A Message from President Futhey

Brothers and Sisters:

Let me make clear my role with the UTU-member plaintiffs who gained a federal court restraining order halting implementation of the SMART merger.

My motivation is a solemn commitment to honor and defend the UTU constitution and this union’s cherished craft autonomy and general committee autonomy.

My initial support for the merger was based on two representations made by Paul Thompson, whom I had no reason to doubt at the time.

One was that our union faced a financial crisis; that if we did not merge immediately, we faced financial ruin.

But I learned, after gaining access to our books, that UTU finances were far from dire. We realized a $1 million surplus after the convention, and our finances have been improving dramatically after wasteful spending was eliminated.

The second false representation made by Paul Thompson was that the UTU constitution would be inserted intact into the SMWIA constitution, and our cherished craft autonomy, general committee autonomy and UTU autonomy would be preserved.

We later learned that under the merger agreement, autonomy would be eliminated, and the authority of general chairpersons to make agreements would be eliminated.

Last October, at a meeting of UTU Western general chairpersons, Paul Thompson said -- and this was recorded -- that "autonomy has served its purpose" and has become "antiquated" and the merger with the SMWIA would make changes to the UTU constitution that "we know can’t be accomplished at a convention" through a delegate vote.

Our UTU constitution guarantees that any constitutional changes will be made only by UTU delegates. I took an oath of office to honor and defend the UTU constitution, and that is precisely what I am doing in support of the UTU-member plaintiffs who obtained the temporary restraining order.

To read my deposition in support of the UTU-member plaintiffs, go to www.utu.org, click on the "SMART merger temporarily halted" link, and then click on "President Futhey's deposition."

In solidarity,

Mike Futhey
International President
 

Autonomy is the glue that binds and respects the various crafts of the United Transportation Union. Above is the granite memorial in Hot Springs, Ark., which commemorates the historic 1968 meeting of four brotherhoods that resulted in the 1969 creation of the UTU and its constitutional guarantee of craft autonomy