Publications

April 20, 2006

Child care + AFSCME: Success in Ohio

Child Care Providers Together (CCPT)/AFSCME Council 8 is now the exclusive representative for about 870 family child care providers who work in Franklin County, Ohio. County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution in March formally recognizing the union pending verification of majority status, and on April 4, the council turned in cards representing a healthy majority. This is the latest card-check victory for child care providers organizing with Council 8. Early last year, Lucas County recognized the council as the union for some 600 in-home child careproviders; that was followed by roughly 800 more in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland). The union is organizing county by county pending a change in state law to permit statewide recognition.

No raiding allowed

AFSCME has entered into a national No-Raid Agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. During the three years the agreement is in effect, neither union may seek to organize workers represented by the other. The pact also establishes an expedited arbitration procedure, protects each union's established work relationships and bars the two organizations from making statements designed to bring the other into public disrepute during an organizing campaign. This is the fourth no-raid agreement AFSCME has reached since last September, when a pact was concluded with SEIU. The other two agreements involve UNITE-HERE and UFCW.

Reporting organizing wins in ...

Maryland, where more than 1,300 personal home care providers in Baltimore and in Montgomery County have won collective bargaining rights through card check — part of AFSCME's Maryland Homecare Campaign.

Gettin' it back

Council 5 is working to restore the $90 million in federal funds for human services in Minnesota that Congress slashed in February as part of its Deficit Reduction Act. The money covered such AFSCME member-provided services as child protection, juvenile corrections, mental health for children and adults, and aid to the developmentally disabled. At a recent press conference, the council announced its support for a bill that calls for the restoration of those funds from the state's Tax Relief Account.

Time for action!

Following the March 29 stabbings of two Maryland correctional officers, Council 92 has urged Governor Ehrlich (R) to hold a prison-safety summit. That assault marked the third serious attack on a Maryland CO this year; in January, a CO was killed at a Cumberland facility after an inmate uprising that also injured three other people. Council Exec. Dir. Ron Bailey called on Ehrlich to create a task force of COs, union reps and administration officials to review security provisions and establish safe-staffing ratios for the state's prisons. The officers injured recently were attacked by three inmates at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup; they were treated at a shock trauma center and released.

The Ehrlich administration so far has refused to meet with the union over safety, even though assaults on COs at maximum-security prisons have doubled over the past two fiscal years. "This is a problem that requires urgent attention," Bailey declared.

Working in tandem

Also in Maryland, in the wake of fights on school buses in Prince Georges County, several hundred bus drivers — members of Local 2250 — protested that school board officials are failing to help them keep the kids in line. Their voices were heard. County officials recently agreed to join the union drivers in forming a committee that will enforce disciplinary rules, and the local is seeking $89,000 in federal funds to finance the group's work. Richard Putney, executive director of the local, told a community newspaper that a student code of conduct exists, "but when a driver tries to discipline a student," the code is generally ignored. Through the new committee, "we're trying to get everyone on the same wavelength."

Round one to AFSCME

Michigan Council 25 has won the first step in a class-action lawsuit to prevent Detroit city officials from privatizing work. A Wayne County Circuit Court judge enjoined the city from outsourcing unless they comply with their own privatization ordinance, which requires a declaration that work will be done more cheaply by private contractors than its own employees. Council 25 filed the suit on behalf of all city employees and taxpayers. The case stems from two specific instances of outsourcing over the past few years. One involved some two dozen bus mechanics, members of Local 312; the other affected at least that many meter readers, members of Locals 2799 and 2920. The council says outsourcing far exceeds the cost of doing the work in-house — in violation of a city ordinance.

Two for two

Washington Governor Gregoire (D) is proving true to her AFSCME roots. (She's a former member of the union.) Gregoire has recently signed into law two labor-friendly bills initiated by Council 28. One will make it easier for state employees to get information to co-workers about bargaining and representation; the measure makes clear that union workplace communications do not violate state ethics laws, and will help Council 28 inform all 38,000 employees covered by its contracts. The governor also signed a bill that restores direct payroll deductions for PEOPLE.


 

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