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BACKGROUND THE REMOVAL MY APPEAL THE ELECTION THE AFTERMATH
Having been pushed beyond my capacity to cope, I sent an e-mail to the Executive Board stating that I was taking indefinite leave, and appointing the Vice-president
"Acting President", as I have done every time I was absent for reasons of leave, illness or TDY. I said that I felt the reason that the Executive Board had been so defiant and refused to participate in mediation is that they were trying everything in their power to force me to resign. Then I said they were "very close" to getting their wish - close, but no cigar!
I had intended to take leave to go to Washington State on a job-hunting expedition in July 2003, but when I directed the Vice-president to come into the office to start taking over open issues, he refused. In an e-mail to NVP Kelly, the Treasurer told him that there was a possibility that I would not be coming back from Washington.
I had not even begun my leave when a supporter informed me that I had been removed from office by vote of the Executive Board. I immediately called the Civilian Personnel office and asked what they had heard. The Chief of Personnel tod me that NVP Kelly had called her to tell her that I had resigned - although NVP Kelly never called me to hear it from my own lips before making his decision.
I called NVP Kelly and told him that I had not resigned. I said I had only taken leave, and had appointed the Vice-president Acting President until I decided whether or not I was coming back. NVP Kelly said that the Executive Board told him that I had resigned. I assured him that I had not resigned - I was only taking leave, on the advice of my doctor, to recover from the debilitating effects of my depression. I told him that I had sent him a copy NVP Kelly instructed me to forward him a copy of the e-mail I had sent the Executive Board, and he assured me that he would call me the next day. He never did.
The next day was Saturday, but when I did not hear from NVP Kelly by 2:00 PM, I asked some of my stewards to call him and tell him what had been going on between the Executive Board and myself. He refused to talk to one of my stewards, and was very rude and abrupt with her. He refused to answer the phone when my other stewards called.
On Monday, I still had heard nothing from NVP Kelly. On Tuesday, National Representative Gary Benton hand-carried a notarized letter from NVP Kelly to the Local Union office stating, in the face of my SEVERAL assurances to him otherwise, that I had resigned.
The Chief Steward had done her level best to remove me from office by inciting the membership to conduct a "no-confidence" vote at the April 2003 membership meeting, after getting 42 members to sign a petition by lying to them and playing to their ignorance and fear. Although the Chief Steward was not able to remove me from office by a vote of some thirty members at the April 2003 membership meeting, she was ultimately able to realize her goal of removing me from office by a vote of a much smaller body - three members of the Executive Board, of which she was once again a member.
There is no Constitutional procedure which allows an Executive Board to vote to accept a resgination, whether real or imaginary. A resignation is an intensely personal decision that is not subject to a vote, and voting to accept a resignation that was never offered does not magically make it happen. The Executive Board's vote to accept my resignation against my will constitutes an illegal removal. NVP Kelly's issuance of a letter stating that I had resigned despite my several assurances to him that I had not constitutes a decision, and is also an illegal removal. Nobody can produce any letter stating that I resigned, because I never resigned.
Although I never wrote a resignation letter, myself, the Chief Steward did. When she resigned from office amid vague accusations that I somehow violated my oath of office, was "hippocratic", placed employees in harm's way, and other irrational ramblings, the Executive Board AND NVP Kelly urged me to hold on to her resignation, to give her an opportunity to "cool off". Yet, when I took leave, they all jumped at the opportunity to manufacture a resignation where none existed, acting behind my back, and without an opportunity to defend myself, and without any appeal. And, once I did accept her resigantion, after several weeks, the Excecutive Board championed her return to the office she had abandoned. NVP Kelly himself advised me to bring her back to office, even afgter witnessing her behavior at the April 2003 membership meeting - yet, when I asked him to reverse his decision to resign me against my will, NVP Kelly heartlessly refused. Although I allowed the Chief Steward to resume her duites, once she was reinstated, she took advantage of the first opportunity to extend me the same courtesy. After her reinstatement to the office that she abandoned, as a member of the Executive Board, the Chief Steward participated in the vote to remove me from office, despite a clear conflict of interest.