PEOPLE=Power
AFSCME's best political activists know that members and money help build union muscle.
By Clyde Weiss
Take an Illinois council that represents 70,000 public service workers throughout the state. Add a New Jersey council made up of mostly low-wage direct care workers. Mix in a local whose members operate a water system for nearly 18 million Southern Californians. What do you get? Three of the most politically active unions in AFSCME.
Why? Because each of them — Illinois Council 31, California Local 1902 and New Jersey Council 71 — has attained the status of "super achiever." That is, each has exceeded the 25-percent member-participation rate with AFSCME's political action committee, Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality. Through PEOPLE, AFSCME members can increase their clout with lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels — to protect their jobs from such threats as privatization, strengthen their hand in collective bargaining, help elect labor-friendly lawmakers.
Each super achiever was honored at the International's 2004 Convention. Council 31 was tops, followed in order by Local 1902 and Council 71. Seventy-one's feat was particularly notable, President McEntee pointed out at the awards ceremony, because its members (nurse aides) earn roughly $20,000 a year — "yet they know how important politics is to us."
A closer look at the trio:
CAUSE & EFFECT. Throughout Illinois, Council 31 members understand the link between political power and their jobs: Elected officials are — for the most part — their direct employers. Even those who work for private contractors know the importance of political action, as evidenced by the recent experience of some 400 health care workers.
During difficult contract negotiations last summer, the AFSCME nurses, pharmacists and other professionals employed at 23 Illinois prisons voted overwhelmingly to go on strike against their employer, Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources Inc., a medical-services contractor hired by the state. The employees formed a union with Council 31 during the 1990s.
As their strike deadline neared, members made picket signs and even set up portable toilets and shelters. But on the eve of the strike — when it became clear to everyone that 100 percent of the members would participate — the state fired Wexford and hired a new company, which immediately entered into negotiations. Members were soon ratifying a new three-year contract that raised wages and improved benefits. The state has since rehired Wexford, and company officials, having learned their lesson, signed the union's existing contract.
Council 31's political clout, supported by the PEOPLE program, gave Wexford's employees the leverage they needed to prevail and win a strong contract. Since then, at least 150 of them have joined PEOPLE at the "Most Valuable PEOPLE" (MVP) level — those who contribute at least $100 a year — and even more at lower levels.
"Through PEOPLE, we have not only power in numbers but also the power to inform," says Russ Stunkel, a corrections officer and president of Local 993 at the Vandalia Correctional Center. "It's the foundation of our ability to get politicians to support us."
POLITICAL HARDBALL. The roughly 1,650 members of California water district Local 1902 are no strangers to politics. In 1998, they conducted a successful letter-writing campaign to defeat a broad-based privatization bill. Two years later, during negotiations to renew their five-year contract, they crafted their own legislation requiring their employer to pick up the full 7 percent contribution to their pension plan. The threat of its passage was enough to persuade water-district management to drop its opposition and write the contribution into Local 1902's new contract.
Realizing that political strength increases collective bargaining power, the union developed a team of 13 members, each of whom would contact two or three new PEOPLE prospects a day. In 2001, team members set a goal of 10 percent participation and reached 17; the following year, the figure soared to about 30 percent. Now the team conducts annual check-off promotions, and has recently been recruiting at the MVP level.
WORTHY SACRIFICE. Most of the Council 71 members who contribute to PEOPLE are direct care providers who work at such state institutions as psychiatric hospitals and schools for the developmentally disabled in New Jersey. They don't make much, as McEntee observed while presenting their award in 2004. Yet, he added, they reach deeply into their paychecks to contribute because they know digging deep can make a big difference in the ballot box.
The union, based in Williamstown, is constantly working to sign up contributors to PEOPLE. One popular method is to educate members during "AFSCME Days" — day-long workplace events where locals provide lunch, register new voters and offer medical check-ups. The PEOPLE sign-up table stands conveniently close by.
"We point out to members just who signs their paychecks," says Brenda Carpenter, the council's executive director. "It's a great motivator to remind folks that it's either a mayor or governor that signs — so we need to be out there in force when they're up for election. That's what the PEOPLE program allows us to do."
