Why have term limits? After all, if amp had a president that fought for and did a great job for M&R wouldn't you want to keep that person in office? If the Presidents wasn't doing so good, just recall them.
To me the only term limit should be the ballott box. Not allowing someone to run who would have popular support is un-Democratic.
The Term limit concept comes from the Republican ideology, the idea is to make sure that working people could never go into politics, after a few years they would have to find another job, this is great for Big Business because every politician would spend the last few years of their terms looking to set themselves up with a job, who can do that for them? Big Business! Bingo! They dont have to look out for the people who elected them, they have to set themselves up for when they are out. It doesnt matter if they do a good job for the people , they are out, but if they barter off political favors to Big Business they can count on some payback.
If you have term limits it just makes things better for whoever would be able to offer something better, as long as they cooperate, after the term. Now in the union we have our jobs to come back to but how often do we see guys jump into management right after they are voted out? Term limits only help get rid of bad representatives but also get rid of good ones. Lets face it, nobody is trained to be a union rep, you learn it as you go, so just when someone may be getting good they get pushed out even if the guys are happy with the job they are doing and you get someone else starting brand new again.
I say instead of term limits Unions should have Recall and a requirement that all paid officials sign a no-compete clause(officers through shop stewards) that they will not go into management at AMR for a five year period , if they do they should have to forfiet all wages and reimburse the Union for any training they recieved.
We put Recall into our Bylaws, and one of these days we will get around to a no-compete clause. With recall and regular elections the members set the term limits.