Condemning Negative Rhetoric, Promoting Unity & Standing Together!

Region IV Members:

As mandated by our PASS Constitution, every three years, as active members you have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process to select your Executive Board, including your Regional Vice President.

Elections and the election season brings about strong beliefs and emotions from the membership and what is said or written to support or endorse one candidate over another has consequences.

I have reviewed recent messages and I strongly disagree with any personal attacks or negative statements about any member or candidate as it does not promote a healthy organization.

I urge and encourage solidarity amongst our Union; we are stronger together and divided we will fall.

Each member and candidate is able to independently contribute to the dialogue about why they feel one candidate is a better choice for a leadership position within our organization and I don’t want to control, influence, manipulate, or stifle any member’s ability to voice their individual beliefs. I respect the democratic process to allow members to express themselves freely and vocally about their beliefs. Collectively, We are PASS, and each opinion is valued and belongs as part of the narrative of our Union.

You have the power to select the type of leader you want to lead Region IV. I encourage each and every one of you to ask questions of your colleagues and candidates to promote a healthy and robust dialogue about which direction for PASS will result in the greatest impact and influence for our organization and our members.

Since I began as your RVP in January of 2021, I have continued to demonstrate quiet, determined, and resolute leadership for Region IV which has led to concrete and demonstrable gains in membership, improved communication with the membership and the Agency. While we continue to have professional disagreements (utilizing the established formal processes like our grievance procedure, unfair labor practices, or other avenues to resolve or disputed issues), my leadership style of raising issues to Agency leadership supported by facts and details has allowed for informal resolution of those issues. Are we always successful using that technique? No. But on the whole that approach generally brings more success than not. And where that technique isn’t fruitful, I have continued to support the timely filing of grievances at various levels and remind our representatives to follow the process to ensure the Union’s ability to continue to pursue resolution until conclusion of the issue (via successful grievance resolution, settlement, or arbitration decision). 

You all have the power to choose who you think will be the most successful candidate to lead Region IV for the near term and to choose which candidate will set Region IV and our Union up for continued growth and success for the years to come. We continue to build on successes we have achieved and learn from any mistakes made along the way to establish a strong foundation moving forward.

Again, I promote a vision of "PASS 4 ALL!" where everyone's voice contributes to the collective dialogue and even differing or dissenting opinions are respected and add value to our conversations but I encourage those discussions should focus on the issues and not on critiquing individuals. At the end of this election process, we must all work together to support each other to attain common goals and any hurtful or inflammatory remarks, even unintentional ones, will jeopardize our collective success.

Ben Struck
Region IV Vice President
PASS 4 ALL!