Publications

February 14, 2006

Iowa child care providers choose AFSCME

Despite persistent opposition and interference from SEIU, AFSCME/Child Care Providers Together is the new union for the state's 6,000 registered family child careproviders. Well over the required majority signed cards authorizing Council 61 to represent them in contract negotiations. Registered child care providers throughout the state have worked to organize a union since the fall of 2004. In January of this year, Governor Vilsack (D) signed an executive order providing bargaining rights. Provider Ylonda Shook spoke for all when she said, "For too long, registered child care providers haven't had a seat at the table. "With AFSCME/CCPT, we can begin our campaign to improve our lives, conditions of work and the services we provide to the hard-working families we serve." Declared Lee Saunders, executive assistant to President McEntee: "An overwhelming majority of providers chose AFSCME/CCPT because they know we're the best union for helping child care providers improve their work lives. It's time for SEIU to stand down."

Reporting organizing wins in ...

New York City, where more than 1,000 employees of Lifespire Inc., a human-services agency, won card check recognition with CSEA/Local 1000. This is the union's largest-ever private-sector organizing achievement. After verifying more than 700 signatures, an arbitrator declared CSEA the employees' union. Bargaining for a first contract is set to begin in 30 days. In North Dakota, where there is no right to collective bargaining, about 90 corrections officers from the state's maximum and minimum prisons in Bismarck joined Council 59 — and the numbers continue to grow with additional signups. The union established a new statewide local for the members: N.D. Corrections United/ AFSCME Local 2857; organizing continues at two other prisons — a medium-security institution in Jamestown and a youth facility in Mandan. In Illinois, where 56 employees of Heartland Human Services, a private facility for the mentally and developmentally disabled in Effingham, voted to join Council 31. Also voting for Council 31 representation: 66 professional and non-professional employees of the DeKalb County Health Department, and 30 state employees in two different units. In Ohio, where 85 Mason City School District custodians and groundskeepers voted to join OAPSE/Local 4. In Iowa, where about 40 County Courthouse Clerical and Administrative Employees voted to join Council 61. In Massachusetts, where 18 public-library employees of the town of Cheshire joined the ranks of Council 93. And in Pennsylvania, where Council 13 added 30 food-service workers in the Sharon School District via card check; contract talks are already underway.

Her honor, the mayor

Norma Torres, a Los Angeles Police Department dispatcher and a member of Local 3090 (Council 36), has become the first latina mayor of the city of Pomona. A councilwoman since November 2000, Torres was elected mayor on Jan. 10 to fill out the remaining three-year term of the late Eddie Cortez. She defeated 10 other candidates to run the city.

ECAP recap

AFSCME's grassroots effort to defeat President Bush's Draconian budget and tax cuts came extremely close to success last week. The Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP), as the coalition effort is know, helped persuade two of 11 moderate House Republicans to vote against the House leadership's final bill imposing the cuts — thereby narrowing the tally to 216-214 in favor of passage. The nearly $40 billion in service reductions — to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy — targeted programs that benefit the poor and the elderly; the bill passed on a largely party-line vote. Ultimately, 13 Republicans broke with their leadership and opposed the measure, demonstrating the effectiveness of the AFSCME-led opposition.

Aside from almost disabling the Bush steamroller in Congress, ECAP, which was launched last October, has generated great interest and activism within AFSCME's membership and beyond. Some 31,000 activists signed up on the campaign's website, for an innovative, national online "march," while more than 250,000 e-mails flooded Capitol Hill. TV ads, aimed at targeted districts, were unveiled at the national level by President McEntee and at the local level by council presidents and ECAP leaders. Speak-out forums in key states, radio and newspaper ads, direct mail, a petition drive and educational phone calls rounded off the out-front push.

The effort generated a great deal of local news coverage. Behind the scenes, lobbyists from the International's Legislation Department called and visited individual lawmakers. On Dec. 12, President McEntee kicked off a National Week of Prayer and Action for Compassionate Priorities that launched more than 100 events, including a Capitol Hill sit-in. AFSCME and ECAP are primed to battle against new tax cuts for the wealthy and program cuts in the 2007 budget.

New contract

Some 600 employees at the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minnesota have a new two-year contract. It covers members of Local 977 (Council 5), which last October added a 500-member clerical unit at the hospital. Their contract raises wages 2.5 percent each year. It also provides a 4-percent step raise at the top, a grievance process and a labor/management meeting structure that will examine the peer performance-review process.


 

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