Letter From a 49er
Hi all,
This is a_serious Motion_and though we have all had enough emails to chew on I suspect that some may still be wondering what the right way to vote is. I write to you in the hope that I may clarify the salient points as I see them. I present them in bullet points as much as possible to save you time.
1. The 49ers have a lot at stake and have a wealth of experience with this subject matter and they have voted 41:4 against the offer. Do not be fooled into thinking that it means something else because it doesn't! We would never put our hand up to remain 49ers for a second longer than we have to unless we had good reason - and right now we have good reason.
2. The_funding_scaremongering_is a red herring and was trotted out because nothing else will sell this crap deal. In my opinion we are not enjoying good leadership on this issue and certain realities are either not understood or are being ignored - we must do what is right for our union and vote this motion down.
3. The legals have two big cost periods being right at the beginning and right at the end - we have had the first one. We only cop the second one if we see through the whole case and then go into a series of appeals. Given that our lawyers are still saying to our faces that we will never see the inside of a court the scaremongering about the worst case scenarios conveniently ignores the obvious and most likely outcome - sensible settlement just before we go to court. Right now the cases are idling over not costing anything much and this will continue to be the case until we get deep into the courtroom phase - so there is no hurry and no imminent calamity. There is plenty of action to be had before we get to court - just look at the FAU example. You have to ask yourself why the big crisis spin - and why now?
4. This is not an emotional decision this is a smart negotiating position - we know they can't go to court and right now is just the first offer - as usual too cheap too late. Let's get this done properly and in a business-like fashion_because we all know that_the current deal is unacceptable. Do not fall into the spin about 49ers being offered jobs because we have not been offered jobs - we have been offered a half-arsed interview process which is full of jeopardy for the 49ers. Many have convinced themselves that this will get the 49ers their jobs back - it is only an offer to interview.
5. Timing is everything and the current scaremongering is a rearguard action - vote NO and we'll have plenty of time to sort it out. There are no big legal costs for quite a few months now so let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - we have plenty of time. Our leadership has tried to rush you and the 49ers and frighten_us into making a serious error. Let's slow the pace and deal with this in our usual measured and well informed manner.
6. If we based all of our decision making on unlikely worst case scenarios we'd never get off the ground - time for a reality check - this motion needs to go down strongly and send a message to the defendants that the next offer needs to be more sensible. Btw, history tells us it won't be the next offer but it may be the one after that - it is never the first offer ;-)
We have a very short time to make sure this Motion is defeated for the sake of our union and the 49ers - please do what you can in that time.
Best regards,