Publications

September 27, 2004

7 down, 4 to go

Nearly 1,650 workers from the University of South Florida will be joining Council 79 as the result of a lopsided vote in favor of AFSCME. The employees - members of Local 3342 - belong to the operational services, human services and administrative/clerical bargaining units. South Florida has become the seventh state university (of 11 total) to return to Council 79 in the past year, reversing a decision by Republican Governor Bush that left each campus autonomous. That resulted in the cancellation of the contracts of university employees. They are now being negotiated separately at each campus whose employees came back to the union.

Easy decisions

In Ohio, 50 workers from three units voted to form unions with Council 8. In Elyria, 36 health-department employees won 17 to 3. In Hillsboro, 20 city workers — including clericals and others from the water/sewer and street departments — scored an 18 to 0 "shutout." In addition, four wastewater workers from Richland County voted unanimously for AFSCME.

Also pitching a shutout ...

...was Council 93, in a representation election in Danvers, Mass. Nineteen mental health counselors, employed at the North Shore Medical Center (also known as Hunt Hospital), are involved. The vote was 13-0.

Keep public safety safe

More than 80 Council 4 corrections officers, other members and their families protested in front of the York Correctional Institution last week, carrying signs that read "Don't Outsource Public Safety." Cause of their concern: The state is rebidding a contract to run the Community Justice Center, which will house female parole violators. The first successful bidder (an affiliate of privateer Community Corrections Corp.) was accused of improper lobbying practices.

Back bearing gold

Moushaumi Robinson, daughter of OCSEA/Local 11 member Linda Bozeman, won a gold medal at the summer Olympic Games as part of the U.S. 400-meter relay team. Bozeman, an employee of Ohio's Industrial Commission, traveled to Athens with her husband to watch their daughter in her first Olympic bid. Moushaumi, 23 and a University of Texas graduate, was with the 2003 NCAA outdoor championship team in the same event. She was one of eight college athletes to appear on the cover of a 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Breaking the political-payoff chain

Sometimes it takes a lame duck to effect meaningful political change. New Jersey Governor McGreevey, who resigned a few months ago because of a scandal, will be leaving office soon. He has issued an executive order aimed at breaking the link in his state between political contributions and government contracts. The order prohibits the awarding of contracts in excess of $17,000 to businesses that have contributed to political committees or gubernatorial candidates.

Municipal prospects still bad

Hopes and occasional signs that U.S. cities are regaining their fiscal health were splashed with cold water earlier this week by a National League of Cities report. Three of five cities, says the NLC, can't meet their financial obligations this year -- and 2005 looks just as tough Revenues are not keeping pace with increased spending for public safety, infrastructure, employee health benefits, and wages and pensions.

Without 'merit'

That's how Denver city workers, members of AFSCME Council 76, describe the mayor's plan to make their 2005 raises conditional on performance, not automatic. The plan permits managers to promote people in their units on the basis of so-called merit. AFSCME and sister unions say such actions would lead to favoritism and cause problems for employees at the bottom and top of the pay scales. Raises, the unions maintain, should be based on the city's established annual pay survey.

Who's writing enviro regs?

In too many cases, we know exactly who: lobbyists and lawyers representing the very firms and industries the regulations are designed to control. That situation has been underscored again in an ongoing investigation by the EPA's own inspector general. Passages regulating mercury pollution from power plants, The Washington Post reported, "mirror almost word for word portions of memos written by a law firm representing coal-fired power plants." This marks the third time that environmental advocates have pointed out industry-produced language in this particular set of regs.

G.O.P. wisdom

Not all Republicans are blind to public workers' need for the right to bargain collectively. In Delaware, Republican William Oberle, who represents the 24th District in the state legislature, and serves on the House Labor Committee, recently bemoaned what he called "ignorance" in his party "with regard to collective bargaining" and said that if a Republican takes over the governor's office, public employees will finish "dead last." The legislator's venue was Council 81's convention, where he joined several important Democrats in extolling the virtues of public employees. Oberle declared his support for full collective bargaining and offered to sponsor enabling legislation in January. He also stated that if he becomes labor-committee chairman, he will ensure that a hearing on collective bargaining legislation takes place.

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