Issues

August 2004

Victory for women & contraceptive equity

The Women's Rights Department and New York Local 2343/Council 66 are celebrating a great victory for workers and contraceptive equity. As a result of their work, women in 17 municipalities in Westchester County, New York will now receive coverage for prescription contraceptives.

Since late 2003, AFSCME has been working with the New York State Attorney General to obtain coverage for workers. Initiated by a complaint from an AFSCME member working in the Town of Cortlandt, the Attorney General's office launched an investigation that found 17 municipalities in Westchester County denied coverage to workers. New York Sate law requires prescription drug insurance plans to include coverage of contraceptives, but the municipalities found a loophole to deny workers the coverage.

With this victory, those in the Town of Cortlandt, as well as the 16 other municipalities will now receive this coverage as a part of the Municipal Employees Benefit Consortium (MEBCO) health plan. AFSCME and CSEA locals affected by this change include members in City of Rye, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Port Chester, Somers, Town of Cortlandt and Village of Pelham Manor. The other municipalities include Bedford Hills, Bronxville, Chappaqua, Mt. Kisco, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Rye Brook, Rye Town, South Salem, and Yorktown Heights.

We urge New York members who are enrolled in the MEBCO prescription drug plan to confirm this change with their Benefits Administrator or Human Resources Department.

Grassroots women's network makes its debut

AFSCME Council 92 has formed AFSCME's first Grassroots Women's Network (GWN). GWN is dedicated to harnessing the strength of AFSCME women and building vital resources to respond to the needs of the union. Recent research by the AFL-CIO found that women workers were more likely to join a union when the organizers were women and when women were active in leadership positions. GWN is the Women's Rights Department's new way in which AFSCME is building women's leadership skills and strengthening our union.

The Council 92 GWN will be used to build the council's membership. GWN members will receive specialized training to do so. The first phase of the training, Advanced Public Speaking for Women, was held on July 14 and 15, 2004, in Baltimore, MD. This training provides necessary tools to prepare and give presentation with strong action messages, allowing speakers to easily connect with their listeners. Each GWN member gave a three-minute speech at the end of the training and utilized different aspects of the training to become more dynamic and effective speakers.

One GWN member, Sharron Bell-Kearson, made a presentation before the local chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists at a recent meeting. Bell-Kearson said she was "proud to say that all of the training [she] received was put into use." Bell-Kearson also called the training an "absolutely wonderful" experience and stated that she "learned a great deal from it."

The next phase of the training will focus on membership organizing. GWN member intend to be active in different organizing campaigns throughout Maryland, including a newly initiated membership building campaign in corrections, and are confident that their public speaking and other skills will be great assets to the union.

Overtime rule changes effective in August

On July 23, Congress left Washington, DC for summer recess and failed to stop the Bush overtime changes from going into effect on August 23. Republican leaders were successful in blocking two pieces of legislation that would have protected workers' rights. When lawmakers return after Labor Day, employers would already have begun reclassifying workers as ineligible for overtime — although the rules changes are complex, and it is expected to take employers some time to figure out how to reappraise their staff's eligibility.

A new report by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that nearly 6 million workers will lose their right to overtime pay, including nearly 1.4 million low-level, salaried supervisors, 548,000 hourly supervisors, and nearly 2.3 million team leaders with no supervisory authority at all. EPI also estimates that more than 900,000 employees with a graduate or even a college degree can be designated as professional employees based on their job descriptions and lose their right to overtime pay.

Overtime pay is critical for working families who depend on it to make ends meet. According to the National Organization of Women (NOW), workers who currently receive overtime pay depend on it for an average of 25 percent of their income. The 2004 AFL-CIO Ask a Working Woman Survey found that 79 percent of women considered overtime pay an important benefit and 71 percent were worried about overtime pay being taken away.

Lawmakers can still help working families. The two pieces of legislation before Congress would repeal the overtime changes regardless of whether those cuts have been implemented already by employers. Visit AFSCME's website for more information and to send a message to your legislators urging their support for working families.

Wall Street women win settlement

A landmark settlement was reached on July 12th in a sex discrimination case against Wall Street investment bank, Morgan Stanley, awarding a record $54 million to female employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit on behalf of over 300 of Morgan Stanley's current and former female employees. The settlement is the largest sex discrimination settlement won by the federal agency for women on Wall Street.

While Morgan Stanley denies engaging in any form of sex-based discrimination, saying they have always "treated women fairly and equitably," the suit describes many instances of discrimination against women. Women complained that they were subject to sexual harassment and hostile work environments, as well as denied pay raises and promotions because of their gender.

The settlement awards $12 million to Allison Schieffelin, whose complaint launched the case, and $40 million to a fund for other female employees. An additional $2 million will be used by Morgan Stanley to implement anti-discrimination training programs and conduct a comparative pay and promotion analysis on men and women who hold the same job.

Forty years later, women continue to face sex discrimination 

Barriers to equality in the workplace remain for women — even 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. According to a report released on the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the National Partnership for Women and Families found that sex discrimination is a persistent problem for working women. The report, Women at Work: Looking Behind the Numbers, underscores the importance of enforcing the law and fully addressing how women are being treated on the job.

The report examines previously unpublished data on discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an independent federal agency, and closely analyzes a decade of charges.

Among the findings, the National Partnership learned that while the total number of sex discrimination charges have increased by 12 percent over the past 10 years, there were significant differences when broken down by race and ethnicity. Charges filed by white women over the past decade have decreased by 11.5 percent. While white women continue to file the majority of claims, women of color have dramatically increased their filings. For example, since 1992 charges by African-American women increased by 20 percent and charges by Hispanic women increased 68 percent.

Other findings include:

  • Sexual harassment claims have increased by 29 percent. The increase in charges has been among women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Claims from men have also increased by 15 percent over the past 10 years.
  • Since 1992, there has been a 39 percent increase in pregnancy discrimination charges filed with the EEOC.

The persistence of gender discrimination in the workplace highlights the need for the government to step up in its enforcement of the Civil Rights Act and Title VII, the amendment that specifically outlaws sex discrimination. A recent report by the National Women's Law Center asserts that the Bush Administration has failed to enforce these laws. The report, Slip-Sliding Away: The Erosion of Hard-Won Gains for Women Under the Bush Administration and an Agenda for Moving Forward, found that although the EEOC has been a good advocate for women over the last four years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed considerably less employment discrimination cases than the previous three Administrations. DOJ also dropped two significant sex discrimination cases inherited from earlier Administrations. Evidence from Women at Work underscores the need for the Bush Administration to vigorously fight job discrimination or women will continue to be shut out of valuable jobs and face barriers to success in the workplace.

Groundbreaking book on women's leadership

Women seeking to build their leadership skills should take a closer look at their experiences as mothers. A new book by Ann Crittenden, If You've Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything: Leadership Begins at Home, highlights the similarities between leadership and mothering. In the book, Ms. Crittenden compares the skills needed for effective leadership with the skills needed for good parenting. She found that leadership requires multi-tasking, strong interpersonal skills, ability to motivate and empower others, and a keen sense of fair play and integrity — all of which mothers develop while raising their children. In fact, more than 100 women interviewed for the book agreed that the skills they learned parenting made them better leaders. Peppered with leadership tips from working mothers, the book helps all mothers hone their parenting skills and become strong, effective leaders.

Women's equality day

August 26 marks Women's Equality Day and celebrates the 84th anniversary of women's suffrage. In 1920, after years of advocacy and protest, women finally received the right to vote when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. This year honor those who fought for your rights by voting on November 2nd.

Women’s Rights Department Email List

We are working to build a comprehensive contact email list and would like your help. Please forward this to other AFSCME members that might not have received it and let them know they should contact us via email so we can add them to our database. Write to womensrights@afscme.org and tell us you'd like to be added to the database. Please include your name, local/council/unit number, email address, and mailing address.

WomENews is produced by the Women's Rights Department and written by Samantha Clancy and Karen Swift.

 

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