We Know Your Secrets
Secrecy is a tool of oppressors. Keeping people in the dark is essential when it comes to hanging on to power. Keeping them unaware of what you're up to, keeping them in the dark about their rights and avenues to recourse renders them powerless. Keeping them apart ensures that even those who do get wise will have nowhere to go and no one to tell. This last part is so important. Once the malcontents begin to hook up, it's the beginning of the end. Put a few of them together and they'll start figuring things out and worse; telling others. Before you know it, it's all over.
There are lots of secrets in the world of labour-management relations. The entire system of North American labour relations depends on control of working people. A lot of control is exercised by employers but, because we live in a nominally democratic society, other control mechanisms are needed. That's where unions (the kind that we know today) come in. They help control the working stiffs so they don't get out of line. They distract them by wresting a few crumbs from the employers every few years and putting on a song and dance now and again. For their efforts, union leaders are given complete control over their members and permitted to reward themselves in whatever way pleases them - at the expense of their members. Why won't the members rise up and boot them out? Because they don't know what's going on. Their leaders are permitted to withhold, suppress and distort information as they see fit. The system permits this because it helps control working people.
Being able to do what you want with no accountability tends to bring out the worst in us no matter who we are. Put a group of big kahunas together under a warm blanket and see what happens. The members will never know what went down because they weren't invited to the party. All they'll see is the agreed-upon end result presented in a way that makes it look like something good. Deceiving millions of people this way is OK too. It's called labour-management cooperation and is very much in keeping with the goals of the labour relations system.
In the labour relations system it's easy to operate in secrecy. The few protections workers have are mostly toothless and those who dare to ask questions of their employers or their unions quickly learn why they shouldn't. The absence of accountability or consequences creates an environment where the big players help themselves. Plots are hatched, deals are done, people are betrayed and no one knows what's going on or why.
Those who are in the know have many incentives to not talk about it. Those that do are shunned, demeaned or sued or just plain ignored. Keeping secrets is important and so is managing them.
In some situations there are destructive facts that must be controlled or it might discredit the team. Dark secrets are past incidents that the team must keep a secret. Strategic secrets are plans that must be kept quiet right now, but will later likely be openly acted upon or explained. This contrasts with dark secrets because they are never intended to surface. The final type of secret is an inside secret. This type of secret is held by a team to promote solidarity. In contrast to the other two types of secrets the disclosure of this type of secret is not particularly harmful to the team, unless it is also a dark or strategic secret. Free secrets are secrets acquired that are not important to you, and if disclosed would not discredit you or harm your reputation.
It's really important that the strategic secrets, inside secrets and especially the dark secrets of autocratic organizations do not surface. The survival of entire organizations depends on it. The livelihoods of thousands officials ride on it. An entire system of maintaining order rests on it. But it's happening. The secrets are surfacing and there's no stopping it. This web site alone is responsible for shining a light on a mountain of covert crap and we've only been online since 1999.
It was a couple of years ago when I asked about MFD at my union office. What they told me was very negative. Radicals, bad work records, political agenda. I looked from time to time anyways because there are so few places that openly cover this stuff. What I saw didn't match the description I was given and so I looked more often. I realized that I was getting better information and education from MFD. What's more I could get my two cents worth in.
(Bill Bob Boxmover in UFCW Canada Fear)
The Internet has proven an awesome tool for seeking out and finding people and information. Much of the information on this web site is the product of online searches or investigations that began with some small tidbit of info gleaned from an online search. But it's what finding those tidbits compels you to do that's really remarkable: You want to learn more and you make it your business to do just that. A lifetime of conditioning (don't ask, don't do, don't go there, leave well enough alone, it's not your place, you'll be sorry) evaporates when you look under that first rock and find something that you suspected was there all along but wasn't supposed to be. It gets even better when you find that there are others looking under the rocks along with you.
Knowing that you can look, where to look, what to look for and telling everybody once you've found something that are keys to ending the cult of secrecy that props up the labour relations system. We're doing our best to tell as many working people as possible just how its done.
Online searching is fun and often the beginning of something, mucking around in public records can be really rewarding (you'll almost always find something), but there's nothing quite as enjoyable as being there: Going where the action is and going in for a close look. It's always illuminating and sometimes often inspiring. You don't always find a bunch of union-management partners plotting, but you'll find something more valuable - insight.
I sure did a few weeks ago, when an opportunity to go nosing around some out-of-the-way properties owned by the CCWIPP (UFCW Canada's pension plan) came my way.
MFD's Metaphorical Field Trip
The property on Oyster Cove Road just outside the sleepy town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island caught our attention several months ago. Surfing around the Internet one day, searching "I.F. Propco", one of my colleagues came across a reference to one of the CCWIPP investment corporations in the online minutes of a Ladysmith Town Council meeting.
I.F. PROPCO HOLDINGS
That the request from I.F. Propco Holdings (B.C.) 4 Ltd. to waive the penalty for late payment of property taxes for 9 lots at 245 Oyster Cove be not approved.
We knew that the various I.F. Propco's (corporations through which the UFCW invests pension money in private businesses) were heavily involved in real estate ventures but this was something a little out of the ordinary. The Propco's that we knew about invested money, in the form of mortgages and loans, to other businesses in large urban centers. The Oyster Cove properties, however, looked like a direct investment in some residential lots in a remote location.
Rather than loaning someone else the money to buy the lots and making money off the interest, Propco was buying the property itself, presumably to sell it at some future date for a profit. That's a whole different kind of investing, we concluded. It's speculation in land that, it seemed to us, is more risky and involves tying up money for longer periods of time, sometimes without any return on investment.
What on earth was Propco doing buying seaside development lots in a sparsely populated area of Vancouver Island we wondered? And why were they not paying their taxes on time?
CCWIPP's 2001 Financial Statement (p-01 & p-02) shows the Oyster Cove properties as a "managed investment" of I.F. Propco (B.C.) 4 Ltd. In 2001 Oyster Cove cost the pension plan $2,351,000 but had a fair value of only $310,000. The previous year, the cost was $2,839,000 while fair value was $1,175,000.00. What was going on? What could possibly account for this disparity?
On an eerily foggy morning late last year, an inquisitive team of MFD'ers set out to learn more. Our nosey field trip left us with some new information, a lot more questions, some leads to follow up and more information to gather. It also provided us with a startling insight into what's wrong with the mainstream house 'o labour and why union reformers will prevail.
Remote Viewer's Journal: The Affluent and the Effluent
First impression: 245 Oyster Cove Road looks like an exclusive enclave of custom-built homes-away-from-home for affluent people.
A colorful sign with an ocean motif greets visitors - invited visitors only. Tidy landscaping surrounds high brick walls enclosing the place. Steel gates painted white keep out uninvited guests. This place was built with millions from a workers' pension fund but I'll bet few of those workers could ever afford to buy in here. If all 180,000 showed up for a visit, I doubt they'd be any more welcome than we are.
We look around wondering how to get in. There are no security guards and no intercom. You can only get in if you know someone. Our cameraman is snapping pics. It's a nice day now. The fog has lifted. Should we go over the wall or just wait and see if there's a more respectable way in? Within minutes a utility truck comes along. The gates open and we follow the truck inside. Utilities are useful on and off line.
Inside the compound: The quality of the view depends on your perspective. To the left, a row of recently constructed custom homes sit atop a steep drop overlooking the choppy waters of the Georgia Strait. Visually it's quite appealing - the kind of place you expect to find affluent retirees or prosperous city dwellers. The homes have multiple terraces and large windows. There are splashy pastels, taupy stucco, and loads of stonework. Good curb appeal. Across the street, a row of vacant lots waiting for buyers. This view is really desolate. A stark difference from splashy oceanfront places. An expanse of patchy grass and wild shrubbery backing onto a perimeter fence. Beyond the fence, a highway rolls by - obliviously.
We stroll down the quiet street separating the terraced homes from the vacant lots. We're struck by the absence of activity in this place. The houses are mostly vacant. Some are furnished but only a few appear to be occupied. A number of new homes are in various stages of construction but no one is working today. A man driving off in his SUV takes no notice of us. We mosey on along Desolation Boulevard, looking around, wondering who lives here and about the stillness of the place. The tranquility is disrupted by the dull roar of the highway running alongside and the lingering smell of sewage that we noticed on our arrival and that is growing stronger the further we walk.
Standing atop one of the vacant lots overlooking the water, we marvel at the steepness of the drop down into the water. Construction of these homes must be a challenge. For a moment I have a strong mental image of cousin Nicky, a homebuilder, checking out the place and slapping his head incredulously - Porko Puttana! From our vantage point now, the splashy row of multi-level houses appear to perch precariously on the edge of a cliff. A gust of wind from the right direction and the waves slap ominously down below.
Following the street a few hundred feet past the end of the small enclave we run right into a sewage treatment facility. That would explain the lingering aroma, we conclude. "Why did Propco build down wind from a sewage treatment plant?" one of my colleagues jokes. "Because there's no nuclear plant out here". Snickering MFD'ers break the silence.
Walking back to the white gates, we see no one, hear nothing. How will we get back through the gates? Easy. Push them and they give just enough. We have a laugh. "Good thing you're not a business unionist. You'd never get outta those gates. Oh hell, you'd never want to get out. Oh yeah, I'd just sit on my veranda all day looking out for MFD'ers." I feel a certain funny exhilaration as we head back to the MFD "live eye" (a very impressive van - a fluke of the car rental experience). We've just taken a tour of a little piece of biz-unionist heaven - and made it out alive. We pile into the live eye and head off, snickering mischievously and talking excitedly about what we now need to find out.
While we did not find sleazy guys exchanging bags of money under a bridge on our trip, we did find the most remarkable metaphor (metaphor - a comparison between two usually unconnected objects, i.e. "life is like a journey") for the North American mainstream labour movement. The parallels are hard to miss: The upscale prettiness of the place from the outside, the pearly-white security gates, the walls and fences, the exclusive houses - mostly vacant, perched precariously on the edge of something steep. The silence of the place, the emptiness, the absence of activity. The smell of crap. The highway (the info highway?) roaring by. The curious interlopers slipping in, looking around like they own the place and moving on. Pushing open the imposing gates with the touch of a hand. Heading off to talk about the whole experience and to nose around some more. Damn it. In biz-union heaven, nothing is sacred anymore. Nothing is secret anymore. The reformers aren't just at the gates - they're inside the gates! Looking but not buying. Leaving. Going back to their world - in a van, no less.
The end of secrecy is important because it exposes the realities and shatters the myths and it brings people together.
It Worked For Me
When the existing order ceases to make any sense to you, when you have crossed the line between suspecting the worst and knowing the worst, there is nothing more empowering than discovering that you are not alone. Meeting up with likeminded others is not only vindicating, it's empowering and always leads to really cool things.
I have been quite fortunate over the past couple of years to make the acquaintance of a growing circle of working people from many walks of life who share my revulsion with the secret societies that make up the labour relations system and my belief that things don't have to be this way.
While my MFD story started a long time ago, the current and most exciting phase of it started a little over two years ago when I decided that I was going to pursue my interest in union democracy and to hell with what anybody thought about that. Within about two hours of surfing time, I came across this amazing web site.
How damned amazing I thought. The Canadian UFCW had a reform movement! And what a reform movement! By this time I had surfed every labour web site and read a mountain of labour-oriented books, journals and other materials but I was positively captivated by this intelligent, straight-from-the-heart, inclusive Internet community and what its members had to say. Most of these workers would never have experienced democratic unionism. Yet here they were demanding it. They were service industry workers - casualized and compromised. According to the conventional wisdom, they should be busy looking for their fourth or fifth part time job and scrounging around for some food in between shifts, yet here they were, talking about how things shouldn't be this way and how they want things to be. Overnight they'd set up their own organization and it was thriving. I must drop them a line I thought.
It seems as though it has been a very short hop from that unusual day two years ago to the unusual day a few weeks ago when I found myself wandering around in Oyster Cove with a few of my colleagues from MFD. But then, when you set your own objectives, you set your own rules too. It seems to me that we don't measure our progress by time but by mysteries uncovered, secrets revealed and people empowered. And there will be more this year.
In fairness to the legions of undemocratic unionists and their associates, their indignation about union reform web sites is understandable. Almost overnight their cloistered little world is standing on its head. The pieces of the secret puzzles are falling into place and some interesting pictures are emerging. We'll continue to tell you about them and - once in a while - we'll even go in for a closer look.
"The history of the world is the history of the warfare between Secret Societies"
(Ishmael Reed in Mumbo Jumbo 1972)