Publications

October 17, 2005

Combating Katrina — and now Rita

The AFSCME Disaster Relief Response Team has contacted more than 300 Louisiana (Council 17) members who've survived Katrina. Most have received immediate $100 cash-assistance checks, and payments are on the way to others. Team members made three recent trips to Lake Charles to deliver a truckload of goods, distribute relief checks and help members apply for Red Cross benefits, such as credit cards. Many of the 140 members of Lake Charles City Local 1524 — employed principally in the divisions of water, wastewater, recreation and streets — have suffered damage to their homes. The members have found shelter in the local water-treatment plant.

AFSCME's "Adopt a Family" program also is bringing relief to needy members — including three custodial workers who are members of Local 872. In addition to housing, the program provides adoptees with monetary support for rent or with assistance to buy furniture and other home necessities.

Katrina's successor storm, Hurricane Rita, impacted many AFSCME members in Texas. In Beaumont, 420 corrections officers, members of Local 3921 (Council 7) were left without power, limited food and short supplies at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex. Nevertheless, they have been feeding families in the community who have even less. Despite facing damage to their homes and disruption to their lives, the COs have been working overtime because of staff shortages.

Send Bush a message!

As the Gulf Coast region recovers from the devastation of Katrina and Rita, President Bush is devastating America's working families by calling for cuts in public services to pay for relief programs; at the same time, he is pushing for tax cuts for the wealthy. Tell your representatives in Congress to say "No!" Sign AFSCME's online Petition to Rebuild America for Working Families. Go to the AFSCME web site and, at the top of the homepage, click on "Act Now: Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities."

Reporting organizing wins in ...

Minnesota's Hennepin County, where a 600-member clerical unit at the county medical center formed a union with Council 5 via card check; VMOs who work at the center — members of three other locals — played a critical role in the campaign. In Tulsa, Oklahoma: About 80 non-supervisory 911 operators voted overwhelmingly for representation as part of Local 1180; the victory followed a key state supreme court ruling and lobbying for a change in a repressive city ordinance. In Ohio, where 75 full- and part-time bus drivers employed by the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority opted for OAPSE/Local 4; the drivers are members of new Local 37. In Massachusetts, where 20 cafeteria workers at the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools approved representation with Council 93.

New Deal

Members of Toledo City Employees Local 7 (Council 8) voted by a 2-1 margin to ratify a contract that raises wages 6.5 percent over three years (1.5 percent starting Jan. 1, followed by 2 percent the next January and 3 percent in 2008). Local 7 consists of about 840 clerical, technical, labor and semi-professional employees.

Sick of injustice

Nearly 1,000 Los Angeles County probation officers - members of Local 685 (Council 36) — staged a one-day protest late last month to shine a light on dangerous working conditions, insufficient staffing and poor compensation. The workers called in sick, then demonstrated outside the county's administration building and packed a board of supervisors meeting to demand the resumption of bargaining on a contract stalled for three years. The union also has taken the county to court, claiming that the Probation Department has routinely failed to meet state-mandated staffing requirements at juvenile halls and camps, leading to increased assaults.

Saving an institution

Missouri's Bellefontaine Habilitation Center was the focus of a September rally that brought out about 300 developmentally disabled residents and some 900 employees represented by Local 2730 (Council 72). During the event, President McEntee presented Council 72 Exec. Dir. Ken Jacob with a check for $100,000 to establish a voter-education campaign whose aims will include keeping Bellefontaine open. The rally dovetailed with a convention by Jobs with Justice, a national coalition of community and labor groups.

Go for the money

Imperial County, Calif., is failing to tap into state and federal funding that could raise the wages of home care providers there by $3.75 an hour — to $10.50 — without costing taxpayers anything. That's the conclusion of a report produced by United Domestic Workers of America-NUHHCE, an AFSCME affiliate that represents 60,000 home care workers. The study explains that state and federal government reimbursements would completely cover the county's up-front cost of raising wages to that level — as well as the cost of providing health insurance.

Sign of the times

Visitors to the capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., can learn about that state's public-sector unionism from a new historical marker erected at the behest of Council 13 members who prevailed on a state historical commission to take that step. The marker was dedicated on Sept. 9.


 

Print Version