Publications

March 24, 2006

 

'A victory for freedom'

In a big win for AFSCME, Oklahoma's supreme court reversed itself and reinstated a 2004 collective bargaining law it struck down last July. The 5-4 decision specifically affects city employees in Enid, who are trying to form a union with AFSCME. The court said the law's population threshold — 35,000 residents — is not "arbitrary or capricious," thus opening the door to municipalities of that size. Sen. Jay Paul Gumm (D-Durant), the law's author, called the verdict "a historic victory for freedom." The city of Enid has agreed not to fight the union. Workers have already filed with the state Public Employees Relations Board for recognition.

Reporting organizing wins in ...

Puerto Rico, where 6,400 COs and other prison personnel, employed in all of the island's 46 correctional facilities, joined AFSCME. By a greater than a 3-to-1 margin, they voted on March 14 for Alianza Correccional Unida (ACU)/ Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/ AFSCME Council 95, rejecting a rival union, which had caused several delays. This marks the second time the union has been victorious: In 2002, corrections employees chose it by a wide margin, but that win was set aside by a questionable decision of the Puerto Rico Public Employees Relations Board. A later, favorable court ruling permitted a new election. Winning a second time even more emphatically demonstrated the employees' depth of commitment to building a voice on the job through ACU/SPU. West Virginia, where Council 77 added 604 new members since last April, when it launched a 100-day organizing campaign that just kept going, adding roughly 90 members just since January. The new members work mostly in the highway and health/human services departments. New York, where DC 1707 won an election for 14 Head Start employees at the Northside Early Childhood Center in Manhattan. Wisconsin, where about 12 Cedarburg wastewater treatment plant workers have joined Local 108 (Council 40).

Bringing them back

About 250 food service and grounds employees at the University of California/Irvine campus are about to be brought in-house and, ultimately, within the AFSCME family. University officials expressed a commitment to in-source the workers, whose jobs were contracted out more than 25 years ago. They are now employed by food-service privateer Aramark and Commercial Landscaping Services. Once they become UC employees, they will automatically become members of Local 3299 — with benefits, a pension and better pay. Negotiations over terms of the in-sourcing continue.

Timely tip

Thanks to Washington, D.C., Council 26, Congress has ordered the Architect of the Capitol to repair and clean up miles of dangerous, crumbling, asbestos-lined utility tunnels running underneath the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers learned from two Capitol Hill newspapers that the legislative branch's Office of Compliance had recently filed an Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaint against the architect's office (the OC's first filing since the office was created in 1995).The newspapers were tipped off to the complaint by Council 26, which does not (yet) represent the employees who operate in those dangerous conditions.

A vote on the road

Franklin Lamberth, a San Diego sanitation driver and member of Local 127 (Council 36), has won a runoff election to become a trustee on the scandal-plagued San Diego City Employees' Retirement System. Lamberth, who has business and investment experience, will complete the four-year term of John Torres, who resigned last October after being charged — along with five other former pension-board members — with violating state conflict-of-interest laws related to a 2002 agreement that led to the underfunding of the city's pension system.

Prove sought

Leaders of three Connecticut Council 4 correctional locals have demanded that Governor Rell (R) ask the National Institute of Corrections to review complaints about alleged unethical and illegal conduct in the Department of Correction's internal affairs unit. The locals — Cheshire Correctional Complex Employees Local 387, Connecticut State Prison EmployeesLocal 391 and State Jail AdministrationEmployees Local 1565 — represent about 5,000 employees. In a letter to Rell and the attorney general, heads of the locals said their members "are angry and fearful" about the department's internal investigations of employees. The point of greatest concern: "Exculpatory facts are omitted, distorted and in some cases destroyed."

Whack the privateers

Who says public employees can't compete effectively with privateers? Not Iowa State University, which recently decided to let its own food service employees do the work after rejecting bids from three contractors. About 30 food service workers belong to Local 870 (Council 61).

Seeking a union voice

Eighty New Mexico State University employees marched across campus recently to hand President Martin a petition demonstrating majority support for organizing with Council 18. The workers called for an election covering 1,232 blue-collar, clerical and technical employees. The petition was simultaneously delivered to the state labor board. Most of the workers are based in Las Cruces, with about 150 others scattered across the state. Martin is expected to continue his public campaign to oppose the union.


 

Print Version