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UFCW 588: Elections and Turmoil

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SharynS	Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:54 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Which Side Are You On? contributed by Bill Pearson This has been a tough topic to tackle. Many of you know I have been helping members of UFCW Local 588 prepare for the coming elections this year. The challenge has been both a mental quagmire and a moral abyss. In other words, I'm struggling with how to be as honest and objective as I know I should be. Anything I say will be repeated, printed and posted. The fact is, many of the coming comments are speculation, though certainly conjecture based on what has been a sordid past with dealings that were less than admirable or honorable. My decision to post with nothing more than blunt and candid thoughts was ramped up when I was told both the National Labour Relations Board and United States Department of Labor were following this site and the Groceryworkers site. I also know for a fact there are writers and reporters following these websites that have an interest in what is happening and how the Local union handles the events over the course of the next year. read more... Last edited by SharynS on Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:55 am; edited 1 time in total
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SharynS	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:46 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Quote: I have been told there are former Local 588 members who over the years tried to mount a reform slate against the recently retired Jack Loveall. We'll need to hear more about that. The same thing happen'd at ufcw 1518 prior to the '99 MfD'r slate and it too was riddled with election irregularities. Some of them left entirely, some settled in, never to be heard from again and some lived happily ever after as ufcw reps. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Laboryes	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:46 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	siggy wrote: Quote: I have been told there are former Local 588 members who over the years tried to mount a reform slate against the recently retired Jack Loveall. We'll need to hear more about that. If you vist this web site http://www.raleysexposed.com/ufcw_588 you will be able to find out the full story of when Jack Nordby tryed to run against Jack Loveall. Way to go Loveall harass children! OOO! takes a big man to harass kids eh? _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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SharynS	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:46 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Holy flash man! LY, the site is so flash_y it buzzes even with the volume turned down. Then add to that sifting thru the piles of to find whatever it is - is just not going to happen. How about providing a brief summary. I did find this report, interesting for sure. Amazing how reporters can sometimes gut a story to make it palatable. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:20 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Isn't anyone going to post the ending to this story? What did happen in the ufcw 588 executive election of '97 and to whom and where are they now? _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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wm pasz	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:03 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	What is old man Loveall's history? I've heard that he may have had a Canadian connection and was at one time cozy with Cliff Evans the great Canadian UFCW god.
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Laboryes	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:51 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	siggy wrote: Isn't anyone going to post the ending to this story? What did happen in the ufcw 588 executive election of '97 and to whom and where are they now? Ok I'll try and tell you what I know. In 97 a guy that worked for Raleys Jack Nordby decided to run against Jack Loveall I was a steward back then and remember the reps running around like humming birds on crank trying to find out who was putting out leaflets to members in the stores(kinda of like now with the Slaydon campaign) From what I've heard Nordby had a enough signatures within a few days to get himself and his slate on the ballot. Loveall sent his reps(goons)into the stores and pressured anyone that signed Nordbys petition to take their name off also Loveall had reps parking out infront of Nordbys home,harassed his kids and the lady that was runnig with Nordby. At one point a car load of Loveall's reps(goons)were following in a union staff car the lady that was running with Nordby so close that they actually rear ended her. The rep driving was Tom Pate(ex coke head from what I hear) I guess the cops showed up and filed a report. Jack Nordby was fired by Raleys just as Doug Slaydon was by Safeway. I will see if I can't get Frank Nordby (Jacks brother) to come to this site and tell the full story. _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:41 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	Yeah please do. I smell a wierd Canada-US connection here. In the 80's California was a fave haunt for a lot of Canadian union sleaze balls including some of Uncle Cliff Evan's associates. There's a real puzzle here and I think we're getting close to solving it. A lot of Evan's bullshit deals up here have influenced events in the US (it's wierd I know but it really is so), and from the large life and fast times of this Loveall dude and his clan, I can't help but feel that they're all connected up.
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franksalot	Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:58 am
Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 1	In June of 1997, Jack Nordby received his UFCW 588 voice newsletter in the mail. Inside the first page Jack saw a notice indicating that the UFCW 588 election of officers was being held. This notice is a requirement for all unions to send out to their members. The notice also indicates what is required for this election. Jack Nordby contacted UFCW 588 to inquire more about the nomination process and what forms were needed in order for him to start obtaining signatures to have his name place on the election ballot. UFCW 588 sent Jack Nordby the signature forms he would need signed by active members of the union in order for him to be nominated and have his name placed on the ballot. At the time, the UFCW 588 bylaws required all candidates to have signatures of 1% of the total number of active members of UFCW 588, which came to 217 signatures. Jack Nordby, on a Saturday, started going to some of the stores to get active members to sign his petition. On this day, while on the road driving, Jack Nordby noticed a truck following him from behind and then this truck started to chase Jack in his vehicle where ever he went. Jack, using his cell phone, called his brother Frank on the phone to indicate to him that he was being chased by somebody in a pickup truck and that he was going to meet Frank at Frank's apartment and asked Frank to call the police. Frank ran to the front of his apartment complex and noticed his brother Jack driving fast past his apartment with a pick up truck close behind him. Frank noticed a police car in the front and told the police officer that the pickup truck was following Jack. Frank screamed at the driver of the pick up truck and the pick truck came to a stop and the police officer went to investigate the driver of the truck. The police questioned the driver and checked out his drivers license. His last name was Molinaro and he was from New York. He told the police officer that he wasn't chasing anybody. The police had nothing to go on so he let Mr. Molinaro go. A short time later Mr. Molinaro was again seen following Jack Nordby in his vehicle. At one time Mr. Molinaro passed Jack's Shady Lane street off of the busy Watt Avenue, and backed up his truck while on the busy Watt Avenue to follow Jack down his street to his house. Jack Nordby then tried to get signatures from members at a Lucky Store at Lomas Plaza off of Fair Oaks Blvd. While entering the store he was approached by two men who pushed Jack as he was about to enter. One of the men was John Heise and the other person was a union representative I believe by the name of Joe Ciotti . They asked Jack what he was doing and he told them he was there to get signatures from members for the upcoming election. They followed him where ever he went inside the store to intimidate him. The union store shop steward at this Lucky store tried to accuse Jack of stealing while Jack was there getting signatures. Jack left after he realized what was going on at this store. John Biggs, the Lucky Store manager at the time condoned this abusinve behavior going on at the store by the shop steward and union representatives. From that Lucky store Jack was once again being followed by a number of different vehicles. Jack's brother Frank was also going around to the stores and getting members to sign Jack's petition. Frank went to the Pak N Save on Arden Way and had nearly every union member there sign Jack's petition. Members everywhere were indicating that they wanted a chance to vote for their leadership. Jack and his brother Frank realized that they would have plenty of signatures needed in order for Jack to have his name placed on the ballot. Jack and his brother Frank were also distributing a flyer showing how much money the Union leadership at 588 were paying themselves. Members was irritated after becoming aware of the fact that these union representative were paying themselves huge salaries and receiving hefty raises during the years that members didn't receive any increases at all during the last couple of contracts. Even the contract in 1995, where UFCW 588 closed down the Lucky Stores during a strike, the members went without any increases in pay. Jack was also receiving support from the Bay Area Locals in his effort to rid this Union of the Loveall's and the corruption. Jack Loveall and his family members devised a very demeaning method in which Adam Loveall and many Union paid representatives camped out at the stores where Jack Nordby was getting his signatures and pressured and intimidated many members to sign their petition to have their signatures removed from Jack's petition. They also went around to many stores in small groups and slandered Jack by telling members that Jack was a psycho, a lunatic, didn't have the qualifications, and it became sadly obvious how Jack Loveall and his cronies there at UFCW 588 interpreted the word "democracy." It also became obvious to the members that the leadership at UFCW 588 saw an election as a threat to their high paid positions. It should also be noted that the chasing of Jack Nordby around on public streets inside their vehicles didn't stop. In fact, while Jack was driving his family (wife and two daughters) to Church on a Sunday morning, he was again being chased by union representatives which terrorized Jack's two young daughters. It was during this chase that Jack decided to file a police report because now his family was being targeted on a sunny Sunday morning while driving his family to Church. UFCW 588 took a simple election process and turned it into a terrorizing event for two small children. John Heise was involved in these particular road harassment tactics. Jack did file a police report. It was just coincidental though that the police officer who arrived at Jack's residence to take the complaint was a former UFCW 588 member named Tyler Marsh. It is not important to try and read anything into this other than the fact that Jack would have not known that police officer was a former member of UFCW 588 had not his brother Frank been at Jack's house. Officer Marsh took the report and left. Jack continued to go out and get signatures and the leadership at UFCW 588 continued to harass Jack and at one time, had approximately five of their personal vehicles camping out in Jack's neighborhood. Union representative also followed his brother Frank to the American River where Frank runs on the bike trail. Jack Nordby had well over the needed signatures to have his name placed on the ballot. The Union had over 150 signatures removed from Jack's nomination petitions. Everything after that point was a sham just like everything before. And this sham eventually involved government agencies including the U.S. Dept. of Labor. There was no election and Jack Nordby was eventually terminated from his job when UFCW 588 realized that Jack was continuing to campaign for the next election that was going to take place in 2000. There is so much more that took place that hasn't been highlighted in the above account. But the most important understanding that members should have concerning all of this is that the current UFCW 588 leadership is not willing to have a democratic election to give their members a democratic voice and they will do anything and stop at nothing to prevent the members of having that privilege. In fact, Jack Loveall and UFCW 588 decided that democracy at UFCW 588 was just too simple and so the next year they conveniently changed the bylaws to state that the signature requirement for a member to have their name placed on a ballot needed to be raised from 1% to 2%. Bylaws changed by individuals whom have never needed a single signature in over twenty years to be in their respective positions and to receive their outrageously high salaries that continue to go up annually like Jack Loveall's jet. One additional note: Mr. Molinaro was listed above as the driver stopped by the police during the first road harassment of Jack Nordby. In 2004, the 588 LM-2 statement showed a William Molinaro being paid $94,242 as a business Representative. Is this the same Molinaro? If you want additional details about this event feel free to contact me through email...
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SharynS	Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:23 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Thanks for the background FL. I wish I could say I'm surprised. Up the requirement, change the by-laws you name it ufcw's done it. I'm wondering why the bastards don't just change the by-laws to prevent all and any challenges - save us all the pain. It's not like ufcw's reputation could be any more marred and there doesn't seem to be a law to prevent it. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Pearson	Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:53 pm
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 1417 Location: Sun City AZ	Hey Franksalot, thanks for stopping by and filling us in. This is just one of two or three stories i have heard like this. While the plots were always a little different, the ending was the same. The folks who wanted to run against Jack Loveall and family were forced out. Nothing like the organization there to protect and serve the members fucking them... democracy at its finest. Here's the real kicker. These fucking tough guys have wilted like pansies in the sun when the employers have looked at the crosswise. They should be following employers home; they should be harassing the bastards who are pissing on their members; they should be flexing their muscles and showing their bravado at the guys beating the shit out of the folks who are paying their bloated salaries. Sadly, they grew up in an era and under leadership that saw their role as one where they made sure they came first, the organization second and the members a distant third; if that. Most of the biz union leaders put the org first, but these guys at 588 were even above that. That's why i am sticking my nose in. That's why i watch the international let them do as they please and become disgusted and write the things i do. There is no excuse, no place for this kind of shit in a worker movement. It is abuse of the worst kind and unless and until it is stopped, then we will keep coming. How about it Joe (Hansen) is this kind of crap that Frank is telling us about okay in your world? Do you want the truth, or is it just the way it is? Is there room for democracy in your vision for a true labor movement, or is it just the same old same old? _________________ If we don't do it, who will?
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unionnow	Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:32 am
Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 695 Location: Gettin the Hell out of retail	Just thought I would add some thoughts to Frank’s discussion of the ’97 run against Loveall. It’s a first hand account of someone who was in the middle of the mess. His brother called me a few times and asked for some help against the Loveall family. I told him to slow down, take a few years and build a base of support up. Local 588 is too big of an organization to take on with just a few people. He wanted to go for it all at once so I told him I could not help him. The former Loveall leadership spent a great deal of time trying to take over other unions and attacking other unions through covert operations from within and without. Anyone they do not own they hate and will not work with. That’s why many of us call them agents of disunity in Northern California. I suspect all of the big UFCW locals are run like this. Local 1179 has always been target number one for him when they stopped his merger machine dead in its tracks in 1992. It was a big blow to the Loveall ego to have a bunch of clerks beat them. The reform movement that grew out of that operation eventually took control of the local and linked up with the REAP caucus. But I digress; Jack Norby contacted the president of that local and asked for help. The dictum the enemy of my enemy is my friend. She goaded him into running against Loveall to get even. I thought it was a tawdry act of revenge because she knew full well that it takes a long-term operation with committed people to take a local over, especially a local the size of 588. It also takes people who know what they are doing, people who know how to run a campaign, write a newsletter, write letters to the appropriate agencies, have good communication skills, excellent reading comprehension to wade thru the bylaws and International constitution, understand they types of covert activities that will be run against you by a host of labor attorneys, consultants and investigators and people who can show the membership they do know how to run a union and unify the membership within a larger corrupt organization and other less caring locals. It takes time to understand the dynamics. Needless to say there are not many of these people around that work in grocery stores. Jack Norby could have made it there if he took the time and had the patience. The fact that local 588 counter campaigned against the insurgents is to be expected. It may have not been legal or right but it was done and it will happen against unless you can force them into a box where they have to obey our labor laws. Molinaro was a former local 1179 business agent who Loveall hired to get Carpenter, the president of local 1179. He was let go buy local 1179 after the insurgents took over that local. He was a fat failure but because he had an Italian surname Loveall hired him. It adds to the mystique. A little about old man Loveall, he did come from Canada, he ran the local in Montreal. He was brought up through the ranks by the former retail clerks’ president Housewright. From my understanding, by the time Housewright understood he created a monster it was too late. Loveall had too much power to be dealt with. When the Retail Clerks and the Meat clerks merged to create the UFCW International there was an election for International president. Bill Wynne ran against Housewright. Housewright, the retail clerks organizing director, was highly respected and it was thought he would win. Old man Loveall moved against his former friend over to Bill Wynnes’ camp. Wynne won the election by a slim margin. Old man Loveall sat on the ballot box as election secretary and many thought that was the deciding factor in Wynnes’ victory.
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Laboryes	Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:30 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	Jack Nordby then tried to get signatures from members at a Lucky Store at Lomas Plaza off of Fair Oaks Blvd. While entering the store he was approached by two men who pushed Jack as he was about to enter. One of the men was John Heise and the other person was a union representative I believe by the name of Joe Ciotti . [/quote] Here is a interesting note: John Heise & Joe Ciotti are now the grievence directors. They were the two clowns that handled Doug Slaydon's [b]"board of adjustments"[/b] Joe Ciotti these days looks like a bald humpty dumpty the troughing life has been very good to Joe! And for John Heise he is getting rather round and thin in the hair area himself These so called (tough guys) are not really tough at all they only pic on the members that they know they can intimidate! I really wish they would come pay me a visit! Come on guys what are you waiting for? You both know where I live! Come on by and will have a little fun Or do you just save your bully shit for the children??? Come on Joe & John why don't you come out and plaaayyyy??? _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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SharynS	Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:11 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Quote: ...looks like a bald humpty dumpty... ... getting rather round and thin in the hair area himself... I don't think that's what is meant by natural justice but for now it works. There's just no end to the bad come back to bite you in the ass press ufcw has cultivated for itself. I would like to believe it's an isolated case of very bad judgement but there's just too many similarities to events in other locals. It would indicate there's something systemically rotten - not exactly what people are looking for in a union. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Pearson	Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:56 am
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 1417 Location: Sun City AZ	Slow down and take a deep breath Ly, these guys just might be working for you someday . Seriously, imagine when the Slaydon team wins and this gang is now your front line of defense against the employers. These guys have a collective bargaining agreement and their jobs are safe. They don't have to be sucking up to Loveall jr. See, the way i figure it all you have to do is get them to rechannel their aggression against the employers the way they have against members and they could become one awesome fighting machine. Guess some one pointed them in the wrong direction years back and still haven't quite got it right yet. Hang in their buddy, everything comes around and in due time...so shall this. _________________ If we don't do it, who will?
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