AFSCME International Executive Board Approves "Emergency Crusade"
Washington, D.C.
Meeting at AFSCME headquarters here in December, the union’s International Executive Board voted unanimously to refocus AFSCME programs and resources for 1996 in the largest single change of pace in the union’s history (see President’s Column).
AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee urged the board to approve funds for an “emergency crusade” to defend against the threat to public service jobs and beat back the anti-government agenda that threatens those jobs.
McEntee called the new priority on political action “simple recognition of reality, that the jobs of everyone in the public sector, from health care to public works, are now on the chopping block.”
In response, members of the board agreed that in 1996 the national union should redirect energies and resources into an unprecedented election-year mobilization of members and messages in favor of well-funded, high-quality public services.
"This will not be an ordinary year,” declared McEntee, “because this year the wolf is at our door and ready to blow our house down.”
"Even today, not everyone in the AFSCME family understands that their job and the future well-being of their family will be decided in the next election,” added Sec.-Treas. William Lucy, “but that’s exactly what’s at stake.”
Congressional initiatives to balance the federal budget in seven years impose a “triple whammy” on state and local government workers, said McEntee. With welfare reform and Medicaid reform, the congressional leadership wants to place a lid on the federal contribution while increasing costs for state budgets. At the same time, the Republican leadership in Congress wants $245 billion in tax cuts largely targeted to the wealthy and to corporations. If enacted, those tax cuts will automatically translate into lost revenue at the state level, since most states figure their taxes based upon the taxpayer’s federal liability. If the federal formula goes down, so will that for states, cutting money available for state and local government jobs.
The board approved a 1996 budget for $91,260,800 over last year’s budget of $86,098,428, with increases in political action, lobbying, and research. The board reviewed preliminary plans to deploy staff on issues campaigns for lengthy periods in target states and to spur voter registration and turnout. Paid media campaigns on TV and radio will be featured as well as phone bank outreach. In addition, AFSCME activists will spark aggressive efforts to win back legislative control of at least 14 state legislatures.
"Either we turn things around or things will turn on us,” said McEntee. “It will take a crusade to save our union and the jobs of our members. We can mobilize an army of volunteers. We can seize the initiative, and we can win.”
In other action, Sec.-Treas. Lucy certified total AFSCME International membership figures for the legislative districts from which International vice presidents are elected. Those figures showed that two districts—the Central District (Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee) and the Southern District (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina)— had membership fewer than one percent of all local unions in AFSCME.
As required by the International Constitution, the board established a hearing committee to hold hearings in the two legislative districts and propose a revision plan to the board. The committee consists of International Vice Presidents William Endsley, Flora Walker, and Joseph McDermott.
The board also approved affiliation of the City of Oak Lawn Municipal Employees (Illinois) and reappointed two members to the International Union Judicial Panel: Gary Rodrigues, state director of Hawaii’s United Public Workers, and Phyllis Zamarripa, organizer with Colorado Council 76. The board also approved the appointment of a new member of the panel—Illinois Council 31 Assoc. Director Rosetta Daylie.
