AFSCME to Strike?

WorkdayMinnesota is reporting that AFSME may strike.

Who?

The six AFSCME locals representing workers at Hennepin County include: Local 34 (Social and Health Services), Local 552 (Probation and Parole), Local 1719 (Adult Corrections Officers), Local 2822 (Clerical and Related), Local 2864 (Professional Librarians) and Local 2938 (Legal Unit).

This means there will be no clerks or pretrial probation officers at the jail if they do strike.

Why? According to the WorkdayMinnesota article:

"It's take-backs, take-backs and more take-backs," Poehler said, updating the noon-hour rally on contract negotiations. Poehler told the crowd that Hennepin County negotiators are proposing several contract changes:

• making County employees pay more out-of-pocket for health care;

• threatening to cut full health coverage;

• converting some full-time jobs to part-time jobs with reduced health benefits;

• allowing supervisors to take on union work;

• denying some health benefits to future employees.

One interesting note is that hundreds of AFSCME workers picketed at the government center on the 18th and I saw no mention in the main stream press.

Negotiations: Our Initial Proposal

Labor Rally at Government Center

News from AFSCME Local 1719

When: This Tuesday the 18th at Noon in the Hennepin County Government Center Plaza there will be a rally by AFSCME Council 5 Hennepin County employees and others concerned about negotiations. I have been informed that Postal Employee Union Members and Teamsters will be there also supporting this rally by their attendance. Everyone is welcome to help support this rally to show the county board how serious we are in these negotiations.

Issue: After three meetings the county still has not given employees a health care proposal or moved on any issues. There are only three negotiations scheduled until we go to mediation. The more people that appear at this rally will show the county board that this negotiation time is a serious time where they must pay attention. I know in my local union at least 31 people are free that day or not working during the time of the rally. I hope every one of them show up to demonstrate that we as union members are serious about this contract.

Thanks for attending I hope to see you there on Tuesday,

Dean Enge 1719

I would encourage any of our members availabe to attend. What affects them affects us. This is day one of our negotiations.

Wade

RNC Welcoming Video-theirs(funny)

September Update

Contract Negotiations Begin September 18th

The Leather Issue has not yet been resolved

The grievance filed after management unilaterally ended the decades long past practice of having breakfast foods available before shift without negotiating with the union is still headed to Arbitration.

The grievance filed by a member given a suspension for uttering a profanity heard only after the Sheriff's Office was reviewing a 6 month old tape of intake for an unrelated reason is still active.

The Blood Bourne Pathogens bill we wrote is still not being utilized.

Arbitration has been set for October 8th, 2007 at 9 AM. RE: TEAMSTERS LOCAL 320 AND HENNEPIN COUNTY BMS CASE #06PA0844 (HOROBIN #3234)
This is a case involving an SRT cell extraction that resulted in a 10 day suspension. It is the Union's opinion there is no just cause.

You'd call it a lobbyist, The Sheriff's Office would call it a Contract and Grants Manager!

Apparently our drinking and driving lobbyist is being replaced. Yeah, they're calling the position a Contract and Grants Manager for the Sheriff's Office, but read the description and qualifications and tell me what you'd call it!


Job Title:
Contract and Grants Manager - Sheriff's Office
Closing Date/Time:
Fri. 08/31/07 5:00 PM Central Time
Salary:
$56,016.00 - $85,272.00 annually
Job Type:
Full-time
Location:
Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota
Department:
Sheriff's Office

This job is closed. Print Job Information
Description Benefits Supplemental Questions

We are one of Minnesota's premier law enforcement agencies, based in Minneapolis. Over 800 men and women of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office invite you to join them in the career challenges offered by our agency which seeks to reflect the diversity of the communities it serves. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office is dedicated to increasing public safety through leadership, integrity, and strong partnerships. The vision of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office is outstanding public safety through exemplary leadership, collaborative dynamic partnerships, and innovative resource management. The primary duties/responsibilities of this position include:
Develop and implement coordinated face-to-face and written outreach and educational campaigns, related to Public Safety, for the County Board, other elected officials, department heads within Hennepin County, and the public.
Develop relationships with members of the Minnesota Legislature as well as the Governor and his Administration.
Develop relationships and potential legislative programs with Minnesota’s Congressional delegation for the purpose of identifying, securing and maximizing federal resources for coordination and provision of law enforcement services throughout the County.
Develop a coordinated effort among Sheriffs and Police Chiefs throughout the State to promote public safety and to coordinate Homeland Security efforts.
Research policy and legislative bills and advise the Sheriff on official positions with respect to their potential impact on law enforcement and public safety in the County. Make recommendations to the Chief of Staff and the Sheriff regarding such proposals and issues.
Analyze and evaluate departmental policies and procedures and formulate new or revised ones when necessary. The ideal candidate will have:
Juris Doctorate AND
Four or more years of experience in Government Relations work at the MN Legislature. Selection Process: Invitations to interview will be based on an assessment of education and experience.

Agency:
Hennepin County
Address:
Hennepin County Government Center 300 South Sixth Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55487 Map/Directions
Phone:
612-348-2163
Web Site:
http://hennepin.jobs/
E-mail:
HR.Dept@co.hennepin.mn.us

AFSCME Workhouse Negotiaions

This is an update from our Workhouse counterparts. It's where negotiations are with them:


Council 5 Local 1719

8-30-07

To: Membership of AFSCME # 1719
From: Dean Enge, your President D. Enge
Subject: Negotiations and other issues

Negotiations at this Time

Currently the status of negotiations is that the county has given us a proposal that is unacceptable to the union. The county has offered little in pay and a lot of take aways from our current contract. One of the things that they would like to be able to do is have supervisors be able to bump back into the bargaining unit with their seniority from when they started working for the county. So if they laid some off or demoted some they would be protected. While this has never happened in recent memory an example where we would be hurt is a closing of a department unit like the Home School. If the Home School were closed and the students privatized then the Correctional Supervisors there would be surplus. Would our department then decide some of them could replace some of ours at the ACF and if so this language could affect you? Currently once supervisors have passed their probation as a supervisor they have lost their seniority rights in the bargaining unit. The county also would like to deposit your severance pay and stability pay in a health care savings account instead of you getting it. While that proposal has some merits for those close to retirement, it would hurt those you would like to keep the stability pay for the holidays. The county would save a lot in not contributing to FICA and PERA on parts of this proposal. The county has also offered PTO again with take aways of two days a year for current employees and four days a year for new employees. The union’s position on PTO is no as it is currently being offered. After three meetings the county has not yet offered us their position on Health Insurance and is promising to offer one maybe at the next meeting Sept. 10. The only thing on Health Insurance that has been mentioned by the county is to suggest a high deductible plan with a VEBA for 2009. They have stated they want to meet on Sept. 10 for six hours to chat about their various issues and hopefully present the Health Insurance component.

Rally

On September 18, 2007 at the Plaza at the Hennepin County Government Center there will be a rally for all AFSCME members in Hennepin County. This noon rally is to show the strength of your union to the county board and management by expressing our solidarity and objection to what they have offered. If you are off on that Tuesday please join us in the rally so the strength can be shown to the public and the governing board. It was actions like this two years ago that helped to get the contract we did then.

The Eight Hour Day

From Workday Minnesota:

September 3, 1916 - Railroad workers won the eight-hour day. The legislation, called the Adamson Act, marked the first time a group of private sector workers had their working hours regulated by the federal government. It was one of many reforms pushed by the progressive movement of the early 20th century.

The Adamson Act, passed in 1916, provided workers with an eight hour day, at the same daily wage they had received previously for a ten hour day, and required time and a half for overtime. -Wikipedia

UK Prison Workers Strike

Libcom.org is reporting that, Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.

Their laws are similar to ours in that Prison officers were banned from striking by a court ruling in early 1993, which found prison officers had powers and authority similar to those of the police and subsequently could not strike. That was written into law by the Tories in the 1994 Criminal Justice Act. Just as we are deemed "essential employees."

Why did they strike?

Wednesday's strike came after a pay review body recommended a rise of 2.5 percent this year but the government decided that it should be staged, with an initial 1.5 percent rise followed by another 1 percent six months later.

Big deal you say, they were proposed a low raise and staggered at that. Well the main point applicable to all of us is this:

Brian Clarke, chair of Birmingham POA, told Socialist Worker, “Our pay awards are meant to be according to performance. There is a growth in prison population but not in prison staff, so our performance is increasing.

As we begin our negotiations we need to remind the County that like our UK counter parts there's been an increase in inmates but not a proportionate increase in staff so our performance is also increasing.

While I am not advocating a strike. Philosophically I agree with Brian Caton, general secretary of the POA... “I believe every officer has human rights, and they include the right to withdraw their labour,” he said.

CRS Incorporated

I'm back from Chicago and opened my email to see that CRS Incorporated will be conducting a comprehensive jail staffing analysis. I looked on-line to do a little research and found this PDF of their work. As we all know the jail is short staffed. The primary reason being that the County Board has never funded quads 2 and 3 to be open, but high inmate counts have required their use. I hope this analysis convinces the Board to get us the required staff and doesn't just result in "creative" scheduling as a band aid. Especially with the RNC coming next year we'll need all the staff we can get.

RNC Update

Infoshop News is reporting that "Police attack Minneapolis Critical Mass and arrest around 20 cyclists" Read this article. I will post news relating to the upcoming RNC as I find it just so we know what to expect when it comes.

Photo from Indymedia