UGSOA President Jim Vissar Lies to Its Members!

by Officer Carter Washington D.C. Monday, Apr. 26, 2004 at 1:16 AM
UGSOA@AOL.COM

Why does our UGSOA President have to lie?


OPEN LETTER TO J. VISSAR UGSOA PRESIDENT:

As a totally dissatisfied member of UGSOA, I am disgusted with the lies, half truths and lack of service to my fellow officers from our UGSOA union. Because of this I am sharing my research on accusations and claims being made by our invisible President J. Vissar. We are all fed up and prepared to get out of this worthless, dishonest union, and this in part is why!

Let's just start at the beginning of this year. In January our dishonest President put out a "letter to all UGSOA members" on the website. In it, Vissar makes several statements and accusations about other unions, so me and the some of the other officers checked out his claims.

Vissar said in his letter to us "last year, the SPFPA wanted to merge with us. We refused and so they tried raiding our locals." This made no sense to us as our investigation of the SPFPA union showed that they had over 20,000 members. Now why would a big union want to merge with our union of less than 4,000 (according to LM's)?

The truth is SPFPA wanted Vissar and the UGSOA to merge with them. They say to create a larger, more effective union to speak for everyone. That makes sense to us, but even if it didn't Vissar is still a liar! Why does our President have lie to us? Is it because we, as a union, are losing so many members because of his poor leadership? We have checked, and it's true. UGSOA locals in California, Florida, Missouri, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and others all want out, or to at least not have to pay dues for a service we don't get.

Vissar also said in his letter to us 'I would not spend our money to fight these rumors." Well, he sure isn't spending it to service us, so why not? I actually put in a call to see if I could get a response to my unit's feelings about UGSOA, and Vissar wouldn't even take my call, nor would he call me back. Is this what we pay for? I don't think so!

Just so you know, I was challenged to call the other union to see if anyone would talk to me. When the secretary answered the phone, I told her I was with UGSOA and wanted to speak to the President. Within minutes, a man named David Hickey answered the phone (the SPFPA President). He asked my name (which I refused to give), but he understood and asked "how can I help you today?" I'm not even in their union, and he's asking how he can help. Isn't that what our union should be asking? Apparently Vissar doesn't think so.

Officer Carter Washington D.C.