Publications

September 29, 2005

Hurricane Katrina: Reaching out to help our members

AFSCME's efforts to help Katrina's victims — and now Rita's — continue to expand. International staff are on the ground in Louisiana and Texas. Assisted by a computer database listing affected members, an AFSCME team is visiting shelters in the hardest-hit areas — and as far away as Houston — in order to reach members in need. This is in addition to an online union-member tracking system developed by the Louisiana AFL-CIO and the American Red Cross. More than 50 AFSCME members had been located through personal visits as AIM went to press, and the effort — which also consists of radio announcements and printed flyers — will continue indefinitely.

AFSCME is immediately providing affected members with a $100 cash grant, from a pool of donations launched with a $100,000 contribution from the International. To members in shelters, the union is distributing cell phones (furnished by the AFL-CIO). And it is helping victims with forms so they can collect unemployment benefits, as well as assistance provided by the Red Cross and FEMA. In Baton Rouge, members also are given access to food and clothing banks operated by AFL-CIO unions. AFSCME members are being asked to send clothes and new shoes to: Louisiana Public Employees Council 17, 429 Government Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70812-6114. The council represents some 3,300 members.

The International has established a headquarters-based group of experts on health and safety, finances, and public- and private-agency coordination — important resources for members who need Katrina-related assistance. In addition, through our website you can sign a petition urging President Bush and Congress to rebuild a better and safer America for working families.

Individual AFSCME councils, locals and affiliates are also raising money, and they're helping out in other ways. Some examples: Illinois Council 31 executive board member Dorinda Miller, president of Local 3700, is serving as a labor liaison with the Red Cross in Louisiana. In Georgia, 10 full-time volunteers from Local 1644 will spend two weeks helping to staff a "worker center" for hurricane victims. Tell AIM what your council or local is doing: e-mail the information to Clyde Weiss, or call at (202) 429-5042.

Agreement reached

AFSCME and SEIU have reached a historic two-year pact that prohibits either union from raiding, decertifying or otherwise interfering with existing representation rights of our members. It also: establishes an important joint committee to address issues of union density and jurisdiction; creates a joint local for California and Pennsylvania child care providers; and sets up a unified home care union in California. Most immediately, it resolves the conflict in that state over home care workers; SEIU had filed decertification petitions in 14 California counties and bargaining units represented by United Domestic Workers (UDW)-NUHHCE/AFSCME; SEIU will now pull all of its petitions. The joint home care local, California United Homecare Workers Union, AFSCME/ SEIU, will represent some 20,000 caregivers not currently covered by an AFSCME or SEIU contract. The 120,000 home care and nursing home workers, who are members of SEIU's 434B, and the 60,000 members of UDW/AFSCME will work in partnership with the new local while maintaining their separate identity and autonomy. Also created, in California and in Pennsylvania: joint "Unity Locals" for family child care providers affiliated with both United Child Care Union-NUHHCE/AFSCME and SEIU. Current members of both unions will remain in them while becoming members of the joint union.

Signed, sealed, delivered

Nearly 5,000 Oregon child care providers gained representation with Council 75 on Sept. 23 after Governor Kulongoski (D) signed an executive order that designated the union as their exclusive bargaining representative. "I want to commend these providers for the choice they made to unionize with AFSCME," Kulongoski said. His action followed a year-long campaign carried out under the banner, "Child Care Providers Together," AFSCME's national, umbrella child care organization. Last month, the state Employment Relations Board certified that AFSCME had a majority of signed union-authorization cards. Says Sue Mackey of Salem, a key leader in helping the group decide to affiliate with AFSCME: “We need a voice in our workplace and a voice for our future.”

In memoriam

Steve C. Clark, 97, a founder and long-time leader of Wisconsin State Employees Union (WSEU)/AFSCME Council 24, died early this month in Madison. An IVP for 14 years (until 1968), Clark began his union affiliation in 1931; in 1956 he became assistant director of WSEU, and served as president of both Local 13 and Council 24. Clark was very active in union organizing activities, working to improve job conditions and benefits for state employees. Harold L. Benedict, 72, longtime assistant director of Illinois Council 31, passed away Sept. 7 in Peoria. A police officer who joined Council 44 in 1956, Benedict later went to jail for refusing to end a strike of Peoria nursing home workers. (The sentence was overturned.) His defiance gave Illinois public employees their first legal right to strike and ultimately led to their gaining the right to organize and bargain.


 

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