(The following story by Diane Wetzel appeared on The North Platte Telegraph website on February 21.)
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — John Hasenauer of North Platte has worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for 37 years. In the past two decades, Hasenauer has been active in Local 286 United Transportation Union, currently serving as secretary-treasurer and international delegate.
Hasenauer is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed late last year, hoping to stop what current UTU president Mike Futhey calls “a shotgun wedding” between the UTU and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association.
Hasenauer along with Dale Michael of Salem, Ill., Jim Eubanks of Beebe, Ariz., and Roy Arnold of Amarillo, Texas, filed suit in December to stop the merger between the 84,679 member UTU and the 150,000 members of SMWIA.
The merger would have created the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or S.M.A.R.T., and would have swallowed up the UTA, the plaintiffs say. The lawsuit claims the merger was rushed through by then UTU president Paul Thompson, and was to take effect on Jan. 1, 2008.
Hasenauer, along with other delegates, first heard about the proposed merger at the June 2007 regional meeting in Kansas City.
A coalition of UTU members formed “Save Our Union” to “retain our democratic rights under the law and the constitution of the UTU.”
According to Save Our Union documents, in June 2007 Thompson submitted the merger agreement to UTU membership for a vote without a proposed constitution.
“Thompson repeatedly assured members that UTU autonomy would remain, and the UTU constitution would be kept intact into the SMWIA constitution,” a spokesperson for the UTU said.
After the referendum in July, UTU officers and members began to wonder how the UTU could remain autonomous if all of its assets and member dues were to become the property of S.M.A.R.T. and subject to control of SMWIA president Mike Sullivan and an executive board on which the UTU would have only a handful of seats.
According to Save Our Union sources, members had requested copies of the new S.M.A.R.T. union constitution, but Thompson refused to release it until after the merger went into effect.
Hasenauer and the three other plaintiffs were convinced the ratification vote was in violation of both the merger agreement and their right to an informed vote under Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 and filed suit. They complained to the court that UTU members should have been provided with a copy of the S.M.A.R.T. constitution before the vote. On Dec. 27, a federal judge in Akron, Ohio, issued a temporary restraining order to put the merger on hold until the case could be settled.
The court ruled that UTU members had not been provided a S.M.A.R.T. constitution, which the UTU constitution would have been inserted intact. The complaint was filed following allegations that UTU members were not made aware of conflicts between the two constitutions, according to the UTU’s official publication.
Futhey told the UTU News “It is my feeling that the memberships of both the UTU and the SMWIA are best served by having a proper constitution prepared and presented to members for a vote.”
On Feb. 7, the plaintiffs and UTU stipulated to an agreement that would have allowed the UTU and SMWIA to craft a S.M.A.R.T. constitution to submit to UTU members for a vote. However, that agreement has been put on hold by the judge when now-retired Thompson and seven other UTU executive officers filed a motion to intervene. A hearing is scheduled for April 25.
Hasenauer declined to be quoted for this article, citing advice from his attorney.