Publications

February 22, 2005

S.O.S.S. — Save our Social Security

To build public opposition to the dangerous, irresponsible plan to privatize Social Security, AFSCME is making two million phone calls to non-member voters in 33 congressional districts nationwide. Call recipients are also urged to make their opposition known to their congressional representatives. AFSCME has previously telephoned a quarter of the union's 1.6 million members and retiree members to educate them about the same threat. "Organizing at the grassroots is the best way for us to cut through the President's propaganda and staged events, and speak directly to the people who have the most to lose," says McEntee.

Please sign up!

President Bush is aiming to sharply reduce Social Security's guaranteed benefit as part of his privatization plan. In addition, his budget proposal includes deep cuts to important domestic programs that would reduce services to clients and cause layoffs among state- and local-government employees. Sign AFSCME's online petition to protect our retirement and jobs! It's simple and convenient.

Organizing with a good cause

In Pennsylvania, 51 corrections officers at the Northampton County Juvenile Justice Center voted 31 to 1 form a union with Council 13. The COs' action was prompted by country administrators' negative steps in 2004. The officials froze wages and doubled health insurance.

Triumphant trio

In Illinois, more than 150 workers joined Council 31. At the Sheridan Correctional Center, 54 substance-abuse counselors — employees of the Gateway Foundation, a private, not-for-profit agency — fought through a rigorous anti-union campaign and came aboard by a vote of 30 to 22. Two other groups won union representation via card check: 63 city workers in Berwyn and 41 library technical assistants at Illinois State University.

A deal at last

After more than a year at the bargaining table, the Baltimore school board last week approved a two-year contract with Municipal Employees Local 44 (Council 67). The agreement includes a 2.5 percent raise retroactive to July '04 and an identical hike July '05. The union represents the school system's lowest-paid employees, including janitors, bus drivers and food-service workers.

Strike averted

About 80 maintenance workers, food-service employees, paraprofessionals and bus drivers represented by Minnesota Local 456 (Council 65) won't be going on strike as threatened: A majority voted to ratify a mediator's proposal covering two three-year contracts with the Greenway School District in Coleraine. The agreement provides a hefty 10.94 percent salary increase over the life of the contracts. It also includes a requirement that full-time employees pay back a portion of health benefits received in prior years. That burden was eased by the district's agreeing not to contract out for services through at least 2006 (when the latest contract ends) and to protect the seniority, salary and benefits of employees hired before 2005.

Not so fast, Jeb

Florida Governor Bush's effort to destroy public employee unions in the state's university system has been dealt a major legal setback. In 2003, Bush abolished the Board of Regents and replaced it with new boards of trustees for each of the 11 universities, and the state claimed that action voided workers' contracts. When two of the universities gave notice they would stop collecting union dues — and planned to ignore negotiated grievance procedures — Council 79 and United Faculty of Florida took legal action. A state agency rejected their protest, but a state court of appeals judge ruled that Florida can't "unilaterally terminate its obligations under a collective bargaining agreement simply by re-organizing the Executive Branch." The court sent the case back to the agency for a rehearing. If upheld, the ruling would bring the 30,000-employee university system back into the AFSCME fold.

Heartbreaker

Without a contract since June 2004, the 7,000-plus low-wage service workers employed at the nine University of California (UC) campuses and five medical centers — all members of Local 3299 — are outraged at the large bonuses (averaging $36,000) approved last year for 65 UC medical center execs. Members of the local recently rallied outside the Davis hospital wearing red and pink heart-shaped signs emblazoned with the slogan "Fat Cat Bonuses Break My Heart." To drive home their point about fairness, workers last week released an AFSCME-sponsored analysis showing that 93 percent of UC service workers earned wages too low to meet the basic needs of a single adult with a child.

Singing the blues

Demonstrating against privatization last week in downtown Memphis, a coalition of some 50 activists, led by members of Local 1733, beat a drum and sang lyrics that the Shelby County Commission — meeting right there at that time — would gladly sell their souls. The commission is seeking a request for proposals from private companies to manage the privatization of the county correction center and downtown jail, where AFSCME represents some 1,300 COs and deputy jailers. Before the commissioners, too, is a plan to place private security guards at correction-center entrances.


 

 

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