By Ralph Schwartz
Mark Lowry, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 843, announced shortly after midnight Monday, Dec. 17, on his public Facebook page that the union has reached an agreement with the Whatcom Transportation Authority on a new contract.
The deal is tentative, pending a vote of union members and approval by the WTA Board of Directors. Both votes are expected in January, according to Lowry and WTA spokeswoman Maureen McCarthy.
Neither Lowry nor McCarthy were willing to discuss particulars of the agreement because it isn’t final until the votes.
Lowry did provide some specifics, however, on his Facebook post:
We won a wage that just barely edges out inflation, and we surrendered our Cadillac medical plan that was no longer viable for one that is acceptable, if not quite as good, with some consolation prizes to make it sting less.
Expect a more detailed report in the newspaper after the terms of the agreement become public.
Remind me not to friend either of you on FB.
Sure hope you guys got permission to post ANYTHING from someones facebook page. Oh, Looks like you did not.
Hey Schwartz & Stark.
Reporting a completed vote or a court case is one thing, reporting partial testimony before the voters or a jury has been given a chance to receive the whole presentation can act as a spoiler, and can change the news outcome rather than just report it.
It may be wise to touch base with those who were quoted in this reporting.
What basis is there for presuming a privacy right to anything posted on the web? When you send an email or post, you might as well have written it on a paper thrown in the street. That’s been true since we first started using email.
My general rule for anything posted anywhere on the net — including supposedly private e-mails — has always been, “Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to read on the front page of the New York Times.” Facebook posts? Puhleeze. Totally public. Mr. Lowry is completely aware of that fact.
As Ralph’s post notes–Ralph did speak to both Mark Lowry and the WTA before posting any of this.
The above post was placed PUBLICLY by Lowry on Facebook. Anyone, even those who aren’t “friends” with Lowry on Facebook, could see the post. That means the entire world was able to learn about these union negotiations because Lowry doesn’t understand how Facebook works.
That’s not reporters’ fault.
And the public has every right to know what’s going on with their taxpayer-funded transportation system.
Correction: FB posts are completely public … unless you’ve been blocked as Mark did me when he unfriended me. Now, I don’t even have the option to go to his page and read his posts and engage in friendly banter about the proposed coal terminal when he posts pro-terminal stuff. So much for public discourse.
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