Bigger & Bolder in Minnesota
By Susan Ellen Holleran
Thinking outside the box, three Minnesota councils said, Let's get together. The result: the new Council 5.
ST. PAUL
Three Minnesota councils substantially increased their cohesiveness, ability to fight budget cuts and to lobby in general by taking a very basic step. They merged, creating a new council that represents 40,000 workers. By joining forces, they saved resources, increased coordination and built a powerful union with the clout needed to win the first general wage increase for its state employee members in three years.
This action was a carefully planned response to a resolution adopted by delegates to AFSCME's 35th Convention encouraging councils to coordinate their activities and consolidate where feasible. The rank-and-file presidents of Minnesota Councils 6, 14 and 96 — a transportation specialist, a public defender and a special education assistant, respectively — took the lead. At their quarterly meetings, the council presidents discussed how a merger could give them more political clout.
Deb Bloom, then president of Council 96, which represented Duluth-area local government and health care workers, liked the idea: "We were landlocked. There wasn't much more that we could organize." If nothing changed, she saw real problems ahead for her members. It was time to become proactive. Council 14 Pres. Cliff Poehler was discussing the idea with his council director, Roger Siegal, who had gone through a successful AFSCME merger in Michigan and the one that brought the Minneapolis and St. Paul councils together to create Council 14. Poehler realized that Council 14 was wasting resources by going its own way. At the very least, AFSCME needed more coordination throughout the state.
TOUGH TIMES. Minnesota's state and local workers were struggling. Thousands of them organized to build a better standard of living, win a voice on the job, elect worker-friendly public officials. But by the late 1990s, employers were demanding givebacks and organizing had slowed.
In addition, anti-worker forces were in the ascendancy, with elected officials trying to balance budgets on the backs of public workers and the poor. Management kept pushing for increases in the employee contribution for health care insurance, while the value of the coverage dropped. Without coordinated efforts, the state's AFSCME councils ended up fighting over crumbs. It was a make-or-break time for AFSCME activists.
TAKE BACK MINNESOTA. In early 2003, the councils joined in a concerted effort to fight Gov. Tim Pawlenty's (R) planned budget cuts. The International sent in long-time Area Dir. Eliot Seide — who had deep Minnesota AFSCME roots — to coordinate the campaign.
Mike Buesing, who was Council 6 president at the time, wasn't convinced that the merger idea would be good for his council, but he was happy to see all the councils work together on politics and organizing. "In the past, the attitude had been: If it's going to benefit me and hurt you, what do I care? Now things were different," he says. "You and I were 'we.'"
As he worked on the Take Back Minnesota campaign, Buesing began to understand how the merger could improve efficiency. "There were too many 'gatekeepers,'" he says. "Often there were roadblocks to getting members of locals from different councils into the same room." He found the bureaucracy a real problem. "Getting a resolution for a legislative or political issue was difficult. It had to be passed by all the executive boards. The time factor alone presented problems."
GETTING TOGETHER. As they worked together, the council presidents became convinced that merging into one council — with a strong financial base and improved communications capacity — was best for their members. But they wanted to hear what the members thought.
"The Minnesota council unification and adoption of the Minnesota change program only happened because we had engaged rank-and-file members and leaders from the beginning," says International Vice Pres. Peter Benner, who was Council 6 executive director at the time.
Throughout early 2004, council officers conducted more than 40 meetings across the state. They discussed the merger concept, answered questions and asked for ideas. Each council then held its own special convention to consider the proposed merger. For Council 14, the vote was a unanimous "yes." Delegates from Councils 6 and 96 also voted yes. Council 65, which represents local government workers around the state, voted by a small margin not to merge. But its members joined in Day on the Hill activities and eagerly anticipate joint efforts to elect state legislators who support working families.
STEP BY STEP. There was still a lot to do. Poehler served on the committee that developed a new constitution. Then the three presidents chose not to run against each other and decided to support Buesing for president. He was elected, along with Bloom as vice president and Poehler as treasurer. Seide was elected executive director.
The new Council 5 held its founding convention in October. And although many details are still being ironed out, the merged union is already kickin' butt. Team spirit brought out more member participation — and success — in last November's elections. (John Kerry won Minnesota.) AFSCME members serve on city councils and in the state legislature. And Minnesota "AFSCME 2005 Day on the Hill" exceeded expectations with 1,000 members and a coordinated message to improve their wages and benefits. When the members explained that they were representing 40,000, the legislators had to listen.
But in July of this year, with the legislature and governor deadlocked over the fiscal 2006 budget, it appeared that Council 5's message — and its next three-year contract, then on the table — might get lost. A partial, eight-day government shutdown that ensued left some 9,000 state workers taking unwanted and unpaid furloughs.
The beefed-up council lost no time making sure its members weren't further victimized by the political impasse. It quickly gathered employees from agencies around the state for a major rally at the capitol. Their united voices were heard loud and clear. At 4:30 a.m. on July 29 — three weeks after the shutdown had ended — the council reached a tentative 2005-07 agreement. It included an across-the-board, 2 percent wage hike in each year of the contract and held the line on health care premiums.
At the end of August, 86 percent of the membership ratified the deal. Leon Bowman, chief steward of Local 945, was pleased. "We talked about getting better contracts because of the merger," he says. "This contract is an example of the strength of a union with 40,000 members."
