Behind the Green Curtain

 ARTICLE 17 Last week we had a first. For the first time in history, the membership voted to reject a negotiated article that had been tentatively agreed upon between Labor and Management. Before the article was negotiated, we knew it would be a hot-button issue. The intent was to come to terms that both Labor & Management could agree to, then leave it to our members to ultimately decide. "It's your contract, the membership votes to ratify." That had been repeated at every membership orientation I could remember. Usually non-economic articles are somewhat benign. Typically something I would consider non-controversial. But this time it was different. This time it had the potential to impact promotional opportunities. And this time it was quite controversial. For those that may not be entirely familiar, what was at stake was the minimum seniority requirements to be eligible to take a promotional test. Recently, the intention of the seniority was clarified so that the ye