Publications

May 25, 2006

One strikes, one prepares to

In Minnesota, nearly three dozen water and electric employees of the Grand Rapids Public Utilities Commission went on strike May 23. Among the lowest-paid utility workers in the state, the members of Local 3456 (Council 65) haven't seen a cost-of-living hike since January 2003. When the commission did offer a 3-percent wage increase, it also proposed reducing sickness and vacation leave – equivalent to a 3.5 percent pay cut! In Illinois, 53 substance-abuse counselors at Sheridan Correctional Center recently notified their private-sector employer, Gateway Foundations, that they will strike on June 6 if an agreement is not reached by then.

Reporting organizing wins in ...

Virginia, where 25 workers, employed by the Departments of Alcoholic Beverage Control and Motor Vehicles, have joined Council 27 since its March convention. The union has been focusing its efforts on two state prisons (Sussex I and II) and the Indian Creek Correctional Center, where most of the new members work as corrections officers, nurses, maintenance workers and counselors. Turns out advertising does pay: According to council Pres. Donald Baylor, some of the newcomers signed up after spotting the council's phone number on a van owned by its secretary-treasurer.

Back to work

Nearly 100,000 teachers and other public employees in Puerto Rico returned to work May 15 after a two-week lockout sparked by an impasse over the island government's budget. The workers, including 19,000 members of Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95, returned to their jobs after lawmakers approved an emergency loan of nearly $750 million – plus a new sales tax to fund repayment of the loan. The deal, which includes back pay, ensures that public employees will continue to work through the end of the current fiscal year on June 30. Gov. Acevedo Vila ordered the lockout after claiming the state would run out of money shortly before then. About 6,000 SPU-represented corrections workers and health and safety employees remained on the job during the lockout, while hundreds of SPUers who were laid off took to the streets to protest. Negotiations remain unsettled over the next fiscal-year budget.

Sticking with us

Members of Akron, Ohio, Local 1360 (Council 8) rejected an effort by some of their number to decertify and form an independent union. Out of 440 ballots cast, more than two-thirds were for remaining with the council. AFSCME International placed the blue-collar local under administratorship last September, and a recent AFSCME Judicial Panel ruling found the local's officers guilty of violating the union constitution by actively promoting the decertification campaign.

Just say 'no'

The AFSCME Employees Pension Plan is urging shareholders of Home Depot Inc. to support a proposal that would permit investors to cast advisory votes on the company's executive pay plan at its May 25 meeting. The huge California Public Employees' Retirement System, whose trustees include AFSCME member Priya Sara Mathur, has joined the effort. CalPERS own 10.3 million shares of Home Depot, worth $415.1 million as of May 3. Investors are concerned that the big retailer's to its compensation policy bears no relationship earnings: The company awarded its chief executive nearly $200 million in compensation over the past five years — a period during which the stock was declining by 12 percent!

The AFSCME Plan recently submitted the same advisory-vote proposal to three other companies: U.S. Bancorp (receiving roughly 39 percent of the votes cast), Merrill Lynch & Co. (getting 35 percent of the votes) and Countrywide Financial Corp. (where voting is set for June). In addition, the Plan has announced that it will withhold its support from 10 of the 11 directors serving on Home Depot's board because of their continued willingness to rubber-stamp excessive executive compensation and their refusal to tie CEO pays to company performance.

A real 'people person'

Attendees at the annual conference of OAPSE/ AFSCME Local 4 broke a local fundraising record: $37,362.50 contributed to PEOPLE, the union's legislative and political fundraising arm. Nearly $20,000 of that was raised through three raffles. One of four $1,000 raffle winners, OAPSE state Pres. JoAnn Johntony, declared that she will donate her winnings to PEOPLE. Now there's a real "PEOPLE person."

C.O. award winners

Edward Arasimowicz, a corrections officer at the Hartford Correctional Center in Connecticut, and a member of Local 1565 (Council 4), has been awarded Corrections USA's 2005 Medal of Valor. The non-profit organization, run for and by COs, cited Arasimowicz for subduing an armed inmate who was attempting to take a correctional supervisor hostage. Arasimowicz was selected from among 80 candidates. In addition to his medal, Arasimowicz will be featured on a poster to be distributed to correctional agencies nationwide.
Karen A. Willingham, a corrections officer at the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg, Ohio — and a member of OCSEA/Local 11's Chapter 7820 — has been named state's Correction Officer of the Year and honored with the Ronald C. Marshall Award. Willingham won out over some 30 Ohio colleagues. In addition to her regular duties, she mentors new COs and volunteers to help juvenile offenders.


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