Publications

May 11, 2006

Locked out! Puerto Rico's public employees take to the streets

A budget crisis in Puerto Rico has left nearly 100,000 public-sector workers furloughed since May 1. Some 20,000 of them belong to Servidores Públicos Unidos/AFSCME Council 95. Another 6,000 corrections employees and health and safety workers — also SPU members — remain on the job.

The lockout stems from the General Assembly’s failure to approve a new budget for the past two years. With the end of Fiscal Year 2006 looming, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila declared that the central government had run out of money, and ordered the shutdown. AFSCME members are among the thousands who have taken to the streets to voice their outrage. The union supports a comprehensive tax-reform policy that includes a 7 percent sales tax. It would not only fund government operations but also offer substantial tax relief for working families and the prospect of wage increases for public employees.

As this issue of AIM closed, political leaders had accepted recommendations by a special commission calling for a combination of measures to end the crisis. Among the provisions: public employees would resume work on May 14 and receive back pay for the entire period of the government shutdown.

On the march

Houston's AFSCME NOW (Local 1550) has filed an historic petition to become the sole collective bargaining agent for Houston’s 12,600 city employees. On April 20, workers held a rally and marched to the city secretary’s office to deliver the document as the union moves ahead with plans to create a bargaining committee to seek input and negotiate. AFSCME has represented Houston’s workers for close to five decades, but civilian employees (other than firefighters) could not bargain collectively until last year, after AFSCME successfully lobbied for a new "meet and confer" law. Signed in September by Governor Perry (R), the law — the first of its kind in Texas — gave municipal workers the right to negotiate with the mayor and city council regarding wages, benefits and working conditions. The city has 30 days from April 20 to review AFSCME’s petition — SEIU previously filed one — and is expected to hold an election to determine majority support; observers do not expect the outcome to bring outright recognition for one union or the other.

Kaiser concedes — bigtime

Jewish Communities Agencies Local 800 (Council 36) achieved a stunning victory in the medical insurance-coverage area. In concert with United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals/NUHHCE and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the local convinced Kaiser Permanente to increase its rates by 4.2 percent — versus the 60 percent Kaiser proposed. Kaiser Permanente also guaranteed the rate for 15 months, three months longer than usual.

R.I.P. ...

for the anti-labor Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Arizona and Wisconsin. Designed to limit tax revenue to the previous year’s level (adjusted for inflation and population), TABOR would starve public services and restrict the ability of elected officials to respond to imminent public health and safety threats. In Arizona, the measure is dead for this year. The Arizona Republic reported this month that efforts to cap the state budget by this means have stalled, and legislative advocates admit they lack the votes to put the measure on the November ballot. In addition, anti-worker "paycheck protection" is off the table for ’06, and AFSCME and its labor allies protected both long-term disability coverage in the pension system and health care coverage at the current rate of contributions. In Wisconsin, several Republican legislators joined Democrats in opposing the constitutional amendment required to put TABOR into effect. The opponents’ winning argument: Keep fiscal constraints out of the state constitution.

De-cert de-feats

Bargaining Unit 19 of Local 2620, the Union of California Social Service & Health Professionals, beat back an SEIU-supported decert attempt. Pushing the decert effort was the organization headed by the local’s former leaders who the membership had tossed out last October for failing to improve its wages, benefits and working conditions. The state-employed social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists, who are employed at some 800 facilities throughout California, were impressed by efforts of AFSCME’s new leadership team and its innovations. Among them: a member-outreach that includes a new website, newsletter and e-mail updates.

In addition, NUHHCE/AFSCME Local 1199J handily defeated the raider United Workers of America in a re-run decert election for 653 NUHHCE-organized workers in Hudson County, N.J. Shortly before the election, Baltimore-based IVP Glenard Middleton (executive director of Council 67) and two Maryland COs campaigned against the decert in New Jersey; they revved up the 70 COs at a youth facility that turned out only five voters in the initial balloting.

E-mail avalanche

To mobilize its members in behalf of a much-needed raise, Florida Council 79 Pres. (and IVP) Jeanette Wynn urged the 43,000 members to blitz legislators via e-mail. They did, and the lawmakers begged for relief. Wynn refused: State policy permits public employees to contact officials about state business.


 

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