WHEREAS:
State and local governments, through grants and contracts, fund a range of essential services to advance the health, education, security and welfare of the communities they serve; and
WHEREAS:
Workers across the nation need and desire union representation. This is especially the case for employees of public contractors whose employers often seek to earn excessive profits at their expense; and
WHEREAS:
Workers who seek union representation are often subjected to strident anti-union attacks from their employers. Employers are charged with violations of labor law in over 40% of organizing campaigns and spend over $340 million annually on outside consultants hired to coerce employees to not support a union; and
WHEREAS:
Public service contractors have demonstrated that they will engage in anti-union tactics on the same basis as large corporations such as Starbucks and Amazon; the fierce resistance by these contractors to unions comes at a high cost—not just to workers but to the public whom the contractors are paid to serve. Coercive tactics lead to high turnover, labor unrest, service interruptions and an overall decrease in the quality of services delivered to the community, at public cost.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
AFSCME will continue to organize workers of public service contractors so that they may gain the voice on the job they deserve and need; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
AFSCME supports the adoption of policies by public contracting and grant making entities to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of quality public services. These policies, sometimes referred to as “labor peace” agreements, ensure the public gets what it pays for. These policies should be advanced where the government is acting as a participant in a marketplace and is seeking to get reliable services to achieve the intended purposes of the procurement or grant; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
Policies that facilitate the uninterrupted delivery of services include:
- Requirements that a public contractor enter into an agreement governing the organizing and union recognition process upon request of a union; and
- Requirements that a public service contractor or grantee offer employees of a previous contractor or grantee providing the same services the right of refusal for jobs with the successor grantee or contractor; and
- Requirements that a grantee or contractor enter into an agreement to use arbitration or similar dispute resolution procedures in lieu of economic weapons to resolve disputes upon request of a union.
SUBMITTED BY:
Shaun D. Francois I, President
John Hyslop, Secretary
AFSCME District Council 37
New York