Last week, the UAW Local 2865 – representing 12,000 Academic Student Employees at the University of California – held elections for top union leadership positions. Challenging the incumbents were a reform slate of candidates from Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU). Here’s an overview of the chain of events that ended with an undemocratic stolen election.
- Tuesday, April 26: Voting begins.
- Thursday, April 28: Voting ends.
- Friday, April 29: All ballot boxes are taken to UCLA to be counted, despite challenges to the procedures.
- Saturday, April 30: Halfway through counting votes – when it seems possible that AWDU can win the elections – the chair of the Elections Committee, Travis Knowles of UCSD, declares the election “partially certified” and stops the count! This means more than 1500 votes from UC Berkeley and UCLA (nearly half the ballots cast) are not counted when the election is called and the Elections Committee abandons the ballots. All challenges will not be considered until July.
Rallies and sit-ins are taking place in Berkeley and beyond, but you can still help from Seattle by emailing the following people and telling them you think that ALL BALLOTS should be counted and democracy maintained:
President, Daraka Larimore-Hall larimorehall@uaw2865.org
Vice President, Jorge Cabrera jcabrera@uaw2865.org
Financial Secretary, Donna Fenton financial@uaw2865.org
Elections Committee Chair, Travis Knowles elections@uaw2865.org
Director for Region 5, Jim Wells jwells@uaw.net
You can also sign AWDU's electronic petition here: http://www.awdu.org/count-all-of-the-votes
Help our peers in California put a stop business-as-usual at the UAW until they COUNT ALL THE VOTES.
For more information about problems with this election and the response from AWDU and their supporters, check out the following links:
http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2011/04/california-grad-students-seek-bottom-union
http://www.dailycal.org/article/112993/concern_over_voting_fraud_grows_in_un
http://thosewhouseit.wordpress.com/
-For a Democratic University
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