http://www.afscmelocal34.org/
AFSCME Council 5, Local 34, Hennepin County Social Services and Related Employees
L 34 Banner – 08/2009
Issue Contents:
Organizing Campaign in Chicago –
Resurrection Health Care Workers
- See Next Wave article, page 5
August 2009
General Assembly
Wednesday,
August 5, 2009
5:30 pm
Health Services Bldg,
Room 110
Special accommodations will be
made for our physically
challenged members. Please call
596-1003 or 348-0266 if
arrangements need to be made.
September 2009
General Assembly
SHARE THIS:
Just Another Cog in the Machine
What Difference Can a Union Make
Where You Work?
workSMART, a project of the Trade Union
Congress, the organized labor movement
in the United Kingdom, like the AFL-CIO in
the United States, has put together a
fantastic video that speaks to anyone
who goes to a job every day where they
feel like just another cog in the machine
and may ask, “What difference could a
union make?”
"A union can make a big difference to people's
perceptions of a job," says John Wood of the Trades
Union Congress in Britain. And he's made this clever
little video which has got to be seen by anyone who
needs a union in their workplace but doesn't yet
know that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGoKqPAhSk
Wednesday,
September 2, 2009
(HSB 110)
Page 2 – Local 34 Officers & Stewards,
Phillip Gray Reports from the Ellison Health
Care Forum – July 1
Page 3 – Upcoming Schedule of Events,
Contacts, Highlights – July GA Meeting
Page 4 – Delta Dental Information, For
Stewards: Fair Labor Standards Act
Page 5 – Good & Welfare Policy, AFSCME
Next Wave Conference Reports from
Sabrina Denson and Kela Williams
Page 6 - Health Care News: Public Option
Plan, Impact of Medical Bankruptcies,
Impact of Eliminating GAMC, Rescinding
Bush Era TCM Rules
Page 7 – Hennepin Healthworks News, US
House Passes Health Care Reform
Page 8 – Carolyn Johnson’s ROWE Report:
Not a Remote-Only Work Environment, CWA
Needs Help in Minneapolis, Remembering
the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike,
Dropping Card Check
Page 9 – Supreme Court: Sotomayor
Confirmation Hearings, 5-4 Ricci Decision,
Lengthy History Lesson – Minimum Wage
Page 10 – Second Page on Minimum Wage
History, Furloughs, Indiana May Cancel its
Privatized Welfare System
Page 11 – Minimum Wage Conclusion,
Schwarzenegger vs. California Unions,
Illegal Monitoring of Employee Keystrokes
Page 12 – California Workers Protest
Mandatory Furloughs, History Lesson on
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 – Impact Today
Page 13 – Conclusion – Taft-Hartley, AFLCIO – Trumka?, Hawaiians Fight Furloughs
Page 14 – Vicki Moore’s “View from the
Cheap Seats”, Julia Johnson’s Report on
Fare for All Express
Page 15 – Columns from President
Diederich & VP Volkenant, Facebook Issues
Page 16 – Thank You Notes, President’s
Column – Negotiations Update, Progressive Dues,
and County Board Budget Hearings
Local 34 Banner
August 2009
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Note: Submissions for the Sept. 2009 newsletter should be sent to the Editor by Friday, Aug. 14. Submissions for the Oct. 2009 newsletter will be due by Sept. 18.
Local 34 Officers & Stewards
President:
Jean Diederich
Vice Presidents:
Vicki Moore
Wesley Volkenant
Chief Stewards:
Cliff Robinson
Cathy Cowden
Recording Secretary:
Rita Salone
Treasurer:
Patrick Regan
Membership Secretary:
Kela Williams
Sergeant-At-Arms:
Chalmers Davis
Members-At-Large:
Andrea Lazo-Rice
Ibrahim Adam
Angel Alexander
Jacquelin Poole
Jacqueline Coleman
Randy Duncan
Stewards:
7/1/09
348-0266 – 880
348-5939 – 140
348-9592 – 630
348-7542 – 961
543-0301 – L890
596-1003 – L890
348-8760 – L890
596-0954 – 630
521-3056 – N704
348-2249 – 959
348-2313 – 961
596-1863 – 630
348-4246 – 961
543-2605 – N706
348-2368 – 612
Zachary Rice
348-2274, Century Plaza 1
Ester Killion
596-7858, Century Plaza 1
Mara Hill
596-0947, Century Plaza 2
Miguel Salazar
596-7465, Century Plaza 2
Nancy Scarlotta
348-9452, Century Plaza 2
Fatuma Kassim
596-8457, Century Plaza 2
Halima Said
596-7465, Century Plaza 2
Jamoda Williams
596-8948, Century Plaza 4
Nafisa Farah
348-8787, C Plaza 4- ComHlth
Diane Fossen
543-2506, NorthPoint Dental
Shawnice Reid
543-2699, NorthPoint Medical
James Stevenson
596-9220, STS
Jim Edin
763-221-4443, STS
Phillip Gray
348-5771, Juvenile Justice Ctr
Terry Grace
348-7308, Juvenile Justice Ctr
Aboubker Ouassaddine 543-0373, Family Justice Ctr
Bob Velez
543-0323, Family Justice Ctr
Keyur Desai
348-3611, Family Justice Ctr
Kathy Kelly
348-6593, Family Justice Ctr
Susan Frame
348-0293, Govt Center A15
Brian Arneson
348-7641, Govt Center A16
Carolyn Johnson
348-8586, Govt Center A16
Monica Jochmans
348-4192, HSB 5
Penny Wile
348-7133, HSB 9
Kristine Heckler
752-8332, Crystal Drop-in Ctr.
Elena Izaksonas
521-3056, 4th Precinct Station
Ed Kusleika
(596-0153), ACF – HomeMonitor
Pamela Shones
763-413-3113, 1800 Chicago
Maureen Glover
348-4492, 1800 Chicago
Dennis Moore
879-3560, 1800 Chicago
Jeff Meyer
348-5880, 1800 Chicago
Martha Dille
348-2765, Grain Exchange
Barbara Olson
612-543-1325, MHP Telecommuter
Trustees
Audie Lussier, Osman Aweis, Vacant
Delta Dental Trustee
Monica Jochmans
Local 34 Banner
Ellison Health Care Forum - July 1, 2009 - Minneapolis, MN
The room slowly filled and then filled up the room, finally spilling out into the halls at the
UCare Minnesota building. There were people everywhere. Three days before Independence
Day, Minnesotans gathered with Congressman Keith Ellison, AFSCME Executive Director Elliot
Seide, Dr. Elizabeth Frost, Julie Schnell, President of SEIU, and John Kolstad, a local
independent businessman, and engaged in a lively and open discussion on healthcare
options being considered by the Nation’s lawmakers. The crowd consisted of people from all
walks of life, with an interest in learning more about what was needed for America to finally
accept the fact that health care for all is not only possible, but a necessary option to compete
in the World today.
The panel offered a wide variety of ideas, but one theme was consistent. The Nation’s
healthcare system needs to be overhauled, is costly, does not provide for all and is overly
burdensome on the economy of the nation. The panelists spoke of the need to fix the
healthcare system in this country. Our system relies too heavily on profit and shareholder
bottom line than working to make sure that all people have equal access to quality and
affordable medical care.
“Americans are ready for action”, said Congressman Keith Ellison. Looking around the room
at the overflowing crowd, he went on to say, “….this is a clear sign that the time for change is
right now!’ The crowd applauded loudly. Congressman Ellison also cited information from
President Barack Obama stating that the cost of healthcare is now 18% of the United Stated
Gross National Product, (GNP---a measurement of goods and services produced in the United
States), and is expected to reach 20% in the next year or two.
Elliot Seide, Executive Director of AFSCME, provided some of the daunting statistics relating
to healthcare. Close to 1 million Minnesotans spend more than 10% of their income on
expenses related to their healthcare, 250,000 Minnesotans are spending more that 25% of
their income on expenses on healthcare. Seide stated, “No one, in our opinion should have to
spend more that 5% of their income on health care costs.” (The 5% Solution).
The other panelists offered differing insights into how the healthcare crisis is affecting their
lives. John Kolstad cited how the cost of private insurance is so costly that it has directly
affected the price of goods sold, because in the U.S., the cost of insurance is incorporated
into the costs of goods and passed on to the consumer. Kolstad was also concerned about
America’s ability to be able to compete in a global marketplace where some controls have
been exercised to reign in medical and healthcare costs in other countries.
Dr. Elizabeth Frost offered still another unique perspective. Having recently resigned her
position with a medical firm, she needed to continue her insurance. Being offered to
continue her insurance through COBRA, Dr. Frost came face to face with sticker shock – what
many Americans feel and face everyday in relation to their healthcare costs. The cost was
much more than she planned for. At that point, Dr. Frost became an activist for a quality
medical system for all, and is a member of Minnesota Physicians for a National Health Plan.
Dr. Frost spoke of the need for quality care based on need and income and “no more money
for insurance companies.”
The final panelist was Julie Schell, President of SEIU. President Schnell’s focus was on the
contentious and often debated public option. Schnell stated that “Single payers should back
the public option. The public option is the best and closest possible option to single payer.
Without the inclusion of a public option, insurance companies would still be in control, cost
would remain nearly the same, and there would be no competition for health care firms”.
At that point the floor was opened and many spoke of the need to change the system of
healthcare in this country. The discussion ranged from those who were dealing directly with
trying to deal with the costs of their healthcare to those that feel we all should simply take
care of our own costs and let the market bear out what it will. As I sat and listened, all I could
think of is how this whole debate relates to what I do for Hennepin County. As a case
management assistant, I deal with helping placements ascertain healthcare for the children
and youth that go to placement. If the family has healthcare, the billing goes to the family. If
the family does not have healthcare, the County gets billed. In many instances, medical
issues that have been untreated will now be treated, while the youth is under County care.
In the long run, the debate boils down to, (as the commercial used to say), “we can pay now
or we can pay later.” By having preventative care, many issues that develop later into more
serious issues will be curtailed. The question is not if you will pay, but when.
Phillip Gray , Local 34 Steward
August 2009
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Council 5 Business Representative:
Matt Nelson
651-287-0578
e-mail Matt at: matt.nelson@afscmemn.org
Council 5 Contact Information:
300 Hardman Avenue South,
South Saint Paul, Minnesota 55075-2469
(651) 450-4990 Fax: (651) 450-1908
To Contact the Newsletter Editor:
Call or e-mail—
Wesley Volkenant - 612-348-9592
For Distribution concerns, contact:
Rhonda Griffin at 612-543-0353
Highlights from the July General Assembly—July 1, 2009
Officers attending were: Jean Diederich, Wes Volkenant, Cliff Robinson, Vicki Moore,
Chalmers Davis, Patrick Regan, Rita Salone, Jacquelin Poole, Angel Alexander, Kela Williams,
Cathy Cowden and Randy Duncan
Excused Absence: Jacqueline Coleman Absent: Ibrahim Adam and Andrea Lazo-Rice
 Approved the appointment of Barbara Olson of MHP as a new Steward, effective
July 1.
 Approved a motion to contribute $500 to the Festival for Fathers.
 Approved a motion to continue monthly $100 donations to Housing Alliance
through June, 2010.
 Approved a motion to approve up to 24 hours lost time for Elena Izaksonas to
attend the International Labour Conference in Bloomington, July 10-12.
 Approved a motion to accept a Council 5 Arbitration Appeals Committee denial,
and refer it to the Chief Stewards (Case No. 09HCSS-32-34-14656).
 Tabled a decision on naming a MAT Coordinator – no candidates stepped forward
Internet Web Site Developer:
John Herzog – 952-492-5233
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UPCOMING LOCAL 34
MEETING SCHEDULE
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August
5th General Assembly - HSB 110
19th E-Board - HSB 917
September
2nd General Assembly - HSB 110
16th E-Board - HSB 917
August 2009
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September 2009
S M T W T F S
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Upcoming AFSCME Training
Basic Steward Training
Council 5 Office
August 4-5, September 2-3
Table Team Training – HSB 110
August 10, 2009
Who We Are
AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital
services that make America happen. With
members in hundreds of different occupations —
from nurses to corrections officers, child care
providers to sanitation workers — AFSCME is
the voice of the dedicated workers who take care
of America, and is a leading advocate for all
working families.
Local 34 Banner
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– if interested in this $25.00 per month position, please contact President
Diederich and submit your name ahead of the August General Assembly.
Accepted the Delta Dental Committee membership of Wes Volkenant, Monica
Jochmans, Cathy Cowden, Amy Chartraw and Doyle Juenke.
President Diederich discussed our Negotiations process (for more detail, please
read her report on page 16 of this newsletter), which includes four more Master
Team meetings and a schedule with the Employer through November 16.
Members of the Master Team were named by the President and approved: Jean
Diederich, Jacquelin Poole, Laurie Simon, Patrick Regan and Wes Volkenant. At
Laurie Simon’s request, our Council reps will discuss rescheduling the scheduled
September 28 meeting due to its landing on Yom Kippur. Discussion of possible
contract language changes followed. President Diederich announced that the
Policy Committee agreed to hire Alexis McCarthy, Local 34 member, as its note
taker throughout the Negotiations process.
President Diederich reported that the County expects the new APEX process to be
in place by October 1, which changes hours of work to an annual basis – which
will impact such contract items as part-time employment and stability pay. An
agreement with Management will need to be in place before October, so a vote to
accept changes is expected at the August GA. Positive changes include not
needing five continuous years to qualify for stability pay and a shorter
probationary period for part-time employees.
President Diederich also updated us on the positive response to the voluntary
SLWOP program, as well as thanks the AFSCME Presidents received from
Administrator Richard Johnson at their monthly meeting.
The Council 5 Convention, which will be in Duluth this year, is scheduled for
October 8-10. Delegates will be selected at the September GA meeting.
We’re invited to support our brothers and sisters in the Communication Workers
of America (CWA) as they continue to rally against AT & T which has refused to go
to the bargaining table with the CWA. Rallies are on Thursdays at Noon – 901
Marquette.
Written reports were submitted and received from Business Agent Matt Nelson,
Vice Presidents Moore and Volkenant, Chief Steward Cowden, Treasurer Regan
and Membership Secretary Williams. These can be made available upon request
to those officers or representatives, or to Recording Secretary Salone.
Interested in representing Local 34 at this year’s Council 5 Convention
in Duluth? Delegates will be chosen at the September General
Assembly meeting. Please plan to attend, or share your interest with
President Diederich – 348-0266.
August 2009
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New to the County?
Just transferred into Local 34?
To sign up as a union member or to get
answers to questions about AFSCME and
membership benefits, please complete this
form and send it to:
Kela Williams, Membership Secretary
CP – mail code 630 – 612-596-0954
Name _______________________________
Job Title
_____________________________________
Work Location
_____________________________________
Mail Code _________
Phone _________________
I’m especially interested:
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I want to sign up as a member
I want to sign up for Delta Dental
To receive Delta Dental Insurance information:
contact Cindy Pince at Council 5– 651-287-0564
Are you interested in setting the Local 34 website as
your Microsoft Explorer home page? If so, go to the
website address listed on the front page. Click on
“Tools” in the menu bar at the top of your page. Select
“Internet Options.” Under the “General” tab, find the
option for Home Page, and copy the Local 34 address
there. The next time you bring up your Internet
connection, the website will be your new Home Page.
Do You Have Friends Who Would Like
to Receive Our Newsletter?
There is now a quick and simple way for you to
become informed on a wide variety of issues
concerning AFSCME Local 34. Just sign yourself up
for our free on-line newsletter! Please follow the
directions below…
 Send an e-mail to the following address:
cwvolkenant@msn.com
 In the Subject Line or Text, state “Subscribe to 34
Newsletter”, identify who you are, and send it off.
 You will receive a confirmation e-mail within a week;
you should have the latest issue attached, so you
can determine if you will be able to receive – and
read – the e-mail newsletter attachments.
Note: if at any time you want to stop receiving these
updates, all you have to do is send an e-mail to the
address listed above, state “Unsubscribe” in the
Subject Line or Text, and your name will be removed
from our list. For Netscape users, you may need to
press “Reload” to get the most version. You can also
access us from our Local 34 Website at:
http://www.afscmelocal34.org
Local 34 Banner
For Our Stewards and Members Who Need Assistance:
We’ll be referencing the Fair Labor Standards Act much more this
next year, especially as decisions are made in terms of ROWE and
workplace policies.
Summary: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), also known as the federal Wage and
Hour Law, regulates minimum wage, overtime, equal pay, recordkeeping, and child
labor for employees of enterprises engaged in interstate or foreign commerce and
employees of state and local governments. The FLSA is enforced by the Wage and
Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
The FLSA applies in all states, but states are permitted to develop their own laws and
regulations to provide even greater protection for their workers than is provided under
federal law. In cases in which the two laws conflict, the law most beneficial to the
employee prevails.
Passed by Congress in 1938 to establish minimum living standards for workers
engaged directly or indirectly in interstate commerce, a major provision of the act was
establishment of a minimum wage, initially $0.25 an hour, along with a maximum
workweek of 44 hours; these were to become to become $0.40 an hour and 40 hours
after seven years. Other provisions set standards for overtime compensation and
banned products of child labor from interstate commerce.
A Wage and Hour Division was created in the Dept. of Labor, headed by an
administrator empowered to accelerate the raising of standards within an industry if a
committee representing the public as well as employers and labor recommended
change. Classes of workers initially exempt from the act included agricultural and
seasonal laborers, handlers of perishable foods, and workers in certain industries
covered by collective bargaining.
The Fair Labor Standards Act has been amended repeatedly in subsequent decades,
with changes expanding the classes of workers covered; raising the minimum wage;
redefining regular-time work and raising overtime payments so as to encourage the
hiring of new workers, as opposed to the loading of extra work on the lowest-paid; and
equalizing pay scales for men and women.
Section 203 of the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) applies certain rights and
protections of the FLSA to covered employees. These rights and protections require
payment of the minimum wage and overtime compensation to nonexempt
employees, place restrictions on child labor, and prohibit sex discrimination in wages
paid to men and women. Except for employees with a specific exemption or
exclusion, all covered employees are entitled to the minimum wage and to overtime
compensation when working over forty hours in a workweek.
The CAA and Office of Compliance Regulations provide certain exceptions to the
general overtime requirements of the FLSA. Regulations provide law enforcement and
fire protection employees with a partial exemption to the overtime requirements.
The FLSA sets basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards, but there are many
employment practices it does not regulate. Matters such as vacation, holidays, sick
pay, and premium pay for weekends, discharge notices, and severance pay are
determined by individual employing offices and are not regulated by the FLSA.
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http://hr.blr.com/topics.aspx?topic=67
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0818152.html
http://www.compliance.gov/employeerights/er_fairlabor.html
August 2009
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Good and Welfare
The Good and Welfare Committee was
established to send remembrances to dues
paying members at times of happiness or
sorrow. This includes marriages, the birth or
adoption of a child, prolonged illness or
hospitalization, or the death of a member,
immediate family member or significant other
– as defined in the Contract.
In the case of surgery or prolonged illness,
or for the birth or adoption of a child,
flowers or plants can be sent to a member.
In situations involving the death of a
member or a death in the family of a
member, memorials can be sent. (“Family” is
defined the same as in Article 16 – Funeral
Leave – in our contract; it includes:
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spouse,
child,
significant other,
aunt/uncle,
father/mother,
sister/brother,
grandparent/grandparent-in-law,
grandchildren,
niece/nephew, or
a person regarded as a member of the
member’s immediate family).
In the event of members getting married,
retiring, gaining U.S. citizenship, or for a
death in the family of a member or in the
case of the death of a member, a card can
be sent to the family.
Please send all requests for remembrances
to the co-Chairs for the Good and Welfare
Committee - Lisa Durkot (MC 965), Marcia
Dietz (MC L890) or Merry Brigham (MC
L890). The referrals must include the name
of the member and the reason for your
request. If the request is for a plant or
flowers, you will also need to include the
person’s home phone number for delivery
purposes.
Sign Up for the PEOPLE Fund
The AFSCME People Fund is AFSCME’s
political action fund, and is used to support our
endorsed candidates. If many members
voluntarily pledge as little as $2.00 a payroll
period, our ability to get our endorsed
candidates elected will be greatly enhanced. At
$4.00 per pay period, a contributor receives an
AFSCME green jacket. Please contact Jean
Diederich at 348-0266 to sign up now!
Local 34 Banner
AFSCME
Next Wave Conference
June 19-21, 2009 - Chicago, Illinois - by Sabrina Denson, July 1, 2009
The goals for the conference included:
 Create excitement about the Next Wave program that results in more local and councilbased activities and structures.
 Share knowledge and ideas about things that work to recruit and activate new/young
members and make them feel welcome and supported in the union.
 Deepen Next Wavers’ understanding of and commitment to AFSCME to name a few.
This was my first Union Conference experience as a member, and it was amazing. Council 5
was the second largest group represented in Chicago!
I learned about the Union’s history and those that paved the way for me to have the
opportunity to be called the “Next Waver.” I also participated in my first action in support of
an AFSCME organizing campaign for Resurrection Health Care Workers. There were several
union members marching, chanting “Workers want to have a voice, Resurrection, it’s their
choice,” and supporting the Nurses that are trying to organize a union and negotiate fair
contracts. I was glad to be apart of it.
I attended workshops on Overcoming Stereotypes:
Recruiting and Activating Young Members and How to
Start a Next Wave Chapter.
Local 34’s delegates, below (L-R):
Mara Hill, Kela Williams, Sabrina Denson
The recommendations I bring back to Local 34 to
further facilitate recruitment, participation and
activism from young union members, include but are
not limited to:
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Engage younger members through fun activities
and social events such as BBQ’s, Baseball
games, Happy Hour, Bowling, Potlucks, etc.
Continue to send young Union members to training and conferences.
Volunteer to be a Mentor to a Next Waver and teach them the ropes.
Continually teach AFSCME history to young members.
Be more supportive of families being involved in union activities, and
Use technology for better communication and reaching new members. (I.e. web sites,
creating a local 34 face book, twitter, etc.)
I would like to thank Council 5, Local 34 for the opportunity to attend this conference and
experience the impact of learning from the “wiser” members about what it means to be apart
of a the union and making sure Next Waver’s stay committed to AFSCME.
More from the AFSCME Next Wave Conference
My experience in Chicago, Illinois for the Next Wave Conference cannot be described in a
short paragraph. It was very pleasing to see how many young (35 and under) people there
were to support each other from state to state.
I think the biggest turning point for me at the Conference was to hear some of the “Silver
Tsunami” activists say, “I have done my job; I have paved the way. Now it’s time for you to
step up and carry out the duties and leadership roles that we have carried out thus far.”
There are many seasoned union activists that will be retiring soon and if we do not learn the
all that we need to from now, how will our union look in the future? Many of the drawbacks
from other unions are the same, some were different.
I participated in several workshops: 1. Cultural Intelligence: How to communicate with union
members from different cultural backgrounds to get them involved in the union and able to
strengthen our membership. 2. How Leaders Develop: I was under the impression that this
workshop would help me to become a leader. I was a bit disappointed, although it taught me
how to look at leadership qualities in others. It also gave us the states of leadership
development. The 3rd workshop I attended was What Kind of Union Do We Want? which was
co-facilitated by Eric Lehto of Council 5.
One thing I do know is that I am excited to learn and shadow my fellow union activists who
are in leadership roles, to become the best that I can be, and carry out the union spirit. Also,
to fight for what we believe is right and just for our AFSCME Union Members, their families
and ourselves.
Kela Williams
August 2009
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Health Care & Insurance News
Public Health Plan Option Could Save State
and Local Governments $921 Billion
July 10th, 2009 - http://www.afscmeblog.org/2009/07/10/public-healthplan-option-could-save-state-and-local-governments-921-billion/
If health care reform includes a public health insurance
option that pays Medicare payment rates to providers,
state and local governments are predicted to save an
estimated $921 billion in lower health care costs over 11
years, according to researchers at the well-respected The
Commonwealth Fund.
State and local governments would save $765 billion
during this period if a public health insurance plan pays
providers at rates set midway between current Medicare
and private rates, but they would save only $594 billion if
no public plan option is offered.
The study, “Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a
High Performance U.S. Health System,” also found
that overall health care savings with a public health
insurance choice would be $3 trillion over 11 years, and
only $1.2 trillion under a private plan-only scenario.
The major sources of the differences in savings are lower
administrative costs, greater efficiencies in health care
delivery and slower growth in health care spending with a
public plan choice. Further, the authors estimate that
premiums for the public plan option paying Medicare
payment rates would initially be 25 percent below those
currently available for a comparable benefit package in
the private individual/small firm market.
Medical Bankruptcy in the United States,
2007: Results of a National Study
http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(09)00404-5/abstract
Background
Our 2001 study in 5 states found that medical problems
contributed to at least 46.2% of all bankruptcies. Since then,
health costs and the numbers of un- and underinsured have
increased, and bankruptcy laws have tightened.
Methods
We surveyed a random national sample of 2314 bankruptcy
filers in 2007, abstracted their court records, and interviewed
1032 of them. We designated bankruptcies as “medical”
based on debtors' stated reasons for filing, income loss due
to illness, and the magnitude of their medical debts.
Results
Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in
2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had
medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income.
The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they
had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a
home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well
educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations.
Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical
definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies
attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic
regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the
odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold
higher in 2007 than in 2001.
Conclusions
Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing
share of US bankruptcies.
Local 34 Banner
HHS Rescinds Bush-Era Medicaid Regulations
The Health and Human Services Department has rescinded three
controversial Bush administration regulations governing Medicaid and
said it would postpone and possibly change or rescind a fourth.
The regulations were among seven that President George W. Bush’s
administration tried to implement in 2007 and 2008 that sent health care
providers, state governments and advocates for the poor into a lobbying
frenzy. Critics charged that the administration was trying to shift to the
states, from the federal government, the burden for about $19.6 billion in
Medicaid spending over five years. Medicaid, a health insurance
entitlement program for the poor, is a shared federal-state program, and
there is constant tension between the two over costs. A series of
congressional moratoria delayed implementation of most of the
regulations until June 30.
One of the regulations the department rescinded would have narrowed
Medicaid payments for what are called “case management services” that
some states offer to Medicaid clients. This would have reduced funding to
counties for Minnesota’s vulnerable children, elderly, and disabled people.
Many thanks to all union members, county officials and our congressional
delegation who worked to make this happen!
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/10173
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2009/June/30/Medicaid-Regs.aspx
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicaid/2009/20090630-MedicaidRegulations.htm
How Will Eliminating GAMC Impact Health Care in Minnesota?
by Jeff Rosenberg | July 4, 2009 – MN Publius.com
One of the largest cuts Tim Pawlenty made in his unilateral slashing of the Minnesota
budget was completely eliminating General Assistance Medical Care. What is GAMC?
According to the Department of Human Services website, “GAMC provides medical
care for a monthly average of 33,000 (FY 2007) low-income Minnesotans who don’t
qualify for MA or other state and federal programs — primarily low-income adults,
ages 21 and 64, who do not have any dependent children.”
Here’s the problem, though – the need for this money doesn’t just go away. It’s not
like we get to save $381 million dollars and that cost won’t be passed on elsewhere.
So where is the cost going? Much of it will be passed on to area hospitals. HCMC, for
example, estimates it will lose up to $109 million from GAMC cuts, and Regions
hospital estimates it will lose $46 million, which is 10 percent of its gross revenue.
How are the hospitals supposed to replace that lost revenue? They can’t really make
up for it with cuts in services – they are mandated to provide service to patients who
come into their emergency rooms. That means the only real choice is to pass the cost
onto their other patients. Just like Pawlenty replaced taxes with “fees,” he’s now
avoiding tax increases by increasing your hospital bills.
As famed economist Milton Friedman once said, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Minnesotans are still going to pay to provide health care; we’ll just pay for it
differently. Now, instead of paying for it with taxes that can be distributed equitably,
we’ll just dump the entire burden on Minnesotans who need to go to the hospital.
http://mnpublius.com/2009/07/how-will-eliminating-gamc-impact-health-care-in-minnesota/#comments
August 2009
-6-
Maximizing Your County Benefits and
Saving Money on Health Care:
Take Care of Your Health – and Your Wallet Too!
From medical and dental plans to a Healthcare
Expense Account, to the County's HealthWorks
program and its on-site Well@Work Clinic, there
are a wide range of resources to help Hennepin
County employees stay healthy and get healthy.
The challenge is – knowing how to make the
most of all your benefits is not always easy.
Don’t worry – you’re not alone! Attend a
presentation and discussion led by our
HealthPartners account manager to learn:
• The ins and outs of your benefits
• Ways to save money on healthcare
• Tips to using your benefits and visiting the
doctor
Presentations are scheduled at the following
times and locations:
• Thursday, 7/30/09, Government Center
Auditorium, 12:00 - 1:00
• Tuesday, 8/4/2009, Health Services Building
#112, 12:00 - 1:00
• Tuesday, 8/18/2009, Family Justice Center
#172, 12:00 - 1:00
• Wednesday, 8/19/2009, Government Center
Auditorium, 12:00 – 1:00
• Tuesday, 8/25/2009, Ridgedale Library
Robert Rolf Room, 12:00 – 1:00
• Thursday, 9/3/2009, Medina
Large
Conference Room, 12:00 – 1:00
We look forward to seeing you there!
Panel Passes Health Bill, Critics Slam
Cost
Reuters - Friday, July 17, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/17/AR2009071701393.html
A key U.S. congressional committee has approved
healthcare legislation that includes a hefty tax on the rich,
but critics pointed to fresh warnings that President Barack
Obama's health reform plan would do little to rein in
skyrocketing spending. The Ways and Means Committee
agreed to raise taxes to pay for the plan's estimated $1
trillion cost, in part by higher taxes on couples making
more than $350,000. Critics argue that it would harm
small businesses who fall into this tax category.
For More on the “Public Option”…
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1907164,00.html
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/07/16/1998541.aspx
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=766502dd-9970-40e2-bf64-11b05c5577de&p=2
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090717/COLUMNIST/907171005/-1/NEWSSITEMAP
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0716chapmanjul16,0,4615447.column
Local 34 Banner
Three Cheers for the House Health Care Bill
By Nathan Newman - July 15, 2009 - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/15/three_cheers_for_the_house_health_care_bill/#more
Take a step back and applaud the accomplishment of the House health care bill -- three committees
agreed on a consensus draft backed by the leadership of the body. And there looks to be a majority in
the House ready to pass it largely in this form and a President praising the results. If we lived in a
normal democracy, that would be it and we'd have national health care. Since instead, we live in a
deformed country saddled with a Senate where a minority of Senators from tiny states can block
reforms, there's more drama to come. But still, it's an amazing milestone worth celebrating. And the
details are impressive, promising ,according to the CBO, 97% coverage of legal nonelderly population
with budget outlays of $1 trillion over the next decade-- right on the budgeted number. The keys:
 A public plan available through the insurance exchanges established under the proposal.
 Medicaid coverage up to 133% of federal poverty line , then progressive subsidies to buy
insurance up to 400% of the poverty line.
 Employer requirements to provide insurance to employees or pay 8% of payroll in fees to
government to provide health care (with lesser amounts for small businesses) -- a very progressive
approach that will ease the costs for firms with lower-wage, less-skilled employees.
 Insurers would be required to issue coverage based on preexisting conditions or cannot charge
more on that basis, while premiums could vary by a factor of no more than two based on age.
 Under the law, total out-of-pocket expenses for any family, including premiums and copays, would
not exceed $5000 for an individual or $10,000 for a family. The plan apparently offers subsidies
up to 400% of poverty to cover these cost-sharing aspects as well -- a crucial reform since
"affordability" often focuses too much on the premium costs and too little on the costs of care
once someone actually gets sick.
For families without coverage and especially poor families with costly coverage that is destroying them
financially, this bill if enacted would be a revolutionary change in their lives. And for everyone,
eliminating fears that a pre-existing condition will prevent them from switching health care plans or
drive up costs uncontrollably will be over. And the employer mandate also is incredibly important as
well for eliminating any fear that switching jobs will mean losing health coverage, since any job will
now have health coverage, either directly or via the government, and the standardization of benefits
through the exchanges means that similar or identical coverage is likely to exist at any job.
A Look at the House Democrats' Health Bill
by The Associated Press (AP) –July 17, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikEhm4Au274q47rDZv47HAsqsrvAD99GBH5O0
Here are details on the House Democrats' health care overhaul:
WHO'S COVERED: Around 94 percent of non-elderly residents (those not covered by Medicare, which
kicks in at age 65) would be covered — compared with 81 percent today. Nearly half of the 17 million
non-elderly residents who remain uninsured would be illegal immigrants.
COST: About $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
HOW IT'S PAID FOR: Revenue-raisers include: $544 billion over the next decade from new income
taxes on single people making more than $280,000 a year and couples making more than $350,000;
$37 billion in business tax increases; about $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; about $200
billion from penalties paid by individuals and employers who don't obtain coverage.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Individuals must have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with
hardship waivers. The penalty is 2.5 percent of income.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a
penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Companies with payroll under $250,000 annually are exempt.
Employers could apply for a two-year exemption from the mandate if they can prove the requirements
would result in job losses that would negatively impact their communities.
SUBSIDIES: Individuals and families with annual income up to 400 percent of poverty level ($88,000
for a family of four) would get sliding-scale subsidies to help them buy coverage. The subsidies would
begin in 2013.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Through a new Health Insurance Exchange open to
individuals and, initially, small employers; it could be expanded to large employers over time. States
could opt to operate their own exchanges in place of the national exchange if they follow federal rules.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: A committee would recommend an "essential benefits package" including
preventive services, mental health services, oral health and vision for children; out-of pocket costs
would be capped. The new benefit package would be the basic benefit package offered in the
exchange and over time would become the minimum quality standard for employer plans. Insurers
wouldn't be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: A new public plan available through the insurance exchanges would be set
up and run by the secretary of Health and Human Services. On average it would pay Medicare rates
plus 5 percent to doctors.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: The federal-state insurance program for the poor would be expanded starting
in 2013 to cover all non-elderly individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level
($14,404).
August 2009
-7-
Labor Unions, Labor History, Political & Legal Information
ROWE: NOT a REMOTE-Only Work
Environment
CWA Workers Dial Up Support
I have been approached by AFSCME members via
e-mail, “drive-by’s,” phone calls, and “hallway
sabotage” to answer this question: “How can I
CWA workers continue to be disconnected by their employer, AT&T, as they head
into their tenth week of working without a contract. Support them by signing the
online petition at www.standupforworkers.com.
work in a ROWE when I can’t work from
home? It just wouldn’t work for our unit because
we need to be in the office to do our jobs.”
Let me clarify this popular misconception: ROWE
is not a work from home program. ROWE is
not even a work from another location
program! ROWE is a “let’s focus on the results
http://www.mnaflcio.org/
{Are you looking for a way to help your union brothers and
sisters in the CWA? Then why not} attend an informational
picket happening at 901 Marquette in downtown Minneapolis
every Thursday from 11:30 AM-1 PM.
{Contact Shari at 612-532-8372 for more details.}
that we work to achieve every day and decide if
there are ways we can do it better” program.
Many area labor, religious, community and political leaders are
supporting the CWA, as workdayminnesota describes below….
ROWE empowers staff by relinquishing the
traditional thoughts we have about what work is. It
allows us the freedom to think for ourselves while
at work and not be “parented” by management. In
a ROWE, workers are encouraged to think about
work creatively. If staff have the equipment to
work from home, at a coffee shop, or in the Cub
Foods parking lot and are more efficient working
from this location, they are expected to do so
because it produces results. If staff need to be at
the window working with people at 8:00AM, they
need to do so because it produces RESULTS.
It's been a long wait for members of the Communications
Workers of America, whose contract with AT&T expired three months ago.
Negotiations have dragged as the company seeks to cut health care and job
security provisions.
Consider this scenario: My job is to sell lemonade
on the street in my neighborhood. Over the past
few years, my neighbors have only bought
lemonade from me on their way to work (6-8AM)
and on their way home from work (4-6PM). I spend
my entire day sitting at the stand, though, thinking
that maybe one or two people might come home
from work early or leave for work late (which rarely
occurs). I have to close the stand at 6PM because
I need to make dinner for my family by 7PM.
Now, consider this: I decide to work in a ROWE. I
analyze past work behaviors, realize that I could
sell more lemonade if I open the lemonade stand
from 5AM-9AM, close the stand during the time
that my neighbors are at work (and prepare dinner,
grocery shop, etc during that time) and then open
again from 4-7PM. I can work until 7 now because
I prepared the evening meal before opening again
at 4PM. My lemonade sales increase by 30% and
my customers are ecstatic. I still need to be at the
stand but think differently about my job selling
lemonade.
That is a RESULTS-Only Work Environment!
Carolyn Johnson
Local 34 Steward & HSPHD Change Agent
Local 34 Banner
Union leaders including Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter
(above) joined CWA members in picketing at the AT&T office in downtown
Minneapolis.
http://www.workdayminnesota.org/
Minneapolis History: The 1934 Teamsters' Strike 75th Anniversary
Central Library - Pohlad Hall
Thursday, July 23, 7 p.m.
Writer/scholar William Millikan (“A Union Against Unions”) and a panel of Minneapolis history and labor
experts will explore the strategies, philosophies, actions, reactions and impact of the Teamsters' strike
of 1934. Abridged version of the film “Labor’s Turning Point” will be shown.
Tour, Aug. 6, 6:30 p.m.: Meet at Pohlad Hall. Local labor historian and union
activist David Riehle will take you on a tour of the Market District (now called
the Warehouse District). See the sites where much of the 1934 strike took
place and learn their history. Tour will take place rain or shine. Presented in
collaboration with the Minneapolis Labor Review.
EFCA Disappointment: Unions OK Drop of 'Card Check' in Bill
By SAM HANANEL (AP) – July 17, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZclupkH_QSVBZu6bR8oXa-evbIwD99GC2300
WASHINGTON — Labor leaders and Senate Democrats are nearing a deal on a union
organizing bill that would allow employers to still demand secret ballot elections
before having to recognize a union. A Democratic official familiar with compromise
talks on a bill to make forming union easier says union leaders are willing to drop
the politically volatile "card check" provision to win the bill's passage. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations are still ongoing.
Card check would require a business to recognize a union once a majority of is
workers signed union cards. Businesses vehemently oppose that idea. Any
compromise would still include other factors that would give labor a victory. The bill
calls for binding arbitration if a new union and management can't agree on a first
contract.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/business/17union.html
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/07/cutting_a_deal_on_efca.php
August 2009
-8-
Sotomayor's Employment
Under Scrutiny
Decisions
The recent nomination by President Obama of Sonia
Sotomayor as his pick for US Supreme Court Justice
has sparked debate on whether her judicial
“tendencies” fall more to the left, right, or somewhere
near the center. From an employment law perspective,
her opinions have often sided with the plaintiffs, and
this may have some employers concerned that her
vote may tip the scales against them. Sotomayor’s
opinions have dealt with race, sex, age and disability
discrimination. In particular, look to her reasonings in:
 Norville v. Staten Island University Hospital, 196 F.3d 89
(2d Cir. 1999);
 Cruz v. Coach Stores, 202 F.3d 560 (2d Cir. 2000);
 Parker v. Columbia Pictures, 204 F.3d 326 (2d Cir. 2000);
 Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp., 229 F.3d 374
(2000);
 Raniola v. Bratton, 243 F.3d 610 (2d Cir. 2001);
 Hankins v. Lyght, 441 F.3d 96 (2d Cir. 2006);
 Washington v. County of Rockland, 373 F.3d 310 (2d Cir.

2004); and
Ricci v. DeStefano, 530 F.3d 87 (2008) – see below
A comprehensive review of these and other decisions
has been prepared by Akin Gump’s Tom Goldstein
and a group of summer associates on Scotus.Blog.
http://cch-workday.blogspot.com/
Ideologically-divided 5-4 Supreme Court
Reverses New Haven Firefighters Case
For 25 years, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit has given employers broad
discretion to reconsider a promotion
test whose results favor one race
over another.
Judge
Sonia
Sotomayor followed this binding
precedent when she rejected several
firefighters’ claim of reverse discrimination in the nowfamous Ricci v. Destefano case, as she is obliged to
do as a lower-court judge.
Yet, as the Justices showed in a June 29 5-4 decision
in Ricci, they are not bound by the same constraints
that bound Judge Sotomayor. This ruling creates a
new standard which says that an employer’s decision
to toss out a hiring test must have a “strong basis in
evidence” showing that the test preferred one race
over another. The Supreme Court has powers that
Judge Sotomayor does not, and it has used that
power.
Unfortunately, conservatives will try to use this
decision to attack Sotomayor, but these attacks have
no basis. Sotomayor followed the law that was in place
at the time of her decision in Ricci, and she should be
commended for demonstrating proper judicial restraint.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/29/ricci-reversal/
Local 34 Banner
The Minimum Wage as Class Politics – History Lesson 1 from DailyKos.com
by Vikingkingq Wed Jun 24, 2009
As of this writing, the lowest that most workers can be paid is $6.55 an hour (approx.
$12.5k a year), according to a piece of Federal law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Not all workers are covered under Federal minimum wage laws, but most of these workers
are also covered by their state minimum wage or possibly a local living wage ordinance. On
July 24, the federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 an hour (a 10.6% increase), the
last in a three-stage increase passed in 2007. While most people know of the minimum
wage, and while most workers continue to benefit from its existence, few people really know
the history of how it came about, how it changed, and why it stands as one of the few
remaining pieces of “class politics” within the Democratic Party.
Background: the 19th Century
Throughout most of the U.S’ history, minimum wage laws had been declared verboten by
the legal and political establishment. Legally, state courts had struck down minimum wage
legislation in the 19th century as a violation of the right of “liberty of contract,” a right that
the Supreme Court had deemed somehow part of the 14th amendment in Lochner v. New
York (1905). Despite briefly allowing interference with women’s “liberty of contract” in
Muller v. Oregon (1908), the passage of the 19th Amendment giving the women the right to
vote prompted the Supreme Court to rule in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923) that, now
that women were equal citizens with the vote, that minimum wages now interfered with
their “liberty of contract.”
Politically, minimum wage laws were deemed “class legislation,” a term even more odious
to 19th century conservatives than “government regulation.” Unlike laws giving huge
amounts of public land to the railroads, or tariffs to manufacturers, or the gold standard,
(which obviously were good public policies that benefited all men equally), the minimum
wage was believed to be a kind of law that unfairly benefited the worker and undermined
the equal protection of the law for employers. So were maximum hours’ laws, health and
safety laws, worker’s compensation laws, any kind of corporate regulation, or any kind of
legislation (social welfare, transportation, education, housing, etc.) that gave money to poor
people or took money from rich people. And as Anatole France once said, “the law, in its
majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or
steal bread.”
But while progressives at the time fought the idea that the minimum wage was “class
legislation,” I would defend it because it is genuinely class legislation. The minimum wage is
an effort to empower wage laborers against their bosses, to level the playing field of
economic power, so that wages:
“must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be
somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family... No
society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members
are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge
the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own
labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged…The liberal reward of
labour, as it encourages the propagation, so it increases the industry of the common
people. The wages of labour are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other
human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives. A plentiful
subsistence increases the bodily strength of the labourer, and the comfortable hope of
bettering his condition, and of ending his days perhaps in ease and plenty, animates him
to exert that strength to the utmost. Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always
find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.”
(Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations)
However, the minimum wage was never just about money. From the earliest days of days of
the movement in the 19th century, the minimum wage was seen as an effort primarily
directed at raising the social status of wage laborers. The original call for the living wage
had many ideological roots – among union workers, it was associated with the republican
ideal of the male worker as sole provider for his household, and the non-working wife as a
status signifier; among middle class reformers, the end in mind was the abolition of
sweatshop conditions and child labor, and the protection of women workers; and so on.
Continued on Page 10 – Right Column
August 2009
-9-
Furloughs in Other States
06/30/2009
In Minnesota, AFSCME
forced Gov. Pawlenty to
drop his proposal to furlough
state employees for up to 48
days. Workers in other
states weren’t so lucky. More than 728,500 state
employees in at least 21 states have already or will be
furloughed, and several other states are also
considering furloughs for their workers, according to a
nationwide tally of state furloughs by Stateline. While
Gov. Pawlenty says he has the right to impose
furloughs in the future, his failure to negotiate them
with AFSCME would make it a violation of our contract.
If he tries to impose furloughs on AFSCME members,
our
union
will
take
it
to
court.
http://afscmemn.org/furloughs-other-states
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=409881
Indiana Considers Canceling IBM-led
Welfare Project if No Improvements by Fall
KEN KUSMER - Associated Press (IN) - July 7, 2009
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090708/NEWS05/907080367/
+1B+welfare+privatization+deal+at+risk
Indiana's privately run welfare project has so many
problems that the state could start taking steps to
cancel its $1.16 billion contract with IBM as early as
this fall, states a state official. Secretary Anne Murphy
of the Indiana Family and Social Services
Administration said she asked lead vendor IBM Corp.
to submit a "corrective action plan" as part of a
process that could result in canceling the 10-year deal
if promised improvements don't occur by the end of
September. She said she expects to review data from
the changes in mid-October.
Minimum Wage – continued… As many historians have noted (Liz Cohen, Meg Jacobs,
Kathleen Donohue, and others), the minimum wage became wrapped around the idea of
ensuring an "American standard of living," a nebulous ideal that nonetheless has within it
T.H Marshall’s idea of a "social minimum," to "live the life of a civilized being according to
the standards prevailing in the society."
Background: 1930s-1970s
In that sense, the minimum wage is an attempt to ensure that all American workers are
economic citizens. And it is a source of some small pride that the minimum wage was the
creation of the Democratic Party. In the 1930s, the minimum wage as we know it was the
brainchild of Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, who pushed through a minimum wage
provision in the National Recovery Administration (NRA) codes, and then successfully
steered the Fair Labor Standards Act through an increasingly conservative Congress.
At the time, the minimum wage was a response to the crisis of the Great Depression, which
had hammered wages repeatedly, and to longer term inequality in the labor market. Believe
it or not, but the labor movement was initially quite cool to hostile regarding the minimum
wage, fearing that the minimum wage would become a ceiling rather than a floor. However,
as the rise of the CIO and the increasing unionization of factory workers made the needs of
unskilled and semiskilled workers more central to the labor movement, the labor movement
warmed to the minimum wage as a necessary complement to their solidaristic policy of
trying to "level upwards," reducing the difference between the lowest and highest paid
workers. The CIO and their political action committee pushed for a higher minimum wage to
complement their own contracts and to bring up the wages of southern, non-union workers
to prevent "runaway factories."
And for forty years after the New Deal, the minimum wage was part of the residual class
politics of the Cold War Democratic Party. Along with Social Security, raising the minimum
wage every few years was a symbolic way for congressional Democrats to signal their
continual allegiance to the American working class. When one party continually sought to
raise your wages and increase Social Security benefits, and the other party voted against it,
working class voters quite often drew the desired lesson. At the same time that the Cold
War was pushing Democrats to the right and closing off opportunities to complete the New
Deal, the minimum wage was an open space for liberal Democrats to influence
national policy. For beyond the symbolism, the minimum wage had a quiet and profound
effect on the living standards of low-wage laborers and the social meaning of minimum
wage work.
Also criticized were ACS' ties to Murphy's
predecessor, Mitch Roob, a former executive at the
Texas-based technology vendor. Under the Indiana
contract, FSSA outsourced 1,500 of its employees in
2007 to ACS to operate call centers and perform other
tasks.
Comments:
This is a prime example of "contracting out that went
bad"! Why can't we as Public Service employees use
this as an example of why states should not out source
work for the people? IBM is looking at the bottom line,
not at the person that is on the bottom needing services
and a safety net. Public Employees put people first, not
profit. PERIOD. – Amelie Hamilton, Maryland – AFSCME
Time and time again it is shown that privatization saves
nothing and delivers less. When will they learn? – Loof
Ent - AFSCME
We do not need to reinvent the wheel , only make it more
efficient. Privatization is only a way to get it off of "MY
DESK " and does nothing good for our needy clients. Ed Niehaus - AFSCME
Local 34 Banner
As you can see from this chart, repeated increases to the nominal minimum wage (dark
blue) in the 1950s and 1960s had an impressive effect on the real minimum wage (light
blue), more than doubling it in the space of twenty years. Arguably, this was a major factor
in the so-called "Great Compression" of the post-war era, but it also changed the meaning of
minimum wage work, from something that protected desperate sweatshop workers from
starvation to something that afforded a modest income, the equivalent of $20,000 a year
today.
That long flatline through the 1980s and the 2000s are signs of the bankrupt part of the
Democratic Party, a sign that we failed to do the right thing for workers who both deserve a
decent wage and who have always placed their trust and faith in our party as the instrument
of their interests.
Concluded on Page 11 – Right Column
August 2009
-10-
Schwarzenegger: California Lawmakers
Protecting Unions
By JUDY LIN Associated Press Writer
Updated: 07/02/2009
SACRAMENTO—California's Democratic-led Legislature
is putting union interests over taxpayers' well-being, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger complained, as the state
prepared to issue IOUs for the first time in nearly 20
years. The Republican governor said Democrats have
resisted reforms he believes must be part of solving the
state's $26.3 billion shortfall. "It steps on the turf of the
people they want to protect," he said. "At some point, it
has to be Judgment Day. Who do we protect?"
The governor recently proposed changes to cut state
employees' pensions and adopt fraud-prevention
measures for in-home caregivers. Democrats have
criticized Schwarzenegger for including long-term policy
changes as part of budget negotiations. He also has
ordered some 235,000 state employees to take a third
day off a month without pay, a move that would cut
their pay by 14 percent. Schwarzenegger says the
Legislature's failure to pass a balanced budget revision
sent a message that they expect Californians to make
sacrifices but will not do the same. "We have to get rid of
the waste. We cannot promise things to people that we
can't deliver," Schwarzenegger said.
Lawmakers passed a budget in February for the fiscal
year that began July 1, but a sharp decline in tax revenue
quickly put it out balance. The national recession has
battered California's economy, leading to record-high
unemployment and a 34 percent drop in personal income
tax revenue during the first five months of the year. With
far less money flowing to the state, Democrats have
found it difficult to protect core social programs and the
jobs overseen by the public employee unions that make
hefty donations to their campaigns. At the same time,
Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers refuse to
raise taxes beyond those already increased in February.
It's not clear how the sides will compromise to close
budget shortfall.
The state controller began printing IOUs after lawmakers
failed earlier this week to address the deficit. With
revenue running well short of the state's spending
obligations, California does not have sufficient cash to
meet all its payment obligations. The IOUs will primarily
affect the thousands of small businesses that contract
with the state for a variety of services, from providing
office supplies to cleaning services.
Lawmakers' failure to act before the fiscal year widened
the state's problem by $2 billion, in large part of because
of the state's complex education funding formula. July 1,
the governor declared a fiscal state of emergency and
ordered most state offices to close three days a month to
conserve cash. Schwarzenegger repeated that he would
not sign any bill that comes to his desk unless it pertains
to the budget. Under the fiscal emergency order, if the
Legislature fails to solve the deficit within 45 days, it
cannot adjourn or act on other bills until the crisis is
resolved.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12741327
Local 34 Banner
Minimum Wage – continued…. Today
Today, I feel somewhat optimistic that we are seeing a renaissance in the minimum wage
as Democratic Party class politics. After the minimum wage increases of the 1990s, we
have seen the emergence of a vibrant grassroots movement for living wage statutes that I
would argue pushed the minimum wage more forcefully onto the Democratic Party’s
agenda, and after a long period of Republican obstruction, we’re finally starting to see
movement.
After July 24th, the minimum wage will have roughly returned to where it was in the 1980s,
when the effects of Reaganism and ten years of inflation took a hammer to the value of the
minimum wage. However, we will still be $3 an hour below the minimum wage’s historic
peak in the late 60s/early 70s, which should remind us that the class politics of the
minimum wage are by no means finished.
So what’s next for the minimum wage and its supporters?
1. Making the Minimum Wage Part of Our Politics – I thought that one of the real
advantages to making the minimum wage increase part of the Democratic Congress’ "100
Hours" legislation was a real success, in that it made the minimum wage increase not just a
technical adjustment, but a political signal about the policy priorities of the two parties,
where for the first time in many years, Republicans were forced to argue against increasing
wages for ordinary workers, and where Democrats were able to beat them (eventually). Over
the next three years, the first piece of legislation considered by a Democratic Congress
each year should be a $1/hr increase to the minimum wage, a ceremony of commitment to
the cause of social justice.
2. Lead, Don’t Follow – here, I think we can establish a useful call-and-response between
progressives on the national and state levels, letting the states push past the federal
minimum, and then leapfrogging the states to ensure that the Federal minimum wage
should be, at most times, the highest minimum wage in the country. The right to "live the
life of a civilized being" is a national concern, not a local one, but competition should for
once work for ordinary people.
3. Ending the Undertow – the sad truth of minimum wage law is that inflation will eventually
claw back any success, no matter how sweeping, over the decades. All that the opponents
of a strong minimum wage need to is to delay and maintain the status quo, and the relative
position of workers’ wages will fall. In order to prevent this, in order to write in stone the
nation’s commitment to a social minimum, we must index the minimum wage to inflation,
so that future fights over the minimum wage can revolve around what the upward
improvement of people’s lives, not a defensive struggle against economic decline. And lest
this be seen as some radical attack against free enterprise, let me just note that Oregon,
Vermont, Arizona, Missouri, and Montana already index their minimum wages to inflation,
and last time I checked, capitalism is still in existence in those states.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/24/746330/-The-Minimum-Wage-as-Class-Politics
Monitoring Employee's Keystrokes May Have Been Unlawful
In Brahmana v Lembo, _F.Supp.2d_ (N.D. Cal. May 20, 2009), an employee who alleged that
his employer unlawfully monitored his computer keystrokes in order to obtain the password
to the employee’s personal email account, can proceed with his claim under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act. The employee claimed his employer used monitoring tools
such as local area network analyzers and key loggers to record his keystrokes when he
entered his email password.
In the Ninth Circuit, gaining access to stored electronic information does not violate the
ECPA, the court noted; however, the Act is implicated when electronic communications are
“intercepted” during transmission. The employee’s allegations were “… sufficient to render
plausible the claim that [the employee’s] communications were monitored in some way, but
they do not specify whether the particular means of monitoring might monitor keystrokes
that had actually affected interstate commerce,” as required by the statute. Because some
means of the alleged monitoring may constitute a violation of federal law, the court refused
to dismiss the employee’s complaint.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/2009/06/monitoring-employees-keystrokes-mayhave-been-unlawful.html#comments
August 2009
-11-
Calif.
State
Employees
Protest
Schwarzenegger's Proposed Furloughs
New America Media, News Report, Vanessa Hernandez and
Angela Ruggiero, Posted: Jul 02, 2009
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article
_id=c6dc3d266ab0e3f79e6c71d9bc2aeb17
Editor's Note: More than 8,000 state employees
arrived in Sacramento to protest a third furlough day
proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of
his solution to the state’s budget deficit. The
additional day would result in a 14 percent pay cut.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie
star, is used to acknowledging
crowds of adoring fans. But
yesterday at the state Capitol, Gov.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger
encountered a not-so-adorning
crowd of state workers. He ignored
them.
Protesters in buses from all over the state began arriving at the
Capitol’s west steps and lawn before 7:30 a.m. and continued
until mid-afternoon. The more than 8,000 state employees,
members of the Service Employees International Union Local
1000, clad in purple shirts, came to protest furloughs the
governor proposed as part of his solution to the state’s budget
deficit. Schwarzenegger’s new proposal is to add a third furlough
day each month. The additional furlough day would result in a 14
percent pay cut and save the state’s general fund $425 million
per year, according to the governor’s office.
Sandy Bloom, a nurse for the California Correctional Women’s
Facility at Chowchilla, said she came to the rally to show her
opposition to a third furlough day. “We know we have to trim off
the fat (from the budget), and we did that,” said Bloom. “But now
we are starting to take from the essentials. How are we going to
make payments on our cars? Our houses?” Yvonne Walker,
president of SEIU Local 1000, said she was fed up with state
policies and thought that the governor should close corporate tax
loopholes. “The state is giving $34.7 billion in private vendor
contracts,” Walker said. “That’s two to three times more than
funding for state programs. This is not efficient and not good for
California. Workers have to say, ‘Enough!’”
Some protesters noted that the Legislature and state judiciary
were not included in the furlough days because they are
separate branches of government. “The Legislature is not doing
its job,” said Linda Cotta, who works at the State Compensation
and Insurance Fund in Fresno. “Why are they hurting the lower
guys first?”
Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, said the
governor agreed that the Legislature was not doing what it was
supposed to do. “We would have liked to avoid the third furlough
day, too,” McLear said. “The Legislature has been incapable of
producing a solution to our deficit.” All wore purple shirts to show
their “solidarity,” which was written on the back of their shirts.
Shortly after being sworn-in yesterday, Sen. Al
Franken (D-MN) announced that the first bill
he would sign onto as a co-sponsor would
be the Employee Free Choice Act. “I just
became a cosponsor of my first bill in the
Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act,”
Franken said last night.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/thinkfast-july-8-2009/
Taft-Hartley Still Casts a Long Shadow Over America History Lesson 2 from DailyKos.com
by Chris Mahin, Workers United
Mon Jun 22, 2009 http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/22/23725/8936
Joe McCarthy voted for it. So did Richard Nixon. John F. Kennedy voted against it. Harry
Truman vetoed it, but it still became law. It's the most ominous piece of anti-labor legislation
since the Civil War: The Taft-Hartley Act. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 marks 62 years to the day
since the enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The law has done terrible damage to
workers in this country.
For those of us in the union Workers United, the Taft-Hartley Act has a special notoriety. Our
union can trace its lineage back to a whole series of predecessor unions, organizations which
fought for the New Deal's pro-labor legislation and to organize workers in traditionally nonunion parts of this country -- especially the South. The Taft-Hartley Act was specifically
designed to gut the New Deal's most important labor law and to make union organizing more
difficult.
Some background:
In 1935, Sidney Hillman, the president of one of Workers United's main predecessor
organizations -- the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America -- worked closely with U.S.
Senator Robert Wagner of New York to craft a law often described as "labor's Magna Carta" -the National Labor Relations Act. Before that measure was signed into law by President
Franklin Roosevelt on July 5, 1935, a right to join a union in the workplace did not clearly
exist in the United States. The National Labor Relations Act -- or NLRA -- was designed not just
to tolerate unions, but to encourage them. When he introduced the measure in the Senate,
Wagner declared: "Democracy cannot work unless it is honored in the factory as well as the
polling booth." The NLRA protected workers' rights to bargain collectively. It established a
three-member National Labor Relations Board and prohibited employers from engaging in
unfair labor practices (such as setting up a company union), or firing or otherwise
discriminating against workers who organized or formed unions.
The enacting of the NLRA helped unite this country for the fight against Hitler during World
War II. However, by the time the war ended in 1945, the NLRA had fulfilled its purposes (at
least as far as a significant part of the industrial manufacturers were concerned.) When the
auto workers, packing-house workers, steel workers, and workers in many other industries
went on strike shortly after the war, some of the same employers who had been willing to
tolerate unions during the late 1930s moved to clamp down. These forces began supporting
candidates for public office committed to restricting and even undoing the provisions of the
New Deal's social legislation.
In the 1946 mid-term election, the Republican Party won control of both houses of Congress.
Many of the new Republicans in Congress were arch-conservatives. Their first target was the
National Labor Relations Act. They had the support of a big section of the Democrats in
Congress -- especially the Dixiecrats, the bloc of Southern Democrats who supported racial
segregation. The bill which Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio and Representative Fred A.
Hartley, Jr. of New Jersey pushed through Congress gutted the NLRA. It was so outrageous
that President Harry Truman called it a "slave labor bill."
Here are just a few of the nasty provisions of Taft-Hartley:
1.) The law bans the closed shop, the situation in which an employer agrees to hire only union
members;
2.) The law lets states outlaw the union shop. (This has led directly to numerous states -- especially
in the South -- becoming "right to work" states);
3.) The law allows the president to intervene in any strike which might lead to a "national
emergency";
4.) It prohibits secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes;
5.) It required that all union officials pledge that they were not communists.
(This was ruled unconstitutional in 1965.)
The passage of the Taft-Hartley Act had an immediate negative effect on the union
movement, especially the unions that were struggling to organize the South. Two of the main
unions fighting to do this were important predecessors of Workers United -- the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) and the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA).
Continued on Page 13 – Right Column
Local 34 Banner
August 2009
-12-
Thousands Rally
Against Hawaii
Furlough Plan
By HERBERT A. SAMPLE – July 1, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9jUsJHMIB1G91a671f671gGkwswD995F28O0
HONOLULU (AP) — Thousands of state employees
rallied at the state Capitol to denounce Gov. Linda
Lingle's plans to force them and their co-workers to take
three unpaid days off each month. Leaders of the four
state employee unions painted the Republican governor
as unwilling to negotiate the furlough plan, which they
said would hurt workers' pocketbooks and the state's
economy.
The furlough plan, which Lingle estimates will close $688
million of a $729 million state budget deficit over the next
two years, "is going to destroy this state," said Roger
Takabayashi, president of the Hawaii State Teachers
Association. Randy Perreira, executive director of the
Hawaii Government Employees Association, said his
members know the state's economy is in a difficult spot.
"In a fair way, we are all willing to make some kind of
sacrifice," he said. "We have 40 years of history
bargaining. We cannot stop now and let one person
decide that bargaining is not the way to go."
The rally had a partisan aspect, given that the Democratallied unions are skirmishing with the governor. Perreira
touched on that angle in his speech, citing California,
Indiana and several other states where GOP governors
have implemented furloughs or were trying to. However,
a number of states with Democratic governors also are
ordering state workers to take unpaid time off, such as
Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey and Oregon. Almost half of
the nation's 50 states have implemented furloughs or are
proposing to.
Three of the unions in Hawaii — HGEA, HSTA and
United Public Workers — are pursuing a court injunction
to block the plan. Lingle has warned that she will resort to
layoffs if she cannot unilaterally furlough state workers.
The unions have also gone to court to try and prevent her
from laying off workers.
Some union leaders have called on top Democrats in the
Legislature to call a special session to raise the state's
general excise tax. But Lingle is adamantly against that
and Republican lawmakers said they also oppose tax
hikes while backing the furlough plan. "This is the best
way to continue to keep people employed and not
turn them to the unemployment lines," said House
Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan of MapunapunaFoster Village.
Several rally participants said they were willing to accept
one or two furlough days per month but consider three to
be too much. Lingle's plan amounts to a nearly 14
percent pay cut. Curt Oki, a 54-year-old mechanic and
UPW member, said any number of furlough days will be a
"real hardship on my family.""I am willing to do my part,"
he said. "I think three days is a little bit too much, too
much burden placed on too few people."
Local 34 Banner
Taft-Hartley continued…. One year before the Taft-Hartley Act was passed, the CIO had begun
a massive effort to unionize Southern workers -- Operation Dixie. The CIO's leaders believed
that organizing the South's largest industrial sector -- cotton textile production -- was the key
to organizing the region. The CIO spent over $2 million on Operation Dixie. Both the ACWA
and the TWUA participated, contributing funds and organizers to the effort. Over 200
organizers participated in 12 Southern states. (The ACWA and the TWUA were the only CIO
unions to send female organizers into the field.) But the passage of Taft-Hartley made the
defeat of Operation Dixie almost inevitable. When the campaign was called to a halt in 1953,
the labor movement had failed to organize more than 15 percent of Southern textile workers.
It would be another 10 years before a major effort to organize Southern textile workers would
begin -- at the J.P. Stevens company in 1963. And that effort would take 17 years before it
would end in victory, a victory hastened by the decision of the ACWA and TWUA to merge and
form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), another predecessor of
Workers United.
What lessons can we learn from the passage of Taft-Hartley?
First, trade unionists -- and progressives in general -- have to face what might be called "the
Southern question." In a sense, Taft-Hartley was the Confederacy's revenge. Taft-Hartley
passed because in 1947 African-Americans in the South were still denied the right to vote.
Almost all of the members of Congress from the "Solid South" were staunchly anti-union.
Some of those Southern members of Congress said openly that they wanted to stop union
organizing drives in the South because if those drives succeeded, they would set the stage for
organizing against racial segregation.
Today, the South remains the least unionized part of the United States, and the center of
opposition to current pro-union legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act.
Second, we all have to stand up to witch-hunts and fear-mongering. Joe McCarthy and
Richard Nixon were both first elected to Congress in 1946, and their brand of fear-mongering
was already underway by 1947. The supporters of the Taft-Hartley Act exploited the public's
anxiety to promote fear: fear of the unions, the communists, and the Soviet Union. Much of
organized labor failed to stand up to this in 1947, and the union movement paid a big price
for that.
Third, we all have to respond to new situations with new thinking. In 1947, labor tended to
play defense. It tried to simply hold on to what had been won during the Roosevelt years. This
didn't work in 1947 when the whole world was changing and it definitely won't work now.
Several parts of the Taft-Hartley law -- the "right to work" provision, the anti-communist
affidavit, and the cooling-off period, among others -- were cleverly designed to put labor on
the moral defensive.
Today, our message ought to echo that of Eleanor Roosevelt. Commenting on the Taft-Hartley
Act, she wrote: "[I]nstead of clamping down on the labor movement, Americans 'should be
extremely grateful to unions.' " Those of us in Workers United are very proud that she made
that comment in the Sept. 1, 1950 edition of The Advance, the newspaper of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, one of Workers United's predecessors. Eleanor
Roosevelt's words about unions were true in 1950 -- and they ring true today. On this 62nd
anniversary of the passage of an evil law, let's get off the defensive. Let's get on the offensive
and stay there. Let's proclaim our message loud and clear: It's time to repeal Taft-Hartley!
Trumka Announces Candidacy for AFL-CIO Presidency
By Mark Gruenberg - 13 July 2009 - http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4105
Promising transparency in AFL-CIO affairs, pledging to fight to restore the middle class and
vowing to listen to and heed grass-roots unionists, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard
Trumka formally announced his candidacy for the labor federation’s presidency.
If elected, he would succeed 14-year incumbent John J. Sweeney, who is retiring, and who
endorsed him.
And if the crowd of unions represented by officials sitting on the sun-splashed stage at the
outdoor rally July 9 at the University of the District of Columbia was any indication, Trumka
and his ticket-mates -- incumbent Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, who seeks reelection, and IBEW official Liz Shuler, who seeks Trumka’s job -- should coast to victory at
the federation convention in Pittsburgh, Sept. 14-17.
August 2009
-13-
Profile: Fare for All Express
Most of us know someone that has felt the financial pinch
over the past year: friends, family, clients, co-workers and
ourselves. I had heard about Fair Share before and had
recommended it to clients. It is a program sponsored by
the Emergency Food Shelf to help make groceries more
affordable. I had never checked it out myself.
But my mom is on a fixed income, and a number of
families that I know have had at least one parent that has
become unemployed. I knew that our friends would have
questions, so Mom and I checked it out July 10th. I have
to say it was easy and painless. We took the bus to the
union hall. There was no line and no one asks about
income.
You start out at a table that shows what food is in each
package. Next, you pick which package you want
(Regular - $17.00, Meat - $12.00, Veggie - $10.00, Mega
meat - $22.00, or $39.00 for all the packages on the
table). What you get in each package will vary from
month to month, and can vary just a little from bag to bag.
You could buy each package separately or together.
We got the regular package for $17.00. It included
produce - which was a head of lettuce, a pound of
carrots, a bag of onions, a five pound bag of potatoes, a
package of snow peas, and seven pieces of fruit
(oranges, apples & peaches). It had frozen meat, which
was a large bag of southwest chicken nuggets with a
mole' sauce, a package of tuna, a pound of ground turkey
sausage, a ring of turkey sausage, and a pound of bacon.
There was a table with loaves of bread and every one got
to pick a loaf, too.
They take cash, EBT cards, debit and credit cards but no
personal checks. It was so well organized, that we were
back waiting for our bus home in less than 15 minutes.
The next one will be 08/14/09. Check it out, it is worth
the trip.
Julia Johnson
We have two Labor sites for the Fare for All
Express food program - Minneapolis Labor
Center, 312 Central Ave. N.E. and St Paul Labor
& Professional Center, 411 Main St. The dates
and times are as follows:
Minneapolis - Fridays from 3:00 5:00 PM
August 14th, September 11th, October 9th, November 6th
and December 4th
St Paul - Tuesdays from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
August 25th, September 22nd, October 20th, November
17th and December 15th
The Fare for All Express program, part of the
Emergency Foodshelf Network, works with
community partners to offer quality, affordable
grocery packages each month. There is no
income-based requirement for participation. You
do not need to pre-pay or pre-register in order to
participate in the program. It does not affect
eligibility to participate in a foodshelf. Bring your
family, friends, and neighbors so they can share in
the wonderful cost savings of this program. There
is no limit to the number of food packages you can
purchase each month.
Local 34 Banner
VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
Vicki Moore, Local 34 Vice President
I am hearing more and more chit chat on the pros and cons of getting a Social Work
License. I am seeing more and more job postings where it seems that an applicant with
a License or the possibility of achieving a License is the preferred candidate. Local 34
does not support the idea of licensure being mandatory.
Public Social Workers, for a variety of reasons, ranging from the responsibilities and
protections negotiated in collective bargaining that holds us all to high ethical
standards, to the lack of Social Workers with a License in some mostly rural counties,
are exempt from holding a License. However, increasingly our clients are part of
Managed Care Plans, and although they are defined as private and operate as private
entities, more and more of their money is public. But I digress. These private Medical
Insurance Companies can - and are - defining who can and cannot bill for services.
Currently the focus is on mental health services. For Social Workers in a mental health
position or who wish to work in a mental health position, the year 2011 and achieving
LICSW is important.
The Minnesota Board of Licensure presented information on the hows, ifs, and
wherefores of licensing. They also presented information about changes in the
requirements that will be implemented in 2011. Both Paul Lennander, in the Staff
Development Unit, and myself have the Board’s PowerPoint Presentation available via
email. I am not going to review their information. I am encouraging you to contact me or
Paul, and review this information for yourself.
In the Local 34 Meet and Confers with Management, we have had some very initial
discussions on this topic. I have had some additional informal discussions with those
who value their current staff and want to see them meet this billing threshold. I cannot
fully participate in these discussions without knowing who has a LICSW. Who does not
have a LICSW? Who wants a LICSW? What do you need to get a LICSW? I need to know
who you are and what you need. I will work between now and 2011 to help each of you
achieve that goal.
For those of you who decided that you wanted to be a Mental Health Professional and
not a Social Worker when choosing your educational path, and hold some form of
Psychology or Marriage and Family Therapy Degree, I want to hear from you as well. It is
illogical that you should somehow not be able to bill Private Insurance Providers for your
work. I see you as part of this effort and want to work with you. I want to be able to say
to our Managers, Executive Committee and Decision Makers that this list of employees
needs these specific things so that they can bill for their services. This is what this list of
workers needs to gain the necessary licensure to work as Mental Health Social Workers.
I hope that you will trust me and Local 34 enough to share this information with me and
be part of this effort. You can contact me on County email or vicki_moore@yahoo.com.
You can call me at 348-5939 or 612-598-7071.
Dear Local 34,
Thank you for your $100.00 contribution to my volunteer campaign committee.
More people attended our event at Kincaid's than in any non-election year! Your
contribution enables me to stay in touch with constituents all year.
Thank you again. I appreciate your help, support and confidence.
Very truly yours,
Randy Johnson
Hennepin County Board of Commissioners
Dear Local 34,
As a member of the Board of Directors of House of Charity, I would like to thank you - on
behalf of everyone at House of Charity - for your contribution. Your support is very much
appreciated, and goes a long way to assisting House of Charity provide its services to those
in need. Thanks again,
Bryan Keane
August 2009
-14-
Working Q&A: My Boss Wants to Friend
Me on Facebook. What Should I Do?
— Julie Forster - Pioneer Press - Updated: 07/10/2009
http://www.twincities.com/ci_12806148
Q: My boss just friended me on Facebook. I
don't want him to be privy to my personal life,
but I feel I can't decline his invitation. What
should I do?
A: You need to head this off. Do you really want
your boss to read how your Sunday night mojito,
mixed extra strong, really took the edge off?
"Facebook is truly for friends and your social life,
and it's OK to keep that separate from work," said
Karen Kodzik, a career consultant and founder of
Cultivating Careers in St. Paul. She advises sending
an e-mail to your boss explaining to him that you'd
prefer to keep your personal and work lives
separate, then suggesting a connection via the
professional networking site LinkedIn as an
alternative.
While you don't want to jeopardize your good
standing by blowing off your boss's invitation, it will
serve you better in the long run to establish
boundaries.
Michelle Beck-Howard, a human resources
specialist with Administaff in Edina, likens a
Facebook invitation from the boss to being asked
out for a cocktail or a movie or any other one-onone social invitation. "Managers are leading people
and need to realize there are other team-building
events to do as a group that can be positive to the
work force" as a whole, she said. Beck-Howard
advises a face-to-face conversation explaining the
desire to keep your personal and work lives
separate.
Thank You NoteDear Patrick:
We recently received your gift of $50.00 as a
memorial for Matthew Marincel. Thank you for
your thoughtfulness. Our board, staff and other
volunteers greatly appreciate your support of House
of Charity programs.
As you know, we have been assisting individuals in
making personal transformations for more than 57
years, and we take great pride in the mission of our
organization as well as contributing towards the
health of our communities.
In these trying times, your gift is that much more
valuable and inspires every effort. Thank you again
for helping us to transform individual lives.
Diane Anastos, Development & Marketing Director,
House of Charity
Local 34 Banner
- Wes Volkenant
Report from: International Labour Council Conference, July 11-12, 2009, Bloomington, MN
I had the honor of representing Local 34 at this conference for a second time, and
appreciate having had the opportunity to connect with our Canadian brothers & sisters, as
well as American trade unionist friends from the AFL-CIO and Change to Win locals. Thank
you. I was joined this year by Katie Farber, Fatuma Kassim and Elena Izaksonas. I
appreciate the commitment that each of them made in attending the Conference that
weekend. We had the pleasure of being briefly addressed by both Congressman Keith
Ellison and by newly-sworn-in Senator Al Franken – in one of his first public appearances as
a United States Senator. Franken had already signed on as a co-sponsor of EFCA – his first
official act as Senator. And he emphasized the need for unions to help the middle class to
revitalize this nation. Both Franken and Ellison addressed the state of health care in
America, with Franken strongly advocating the public option portion of the Senate bill, and
Ellison reminding us that no union can afford to be exclusively focused on wages, hours,
benefits and working conditions, to the detriment of faith, environment and gender issues in
our larger communities. Congressman Ellison hammered home the stark reality that $1.4
million is being spent every day in opposition to health care reform.
In addition, we heard from the retiring Wayne Samuelson of the Ontario Federation of
Labor, as impressive a voice for the common working man, as I’ve ever heard; I will not
soon forget his story of the Ontario labor caravans interviewing workers across that province
in the midst of their disastrous economic downturn in the past year. And we discussed
coalition-building in our communities, hearing from Mary Bellman of LES and a panel of
non-profits and labors, who gave me several ideas to take forward to our Action Committee.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Special Leave Without Pay - SLWOP
"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's
life forever." Margaret Cho…
Thank you to all who have committed to taking special leave without pay between now and the end
of the year. It is because of your generosity - no matter how many hours you plan to use - that our
coworkers whose circumstances are such that losing any paid time would create an
unmanageable financial hardship are not facing mandatory leave without pay. For those of you
who have not yet availed yourself of the special leave program, you can do so through the last full
pay period of the year. Thank you!
Here is what you have done so far this year:
AFSCME represented employees:
4139 Total
1600 - 39% have participated as of June 2009
2776 - 50% have committed to participate through end of the year
Directors/Managers/Supervisors:
835 Total
528 - 62% have participated as of June 2009
607 - 73% have committed to participate through end of the year
Non-organized employees:
1208 Total
653 - 54% have participated as of June 2009
810 - 67% have committed to participate through end of the year
Totals:
$1,320,000.00 already saved as of June 2009
$3,080,000.00 committed to for savings through end of the year
Thank you to the Commissioners for listening to us when we proposed that they ask for voluntary
leave instead of mandating furloughs - to give employees the opportunity to show our greatness.
The results, as evidenced by the numbers above, show that we have many great employees something AFSCME has known for many years. If you read the July 1, 2009 e-mail from County
Administrator Richard Johnson, you can see that your efforts, along with budget reductions that
have already been implemented for 2009, have enabled him to not look for further reductions this
year.
Continued on the Final Page
August 2009
-15-
Good & Welfare: Thank You Notes
Dear Brothers and Sisters of Local 34:
I want to express my gratitude and thanks to union
members for your kind "get well' greeting after back
surgery. In addition, the kind remarks were
accompanied by a beautiful plant which lifted my
spirits. This was exceedingly kind and appreciated.
Sincerely,
Pat Walker
Dear AFSCME Local 34,
Thank you for the beautiful flowers and vase I received
today. It was very thoughtful of you to think of us and
the birth of our son, Gabriel. We enjoy being new
parents and are blessed to have a happy and healthy
baby.
Sincerely,
Lindsay, Rob and Gabriel Schwab
President Diederich’s Column - Continued from Page 15
Progressive Dues update
The highlights from the June General Assembly in last month's newsletter had a small note
regarding the work of the Council 5 Progressive Dues Committee. A good number of you contacted
me regarding that information, concerned about any type of increase - wondering why we would
need one when we already have a progressive structure in place. Well, I have good news. Based
on feedback such as yours, the Council 5 staff asked the International for clarification of the
proposed changes. The clarification received stated that any local with a progressive dues
structure in place will not have to make any changes to their dues structure unless the local chose
to do so. Local 34's 1% structure, based on our budget, appears to meet our needs so, unless
there is direction from you to change it, we will keep our dues at that level. Just to let you know,
other locals are so impressed with how ours is working that they have asked for information on the
process our Budget & Finance Committee used to arrive at that figure, how the transition was
handled, and the impact it had on membership. You never know when you are going to be a leader
in change.
Negotiations update
I am pleased to announce the appointment of the following members as your Local 34 Table Team
for this year’s negotiations process: Jacquelin Poole, Jean Diederich, Laurie Simon, Patrick Regan
and Wes Volkenant. This is a well-rounded group of members who will represent you well in the
meetings with the Employer. Table Team training will be held on August 10th for the six AFSCME
Table Teams - Locals 34, 552, 1719, 2822, 2864 and 2938 - to brush up on our skills and protocol.
Dear Local 34,
Thanks so much for your constant support. It means a
great deal. I know we house some of your clients.
Financial support like yours helps us keep our rents as
low as possible, which our residents really appreciate.
Thanks again for another check for $100.
Sincerely,
Herb Frey, Executive Director
Alliance Housing Inc.
We still have several meetings scheduled in August for the Master Negotiations Committee to work
on finalizing our master contract proposal and any supplemental items. You have been sent a
letter via US mail regarding a survey, accessed on our Local 34 web site, to assist us in putting
together our contract campaign and proposal. If you have not already done so, please visit our web
site at http://afscmelocal34.org/index.htm to complete the survey, as your input is very important.
Dear AFSCME Local 34,
Thanks so much for your gift to the House of Charity.
Our father grew up poor, and he felt a responsibility to
help those less fortunate than himself. We appreciate
your thoughtfulness and generosity.
Steve Marincel & Family
If anyone is willing to serve on the Action Team, please let me know. We need motivated,
energetic, creative members willing to get information to members and plan activities surrounding
the contract campaign as well as work on actions to support the Table Team's efforts in
negotiations. We have the services of Chris Cowen and Jennifer Munt from Council 5. They worked
with the State's and U of M's Action Teams during their contract campaigns. In my humble
opinion, the Action Team is the most important group during negotiations as they are everywhere,
working with everyone.
Dear Friend,
On behalf of Hadassah, please accept our deep
gratitude for your contribution of $50.00 received on
May 28, 2009 {in memory of Lillian Simon}.
2009 Budget County Board meetings
This year the Board will face some heavy decisions for HCMC. The unallotments made by Governor
Pawlenty, particularly the cutting of the GAMC program, is going to have a huge impact on the
hospitals budget as a large number of people using the facility were covered by that program.
With the loss of GAMC funds, the hospital faces rising uncompensated care costs. Even though
HCMC is run independent of the County budget, the County remains the "bank" for any uncovered
costs. Those monies come from the County's General Fund and once the money leaves that fund,
it is gone. Why should we care? Very simply, cuts in one area of the County affect every other area
as the budget is approved as a whole, not as individual pieces.
It is through gifts such as yours that Hadassah is able
to maintain its internationally renowned standards in
health care, education, youth services and so much
more.
Hadassah depends upon the support,
generosity and dedication of our loyal and supportive
donors who want to make a difference. We are
pleased to count you among this group.
Please note that no goods or services were provided
in consideration of this gift. Please consult with a tax
advisor concerning any implications of this gift.
Again, please accept our warm thanks and
appreciation.
Sincerely yours,
Marcie E. Natan, National Treasurer
Hadassah:
The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.
Local 34 Banner
Once the proposal is finalized, we will send it to the Employer on September 8th. We will then
meet on September 14th to receive the Employer's counter-proposal with regular negotiation
meetings scheduled for September 28th and October 19th and two mediation sessions scheduled
for November 2nd and November 16th.
An important piece of the budget puzzle, and its impact on our ongoing ability to do our jobs, is the
presentation each Department makes to the County Board for their proposed budget. Each
Department has been told to bring in a proposal at 96% of the 2009 level. Last year we asked our
members to take time away from their desks to attend some of those meetings. We are once
more asking you to do so (this is a great opportunity to use some of our SLWOP time), wearing
AFSCME green and be a witness to how the budget is set. Our presence was noted last year and
we did have an impact on some of the changes made from the original proposals. The process
starts when the Board adopts the 2010 maximum levy and budget with a series of department
presentations from September 15th to November 20th, followed by Commissioner amendments
and rounding off with the Truth in Taxation hearing. The final budget is approved by the Board at
their December 15th meeting. Please check our web site, http://afscmelocal34.org/index.htm,
for a complete list of the Department presentations and meeting dates. I hope to see you there.
Well, I think that is enough news to digest for this month. Stay tuned for updates on negotiations
and the 2010 budget. Get out and enjoy all that Minnesota has to offer.
Jean
August 2009
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