Publications

May 19, 2005

What a vision

A 77-member direct care unit at the Visions Network has formed a union with Illinois Council 31 through a card check process. Visions Network is a state-funded private agency based in Des Plaines that provides services for people with developmental disabilities in the Chicago area. Also, 59 state employees, working mostly in Springfield in a variety of departments, have joined Council 31 through "majority interest" petitions.

Power New Hampshire style

A 30-member, town-wide unit in Raymond, N.H., has voted to join Local 863 (Council 93). In Brookline, 18 police department clerical and administrative employees voted overwhelmingly to form a union with Local 3657 (Council 93); 20 police department employees in Cannon also voted to affiliate with that local.

Smart move

Six Head Start teachers and aides at New York City-based Harlem Children's Zone Inc. have voted to be represented by DC 1707.

End of the trail?

Oregon Council 75 has reached a tentative contract agreement for 3,000 state employees that includes a 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment over the two-year period, through June 2007. Another highlight is a formula that should generate enough money to fully fund health insurance coverage. "Coming off of a two-year wage freeze, this is a good settlement that begins to get our state employees where they need to be," says Council 75 Exec. Dir. (and IVP) Ken Allen. Negotiations continue over contracts covering about 3,000 Department of Corrections employees. The full tentative agreement will be posted at Oregon AFSMCE's web site.

Success at last

A strong 87 percent vote by University of California service employees (members of Local 3299) recently sealed the deal on a contract that will raise salaries by 10 percent over three years. It also establishes a $9 minimum hourly wage, provides 24 hours of paid education leave annually and even issues a $250 retro-paycheck to each of the roughly 7,300 workers. The settlement ended 12 months of negotiations that came to a head after thousands of employees throughout the university system held a daylong walkout April 14 that forced management back to the table. The union called the contract "a major step toward helping workers and their families climb out of poverty."

It's all happening ...

at the St. Louis Zoo, where employees represented by Missouri Local 410 (Council 72) have begun a summer-long picket at the popular tourist attraction over management's intimidation of union members, lack of due-process over complaints and discipline, and outsourcing of full-time jobs. Although the local represents about 250 of the zoo's 1,000 workers, only about 60 pay dues. "That's because the zoo does everything it can to discourage union representation," Ben Gordon (a former shop steward who organized the protest) told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gordon said he was fired in August because of his union activities.

Say no to CCA

Correctional officers from the Shelby County Jail in Memphis are on a crusade to prevent Corrections Corporation of America — or any other privateer — from running the jail and penal farm, where Local 1733 represents some 1,500 workers. About 140 Shelby County COs recently rallied at a CCA-run facility in Nashville, where they urged lawmakers to pass legislation to block prison privatization.

Magna cum AFSCME

Members of Kent State University Local 153 (Ohio Council 8) picketed during last weekend's graduation ceremonies for 3,300 students. About 370 landscapers, maintenance workers and other staff members, who have been in contract talks since November, wanted to demonstrate their frustration with university officials. They almost didn't get their chance: The university sought an injunction to prevent their exercise of free speech but a judge declined that request after assurances the employees wouldn't interfere with the ceremonies.

An equitable solution

Nassau County lawmakers have unanimously approved spending $1 million a year to bring equity between the majority female 911 operators and their male counterparts who serve local fire departments. AIM reported last month that a decade of grievances and state human rights complaints filed over the roughly 13 percent wage disparity was resolved in the 911 operators' favor through an agreement between the county executive and CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000. Now, that promise is a fully funded reality.

Rooted in tradition

The Oklahoma state Supreme Court on May 10 heard arguments on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2004 law that granted collective bargaining rights to municipal employees in cities of 35,000 or more. A district court judge, acting on an appeal by the cities of Enid, Lawton and Broken Arrow, previously ruled the law is unconstitutional. Attorneys for city workers who want to form a union with AFSCME argued that the legislature had passed laws with similar population limits later held constitutional. AFSCME released a list of nearly 160 state statutes that prove a "long and prudent tradition" of population-based laws. The court is not expected to rule for several months.


 

 

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