THE "SOCIETY"

The Society is a union, but didn’t want to be. When I joined Hydro in 1977, professionals could join a voluntary bargaining unit called "The Society", which had a "Master Agreement" with Ontario Hydro. The Society more or less acted like a union, without true legal powers, and this seemed like an excellent solution to labour relations. Unfortunately, OH Management decided to rip up the Master Agreement in 1983/4, for relatively little reason that we could see. Eventually, after about ten years, the Society certified.

The Society is a weak white collar union: it only undertakes passive defenses, couldn’t call a strike if it wanted to, has little real bargaining power. If I had been a PWU member, it is less likely that Hydro-gate would have run to this extreme.

The Society was involved in Hydro-gate on a number of times. Initially, it helped launch the "Job Challenge", and assisted in the Internal "Mismanagement, Fraud and Corruption" stage. The Society was very briefly involved in the "Fraud Squad II " stage, and was involved again with my Dismissal. THE POWER WORKERS UNION, JOB CHALLENGE, INTERNAL "MISMANAGEMENT, FRAUD AND CORRUPTION", FRAUD SQUAD II, DISMISSED!, THE SOCIETY I, THE SOCIETY II

The Society told me that my work record says nineteen years of (good) work ; one written warning about insubordination; then dismissal. "Must have been quite a letter!" Wanda commented. It wasn’t; just a brief request to Bill Farlinger to call the Fraud Squad. documents/fraud_squad_2_1.gif, documents/fraud_squad_2_2.gif, PHIL WONG

Initially, the Society asked for my re-instatement. "What on earth for?" you might ask. Primarily because the law says that they cannot ask for anything else, or so they tell me. First, I lost half a million dollars when I got fired in pension and future earnings; second, I am currently banned from OH property, which is a major business handicap (Ontario Hydro is my largest local market); third, my kids prefer me working there; and there are a number of social reasons. ABOUT US, documents/the_society_1.gif

Unfortunately, my initial Society rep (Wanda Sanginesi) left for York University, and was replaced by Matthew Kellway. Matthew, and the Society’s lawyer Michael D. Wright, "saw" the Arthur Anderson report (and hence the case) in an entirely different light. They totally ignored any possibility that the AA report could be forged, despite the input from Arthur Anderson and common sense. THE SOCIETY II

I’ve had a mixed ride with the Society. The Society obviously does not like to make waves, whatever that may mean about Management’s activities. Some reps were very good, like Carole Ann Alloway, and to a lesser extent, Wanda. Others were very bad, positively criminal one might say, like Matthew Kellway and Michael D. Wright. Fortunately, my lawyer Mr. Richard Darrah, warned me several times about lying union lawyers, so the results were not a surprise, albeit stressful. Interestingly, none of the outsiders who have been told about the union’s lies were in the least bit surprised. MR. RICHARD DARRAH