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September 26, 2006AFSCME Delegates Approve Bold Plan to Grow & Boost Political CloutAFSCME’s sweeping new blueprint to increase the union’s membership and to gain greater political power through heightened member activism was approved in August by nearly 4,000 delegates to the 37th International Convention in Chicago. The Power to Win plan of the 21st Century Initiative will mobilize a 40,000-member activist army to register AFSCME members – and get them to vote; creates an institute to train new AFSCME leaders; dedicates the union to organizing 70,000 workers per year; establishes a goal to get 25 percent of AFSCME’s membership to contribute at least $100 annually to PEOPLE; and reaffirms the union’s strong commitment to hold elected officials accountable. Delegates also approved constitutional amendments to carry out the plan’s objectives, including an increase of $3 per member, per month, in the International Union’s per capita tax, phased in over three years beginning January 1, 2007. For more on Power to Win, go to the Power to Win site. REPORTING ORGANIZING WINS IN...Indiana, 30 Richmond City Park employees voted to join Council 62; Maine, 21 managerial employees of the South Portland Public Library voted to join Council 93. New York, nearly 60 couriers at Westchester Medical Center – employees of Crothall Services Group – have joined CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000 through voluntary recognition; and Wisconsin, a bargaining unit of 103 Oneida County Courthouse clerical employees voted to be represented by Council 40. SHAREHOLDERS' VICTORYIn its most important corporate governance success to date, the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan has won a federal lawsuit that could eventually make it easier for shareholders to nominate corporate directors. The landmark decision, by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sided with the AFSCME Plan's contention that shareholders should have "proxy access," which enables them to nominate board candidates. President McEntee said proxy access "is considered the 'holy grail' of corporate governance reform. This ruling will make directors think twice before they put their own interests above the interests of their shareholders." As a result of the decision, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to hold rulemaking hearings on the issue next month. MARYLAND VICTORY!Kris Valderrama-Lobo, of the International Union’s Public Affairs Department, has won her Democratic primary bid to become a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from Prince George’s County. If Valderrama-Lobo wins the November general election, she will follow in the footsteps of her father, former State Delegate David Valderrama, who was the first Filipino American to become a member of a state legislature. MUNICIPAL WINSThousands of public employees are now looking forward to building a better future on the job through AFSCME as a result of new municipal agreements. In Houston, 13,000 municipal employees will soon have the chance to negotiate the first meet-and-confer agreement with a Texas city following creation of the Houston Organization of Public Employees (HOPE) – a partnership formed between AFSCME and SEIU. In Enid, Okla., 280 workers have become the state’s first municipal employees to form a union – with AFSCME – under a 2004 state law. Their victory followed a decision by the three-member Oklahoma Public Employee Relations Board to certify their authorization cards, which were submitted after the state legislature approved a collective bargaining law for non-uniformed city employees. The state Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in July 2005, but AFSCME appealed for a rehearing and the court reversed itself this March (and reaffirmed its decision in September in an appeal from the city of Lawton). This is just the first step for Oklahoma’s municipal workers: Some 100 city employees in Moore also have received certification, and those in other cities are expecting certification soon. CHILD CARE R USAFSCME, which represents more than 150,000 child care providers of all kinds, nationwide, has recently added thousands more. Some 5,000 registered providers from New Jersey will be jointly represented by AFSCME and the Communications Workers of America under an executive order recently signed by Governor Corzine (D). The order authorizes the state to “enter into good faith talks” with the providers’ new union, the New Jersey Child Care Workers Union – AFSCME/CWA (each union will represent about half the providers). In Minnesota, some 1,400 providers gained union representation thanks to a unanimous decision by Hennepin County to recognize Child Care Providers Together/AFSCME Council 5. 2006 CONVENTION DELEGATES ELECT NEW IVPsDanny J. Homan, president of AFSCME Iowa Council 61, was elected an International Vice President (IVP) for the Midwestern District. Eliot Seide, executive director of Minnesota Council 5, was elected IVP for the North Central Region. |
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