Aww, how cute! CPAI made their own union website.

I'm not going to lie, I was giddy with excitement when I heard they put a website up. I couldn't wait to get it loaded and have a look at what kind of anti-union stuff the company had come up with. We were all geared up to counter attack, we had all sorts of subject matter experts on standby but, uh, yeah... not really much new to work with.

Alas, once again, CPAI has seriously disappointed me- I don't know why I keep expecting more from them, I guess it's because they're a multibillion dollar company with entire departments dedicated to public relations and lobbying and what-not... but, uh, yeah, it's fuckin' amateur hour over there, that shit reads like they let the summer intern in the PR department write it.  I guess O&M isn't the only part of the company that's started hiring our interns and pretending they're ready to wear big boy pants. Most of their bullshit has been addressed in post like this one about what union dues are, click here  or where our union dues go, click here (it’s a pdf) or about striking, click here or about the union ‘fining you’ if you work during a strike (LOL, No), read about it on question 3, click here or about union dues being paid to political groups click here (question 1)

But here’s the short, short, short version- The company generalized a BUNCH of shit about unions and dues because they know they can’t accuse our local USW of that stuff without us calling them out on it. 

As far as the their dig at "unions support democrats!" Here are the highlights- you pay at most 1.45% of your wage to union dues, sometimes less, never more.  44% of that is for our local expenses, like paying our shops stewards (guys from our group that we elect) to help dudes like you when the company is trying to be shitty to you.  And our local president, who has to moonlight as a WOA operator because his 'big union salary' amounts to something like $17K a year. 44% goes to the international union, to hire and pay for the dudes that are fighting for us right now in the Seattle NLRB-  I will tell you first hand that this is money very well spent, we’d be fucked without their guidance- I mean that.  Only 1% of your 1.45% dues goes to Political and Legislative Action- “The USW takes a stand on governmental policies that affect working people, their jobs, their economic security, their retirement and issues of social justice. One cent of each dues dollar helps promote pro-worker political action.”  The "almost 100% goes to democrats" bullshit number that the Conoco website used includes PACs (political action committees and individual donations), your dues don’t go to PACs- those are donations outside of dues that YOU decide to make or not make. That's just like noting that ConocoPhillips donated $17,000 to Mary Pelota and $32,000 to Kamala Harris if you include individual donations and PACs made in the COP name.   Learn about it here.

Oh, and I guess the PR intern that dug up the 'facts' for their website probably doesn't remember this because they were still in Jr High, but it was ConocoPhillips that bowed the knee before Biden's COVID mandates, not USW. The dudes over in Prudhoe didn't have to show proof of vaccination to keep their jobs- we did. So who's the liberal stooge now?

Anyways.  Not sure there’s much more I need to say-  we covered most of the their “facts and FAQ’s” fairly well in between this post and this post so I don’t think we need to waste much more time on their website.

Hey one last thing- if you do see the PR intern in the tower please take a minute to tell him he’s doing a great job on the website and tousled his hair; he tries really hard and that’s all that’s required in our new era of DEI.  (Good job buddy, you’re doing great!)