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Prepared Remarks for AFSCME International Secretary-Treasurer William (Bill) Lucy to AFSCME's 34th International Convention

Prepared Remarks of AFSCME International Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy to the 34th International Convention

In 1965 when I assumed the presidency of my local union, Local 1675 in Contra Costa County, our national union boasted proudly of 250,000 members.

Two hundred and fifty thousand members who were treated as second class citizens in their relationships with their employers—the cities, counties, states, special districts and boards of education across the nation.

We were 250,000 public employees with whom no government entity felt obligated to negotiate.

We were specifically excluded from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act. While federal workers enjoyed the protection extended to them under President John Kennedy’s executive order, we were out in the cold.

But here in this city—Philadelphia—a ray of hope existed for city employees. Through determination, hard work and effective political action, local leaders in those early days wrestled a contract from this city to cover its workers.

And now we come back to the city where it all began, to Philadelphia in the year 2000 as the biggest, baddest, boldest, butt-kickingest union in the American Labor Movement.

And we owe our new status as the biggest and the best union to all of you, our leaders from every corner of this great nation—from Hawaii to Maine and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Yes, we should take pride in where we are today, but we must never forget where we came from and how we got here.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jerry’s late father, Bill McEntee, who led this union in Philadelphia for so long.

We owe much to Bill and to the others—ordinary, hardworking people who had no idea they were building the greatest union in America—men like Charlie Santore... and Marty Devlin ... and Charlie Dade... and even to those who caused us a few hiccups and headaches along the way like Earl Stout.

Let me share something that one of those ordinary heroes once told me. He said the key to organizing was to try and understand the problems of the people you are trying to organize.

That may sound overly simple, but it’s probably the wisest thing I’ve ever heard about organizing. It didn’t come from a Harvard Ph.D.—it came from a hardworking man named Jim Hogwood. And I try to remember it every single day.

So, as we find ourselves in the year 2000, preparing for the challenges and opportunities of the future, we must always remember our past. No matter how far we go, it will always be the truest part of who we are as a union.

Yesterday, we heard Jerry lay out the challenges at hand and describe the work that must be done to meet those challenges.

At our last convention in Hawaii, we identified four imperatives for the future: Organize new members, fight the right wing through effective political action, combat privatization and maintain the fiscal integrity of our union.

These imperatives continue to serve as a road map for AFSCME as we negotiate the new terrain of the 21st Century. They are also the priorities that determine the International’s budget.

One of our four imperatives is a commitment to fiscal integrity. I want to reiterate Jerry’s comments from yesterday and make it clear that this union has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to the misappropriation of our members’ money.

We act swiftly and surely to correct the problem, and we make no exceptions.

Much depends on our support of you in this crucial area, but we must also realize that much depends on you at the local level. You must demand accountability in every aspect of financial activity.

As Secretary-Treasurer, I also want to make it clear that we understand there is a huge distinction in mistakes that are made deliberately, with an intent to defraud, and in honest mistakes that are made through lack of training or misunderstanding of the best practices in accounting and fiduciary responsibility.

To address the second category, the International has expanded its training program for officers of our affiliates on policy and procedure, formatting, reporting, documentation and the approval process for financial activity.

I am proud to report that since our ’98 convention, we have conducted 71 workshops in 26 states, with a total of 2,799 officers participating. That’s an example of how we work in partnership with all our affiliates to achieve our goals.

As Secretary/Treasurer of the International, it is my duty to report on the financial status of the union. Included in your delegate kit is the Secretary-Treasurer’s Report that includes detailed financial statements for the years 1998 and 1999. I encourage you all to read the report for a comprehensive view, but this morning I will share a summary of AFSCME’s finances.

In 1998, the union generated $94,878,562 in total revenue, $93,985,030 in total expense and earned a net surplus of $893,532. For 1999, our total revenue was up to $103,702,661. Expenses during 1999 rose to $102,053,843 and we earned a surplus from operations of $1,648,818.

In 1999, our total revenue increased by $8,824,099 over the previous year. The majority of this increase was a direct result of the first of the two fifty cent increases in the per capita tax authorized at our last convention, an action that required from our delegates both vision and the commitment to build a stronger union. The per capita tax increase has allowed us to stay within budget and simultaneously focus effectively on the four imperatives of this union.

During 1998 and 1999 we earned a modest surplus, totaling $2,542,350.

Our statement of Assets and Liabilities for 1998 shows total assets of $38,872,947 against total liabilities and reserves of $31,425,720. Our net assets at the end of 1998 were $7,447,227. At the end of 1999 our total assets were $44,861,371, against total liabilities and reserves of $37,955,353. Net assets declined by the end of 1999 to $6,906,018.

The decline in net assets, in part, is the result of increasing costs accruing for post retirement health benefits and increases in our reserves, including this convention. Our net assets will not change substantially while we maintain the concept of "dues dollars in equals dues dollars out" for member services.

Brothers and sisters, let me spell it out for you—this is a tight budget because we run a tight ship.

Do we have the discipline and commitment to keep our fiscal house in order, so that we can do what needs to be done on behalf of our members and the working families of America?

From the report submitted, I think you’ll agree with me that the answer is a resounding yes.

And it’s a good thing too, because the challenges of the year 2000 leave no room for excess or padding. Every dollar of members’ money is needed to meet our organizing, communications, legislative, research, education, public policy and political action goals in partnership with our councils and locals.

We heard the good news from Jerry yesterday about our successful efforts to organize new members. Much has been done in a brief two year period, but much remains to be done.

Organizing, education and communication go hand in hand. Unlike many organizations, in order to be effective, we need our members to be informed—informed on issues that affect them at their workplace, in their communities, and in the national arena of public policy.

Jerry told us yesterday that approximately seventy percent of our members are registered to vote. That is a tremendous achievement, but we can do better.

Also, our latest surveys indicate that more than half of our members have access to the Internet at home and this number is growing every day.

At this convention, we are launching a new form of outreach to our members. Those who can’t be here with us can watch Green TV, a one hour broadcast every night on the Internet with highlights from that day’s proceedings. So don’t forget to call home and tell everyone to check us out online.

This use of new technology is designed to raise the level of awareness of our members about our union, our issues and our mission.

In years gone by, we grew up thinking there were things we could believe in about America. We could expect our lives to be a certain way.

It was our belief that the steel mills would operate forever in Pennsylvania, rubber plants would always make tires in Akron, televisions would be manufactured in New Jersey, and automobiles would always come from Detroit.

But in 1980, the basis for these beliefs was shattered when we were introduced to a new economic theory—a theory so simple in design that it would defy logic. It was a theory—of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

Ronald Reagan called it supply side economics. George W. Bush’s daddy called it voodoo economics. And David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget called it, "the greatest shift in wealth from ordinary working people to the already rich and wealthy in the history of economic policy."

It was the trigger mechanism for the 12-year corporate feeding frenzy where mergers, leveraged buy-outs and consolidations ran rampant across the nation and across the world.

Bank rip-offs and failures, and subsequent home losses, farm foreclosures and savings and loans scandals were at a higher rate than any time since the Great Depression.

But the rich did not foot the bill for these disasters. No, sometimes they were paid for by junk bonds, and sometimes, by the pension funds that were stolen from our fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers who lost their jobs and their futures.

They were paid for by all of us—the tax payers who bailed out the banks, the savings and loans thieves, and ultimately the failing corporations.

This was the beginning of the era of globetrotting corporations, which refused to respect the sovereignty or laws of any nation, spoiling the environment and exploiting workers.

This was the beginning of the era of immoral salaries for CEOs. In some instances these salaries reached 400 times that of their average employee, and they rewarded themselves with multimillion dollar stock options, bonuses and platinum parachutes, while they laid off workers left and right and mismanaged their companies into insolvency.

We at AFSCME learned a valuable lesson during this time that we are now putting into use.

There are currently more than 1,000 public employee pension funds that own a healthy slice of corporate America. Together they control more than $1.7 trillion in assets.

This year, AFSCME began our Corporate Affairs program, a program that has the protection and security of our members’ retirement funds at its core. Our aim is to insure that corporations in which we hold equity will maintain sound corporate governance policies. And above all, we will hold CEOs accountable for their actions.

We will not sit on the sidelines and witness a return to corporate greed at the expense of workers and shareholders nationwide.


This is the way it is now, but let’s remember the way it was not so long ago. For 12 years, while Reagan and Bush played the politics of division—East against West, North against South, old against young, black against white—this nation went down the economic sewer.

During these years, the Reagan-Bush White House remained totally committed to the concept of welfare for the rich, while allowing poor and working Americans to fend for themselves.

This shift in economic policy to support global corporations forced American workers to compete with unorganized workers in low wage economies across the world. Both U.S. and international workers lost out in this deal.

Millions of jobs disappeared from the U.S. economy—good paying, industrial jobs. And at the same time, globalization was eliminating other jobs abroad. This resulted in a shift in our domestic economy from a manufacturing to a service base, and it created an increased immigration wave into the U.S. of both documented and undocumented workers.

This emphasis on an economy of low wage jobs in industries that are generally unorganized has been detrimental to immigrant and U.S. workers alike. It is labor’s responsibility to organize immigrant workers, whether they are documented or not, to raise economic standards for all workers.

And what else has been the legacy of the Reagan-Bush era? At the end of their Administration, let us not forget the condition of our country:

  1. A National Budget Deficit of $390 billion.
  2. A National Debt of almost $4 trillion.
  3. Sky-high interest rates.
  4. Decline in urban investment.
  5. Decline in education spending.
  6. Increased unemployment.
  7. Greater home and farm foreclosures.
  8. Decreased job training.
  9. Increased crime.

While Reagan slept through the first eight years and Bush stumbled through the next four, their wealthy allies promoted policies that returned us to the era of states’ rights.

They gave us a Supreme Court that is so out of touch with the reality of American life, that by five to four votes they are rolling back the clock on every major gain that this country has enjoyed for 40 years.

In 1992, we began to turn this around.

In a little over seven years, we have:

  1. Balanced the federal budget.
  2. Reduced the national debt.
  3. Controlled inflation and reduced interest rates.
  4. Increased investment in transportation, public works and the environment.
  5. Increased investment in education and job training.
  6. Created more jobs.
  7. Dramatically decreased unemployment—in fact, adult unemployment is at its lowest in 30 years, youth unemployment lowest in 20 years and African-
    American youth unemployment is at its absolute lowest since this statistic has been kept.
  8. Drastically decreased crime rates.
  9. Increased home ownership.
  10. Increased family and disposable incomes.

George W. Bush says he must save the nation from the economic catastrophe that faces us.

Just what in the hell is the catastrophe?

That working people can now buy food for their table and clothe their children?

That hard-working people who have rented an apartment their entire working lives can now afford to own a home?

Is the catastrophe that working people in the year 2000 may be able to send their children to college in hopes of a better life?

Is this what he wants to save us from, brothers and sisters?

George W. Bush is said to be a man of strong beliefs, and I think that to be true.

George W. Bush believes exactly what he is told he believes—nothing more, nothing less and he will be the standard bearer for his party.

Brothers and sisters, in spite of his shortcomings this will be a tough campaign.

By the time November arrives, his wealthy friends will have spent so much on him that even Bush will believe he knows what he is talking about.

Brothers and sisters, we will win this election for the presidency and we will take back the House of Representatives.

We will win back the House for a simple reason.

Since 1994 and the so-called Gingrich Revolution, the American people have grown tired of the ideological warfare waged against the nation by the House leadership.

This whole era of "gotcha politics" that has driven good people from public office and convinced better candidates not to run.

This little group of warped thinkers who believe their special definition of morality ought to be imposed on the rest of the universe.

That tight little band of wackos that believes every single-parent head of a household has committed a vile sin for which God will never forgive them.

They who assume, that by virtue of receiving a majority vote in their congressional elections, that God has appointed them special overseers of the values and choices of everyone in their districts.

That small group who is ardently pro-life, but opposed to sex—a dilemma that pre-occupies their time, trying to figure out how they got here.

That little group that spends so much time bashing immigrants, yet makes it easy for crooked employers to exploit and intimidate them without any fear of punishment.

Brothers and sisters, we must get back to a time where political dialogue is once again a competition between ideas and issues, not merely between fads and fashions.

We can, must and will be victorious in November.

We have the best political program of any national union.

We have the best activists in any union to carry out this program.

From the first caucus in Iowa through the Super Tuesday primaries and beyond, our people have been on the front lines—stuffing envelopes, licking stamps, making phone calls and doing everything we could to mobilize our members. And we have succeeded.

As we head toward November, we are prepared for battle and we are clear in our mission.

We will fight in every state, every congressional district, every precinct.

We will concede defeat nowhere.

We will seek victory everywhere.

Brothers and sisters, the future is now, and it’s in our hands. Let’s do it.

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