Organizing for Power

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

ILLINOIS

A unit of 451 sheriff's police officers from Cook County chose Council 31 in a runoff with the Fraternal Order of Police. The officers were no doubt impressed with the council's record of securing better pay and benefits for its members.

Fifty-four substance-abuse counselors at the Sheridan Correctional Center — employees of the private, not-for-profit Gateway Foundation — beat back a strong anti-union campaign. Other council wins by card check: 63 city workers in Berwyn and 41 library technical assistants at Illinois State University.

MISSOURI

Republican Governor Blunt may not like union organizing in his state but he cannot stop Department of Correction workers from doing it anyway. The unit of nearly 900 crafts and maintenance workers voted 317 to 178 to form a union with Council 72. The election was the first involving state employees after the governor repealed an executive order that had granted them the power to bargain collectively.

PENNSYLVANIA

By 33 to 13, clerical workers from the Northampton County court system chose AFSCME Council 88 to represent them. The unit of 56 workers wanted to have an effective voice in the workplace by being part of a stronger union. Earlier, 51 corrections officers at the county's Juvenile Justice Center voted 31 to 1 to form a union with Council 13. Many COs were outraged by moves county administrators made last year to freeze wages and increase health insurance premiums.

PUERTO RICO

Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/ AFSCME Council 95 won the right to represent approximately 238 Department of Consumer Affairs employees at seven different worksites throughout the island. Local 3986 Organizing Committee Interim Pres. Wilson Ramirez hailed the over-whelming 165-to-4 vote.