other participants, according to the minutes.]
Fourth, your letter asks, “Why is a non-board member and NON-officer being allowed to take part in or conduct negotiations for this local?”
Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that someone of your stature, who has been active in Local 47 for many years, can even ask such a question.
As you well know, almost every negotiation conducted by Local 47 involves members who are not elected to any Local 47 position.
This is one of the ways in which we foster participation and highly valued input from our membership, and it works to the benefit of all Local 47 members.
[Yes the Union does occasionally send a non-elected member to a negotiation. This rank-and-file member is selected because he/she has a thorough knowledge of the contract to be negotiated and has done extensive work under the contract. Caine has done neither. Was Caine sent for his highly valued input? Has he ever done a Union job? Was this the trip that we paid him $4100 for, or was that the Western Conference?]
Fifth, as to the section of your letter which includes certain contentions about Vice President Vince Trombetta, please remember that you labeled these contentions as rumors. I cannot and will not comment on any matter that purports to be a “rumor.”
Finally, although you have significant rights to comment on the affairs of Local 47, I believe no member should do so without completely checking the facts first.
Blatant disregard of the truth still equates to defamation and is not protected by Federal Labor Law.
Your wholly incorrect statements about the “sick leave” issue are only one example of your apparent failure to engage in even a basic investigation of the facts.
[Interesting. I asked who authorized the change in the sick leave, and he answered the question. This wasn’t broadcast to a huge list, only to the Officers and the Board. You ask, and hopefully get the facts. Asking who authorized something would seem to qualify as BASIC INVESTIGATION OF THE FACTS.]
Had you bothered to first ask me about this issue, I would have been happy to let you see the article describing the sick leave in the OPEIU Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Instead, without any foundation, you accused Doug Caine of
unilaterally instituting that policy.
[You know, he’s right. I reacted based on Doug Caine’s previous inexcusable behavior toward our employees, and as I said above, If it wasn’t true, I apologize for the inference]
Your publication of these types of baseless claims must cease immediately.
[This was the richest comment of them all. I didn’t publish my letter, they did! I sent it to the Officers and Board, someone from the Local authorized it’s publication en masse. In other words, they took a letter for a small group, wrote a critique, published it themselves and then complained about it being published in the very document it’s published in! Absolutely Classic. Besides, multiple eyewitness testimony of treatment of former employees is not baseless.]
In the future, if you plan on writing about the way we do business here at Local 47, please contact me – I will be happy to give you accurate information so you can make informed decisions about what you intend to write.
[Odd,… I did contact them. That was the whole point of the letter.]
Sincerely and Fraternally,
Your Friend…
Hal
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Notice the Presidents’ refused to comment on the rumors about VP Trombetta AND on why Mr. Caine is still employed at our local after his conduct toward our employees? The writer talked about baseless accusations, but never says they’re untrue.
Thank you for reading this. I wanted to make sure everyone understood what was really going on here.
Are you as incensed as I am that someone at the Local would stoop to this level?
BE AT THE APRIL 24th MEETING AND SHOW THEM YOU WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH CONDUCT!
Fraternally,
Charles Fernandez
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Colleagues,
Thank you for your patience in reading this mailing.
PLEASE BE AT THE APRIL 24th MEMBERSHIP MEETING! Help us make our administration accountable again. Read page 9 of your April Overture, then come down and USE YOUR VOTE!
THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47