Organizing for Power

From state to state, workers are organizing with AFSCME for a voice on the job. Here are some recent victories:

ILLINOIS

In separate card-check campaigns, more than 650 workers from two new bargaining units secured union representation with Council 31. At the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, 560 staff members — registered nurses and clerical, technical and paraprofessional employees — organized to demand better pay, win a voice at work and gain respect. In addition, 108 state employees — public information officers III and IV, dentists II, inhalation-therapist supervisors and auditors who deal with out-of-state firms — joined the union.

MICHIGAN

Child care providers at Romeo Public Schools want improved staffing levels and better pay and benefits, so they formed a union with Council 25. The 29-member unit voted 16 to 7 for AFSCME via mail-in ballot.

NEBRASKA

Seeking out a union that could help them negotiate fair and longer-term contracts, members of the Bellevue City Association affiliated with the Nebraska Association of Public Employees (NAPE)/AFSCME Local 61. After interviewing other unions, the group of 102 workers voted unanimously to join NAPE.

NEW MEXICO

In Española, city officials — who had waged an anti-union campaign — caved in days before a state-ordered election and agreed to accept the results of a card-check effort in behalf of more than 100 workers. Many of them were unhappy because of long delays by management in granting pay raises and cost-of-living increases.

NEW YORK

Inability to keep pace with the high cost of living motivated 120 cafeteria and dietary workers from Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla to join the Civil Service Employees Association/ AFSCME Local 1000 via card check. The workers are employed by for-profit Sodexho, which has secured numerous food-service contracts at the expense of public employees across the country. But that didn't hamper the organizing effort.

WISCONSIN

Council 40's statewide visibility and reputation across the state attracted 64 members of the Municipal Employment Association. The workers — employed by city hall and the Department of Public Works in DePere — want to be part of a bigger, stronger union. AFSCME's victory: 43 to 15.