Meeting Attendance Credits

The only way to run for ATU Local 308 officer positions—and the easiest way to win for interim elections—is by having credit for attending membership meetings. 

This is an undemocratic stumbling block to member-control of our union. 

However, there is a way to get around the stumbling block if you are sick, on military service leave or work schedule!

Simply send an email message to sec-treas@atu308.org within TEN DAYS after the membership meeting. If you have a copy of your Pick Slip or your name on a Pick List, attach a copy to the email message. Write something like this:

Dear Secretary-Treasurer:

I was not able to attend the [MONTH AND YEAR] Mass Membership meeting due to work schedule conflicts. I have picked [DETAIL YOUR SCHEDULE]. As per Section 14.2 of the ATU Constitution, please accept this email and Picked Job confirmation as documentation for meeting attendance credit.

Below is the full text of Section 14.2 in the Amalgamated Transit Union Constitution:

14.2 Eligibility for LU Office. Members to be eligible to run for office in an LU must have complied with the provisions of this Constitution and the bylaws of the LU. Members in the service of the LU or the IU are deemed to be in service and are eligible to office provided they have complied with the provisions of this Constitution and the bylaws of the LU. A member to be eligible to office must have been a member in continuous good standing of his or her the member’s LU the two (2) years next preceding the day of the nomination meeting where the LU has been in existence for that period or longer. Members of LUs whose LU elections for officers are not covered by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 shall have attended at least six (6) regular meetings each year during the twenty-four (24) months prior to and including the nomination meeting; provided, however, that such LU may, through its bylaws and with approval of the IP, affirmatively declare that no such meeting attendance requirement shall be applied as a condition of eligibility for any office of the LU. Any meeting attendance requirement applied pursuant to this section shall not operate to render a member ineligible due to a confinement on account of sickness or injury or due to service in the uniformed military services of the United States or Canada, the duration of which would have prevented him or her the member from attending the required number of meetings, and/or where the member’s attendance was prevented by absence because such member’s regular work schedule prevents attendance on the required amount of meeting days. Documentation supporting any such request(s) for credit for a missed meeting must be provided by the member to the Local Union not more than ten (10) days following the meeting for which he or she the member seeks an attendance credit or, in the case of one or more absence(s) resulting from the member’s service in the uniformed military services, not more than ten (10) days after the member returns to work. It is the intent of the foregoing language that where a meeting attendance requirement is applied pursuant to this section, a member who has attended only five (5) or fewer regular meetings in a given year shall thereby not be eligible to run for office unless, pursuant to the forgoing language and/or Section 13.3 of this Constitution, or under the bylaws of the LU he or she the member has been excused from, or granted credit for, attendance at each and all of the remaining regular meetings in that year.