Lobby Day Set
for March 3
(1/13/10)

    AFSCME Lobby Day 2010 will be held in Madison on Wednesday, March 3. This year's event will focus on increasing our power at the bargaining table, fighting the rush to privatization and adequately funding public services.

    Lobby Day is critical to AFSCME Wisconsin's legislative program, as each year nearly 500 AFSCME members from all three Wisconsin Councils descend on the Capitol on one day, and speak with one voice about the importance of public services.

    For more information, please contact District Council 48 at 414-344-6868. We hope you will join us as AFSCME Green Power descends on the Capitol.

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Recent News & Notes

    Direct Talk from District Council 48 Executive Director Rich Abelson: Taking the good with the bad as we set our sights on 2010 (12/09)

    The State Budget: It's Time to Focus on Feeding the Revenue Stream (5/09)

    A 'hybrid' solution: State seeks control of Milwaukee County’s Income Maintenance Program (3/09)

    Read (and participate in) The Greenline, AFSCME International's Weblog (i.e., "blog")

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From left: Gov. Doyle, DC 48 Executive Director Richard Abelson, DC 48 Staff Rep Penni Secore and Local 594 President Dave Eisner. (AFSCME Photo by Bob Allen)

State Takeover of
Milwaukee County IM Services
Signed into Law
(5/27/09)

    On May 26, Gov. Jim Doyle signed SB 161, a bill that codifies an arrangement for the state to take over Income Maintenance services (IM) in Milwaukee County. SB 161 is one part of a three-part strategy that spells out how the transfer of IM administration from the county to the state will take place. The state Department of Health Services already has assumed control over some aspects of Milwaukee County IM under its current authority.

    "Our goal is to make this the absolute best unit in the country," said Gov. Doyle, who thanked AFSCME, state Department of Health Services staff and area legislators for some creative efforts to get IM operations back on track.

    For more details and a bit of backstory ...

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Have questions about your financial future?
    Contact Bob Johnston, a financial advisor and financial services representative with Next Level Planning & Wealth Management (an office of MetLife). Johnston can be reached at 414-615-4912 or via email at rjohnston1@metlife.com.

State Legislative Update:
AFSCME Testifies
at Assembly Hearing
(1/13/10)

    On Jan. 13, the State Assembly Committee on Labor held a public hearing on Assembly Bill 609, authored by Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee). AB 609 would limit the ability of courts to overturn rulings by arbitrators in a mediation arbitration process, and your Unoin testified in support of the bill. We're asking the committee to schedule a vote in the coming weeks.

    Currently, courts have broad powers to overturn an arbitrator's decision, even when both sides in the dispute have agreed to binding arbitration. These powers weaken the arbitration process, and take the final decision out of the hands of an arbitrator experienced with the issues in dispute and place them in the hands of a judge who may or may not be familiar with labor/management negotiations.

    In other Assembly news: AB 644 also received a hearing in the Assembly Labor Committee on Jan.13. Authored by Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Milwaukee), the bill creates the presumption, for purposes of determining benefits, that firefighters, emergency medical services providers, law enforcement officers and corrections officers who die or are disabled due to an infectious communicable disease, contracted the disease through their line of work.

    Under current law, these protections extend to fire fighters for heart and respiratory issues they likely would have obtained as a part of their public service. This bill expands the people covered by this protection to cover diseases that can be spread by direct contact to many public employees who work with people who are at a higher risk of having such a disease.

A June 15 rally at Milwaukee City Hall was “really only the first phase” of what’s shaping up to be a concerted and comprehensive effort by a range of community-minded organizations to kill the idea to privatize Milwaukee’s Water works, says Karen Royster, executive director of the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, or IWF. (Photo courtesy of IWF)

KPOW helps K.O.
City of Milwaukee’s
Water Works privatization idea
— at least for now
(8/4/09)

    AFSCME members know all too well the perils of privatization and the toll it can take — on public employees’ livelihoods and lives, to be sure, but also on the community at large. And when it comes to the potential privatization of Milwaukee’s Water Works, an idea city leaders have been exploring as a way to help balance the city budget, the community at large is showing signs that it just might know it, too.

    On June 15, more than 200 concerned citizens made their voices heard at a City Hall rally. The event was mobilized by Keep Public Our Water (KPOW), a diverse coalition of Milwaukee-area organizations.

    For the rest of the story ...

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Need to express your opinion? Our contact lists can help.

Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors

Milwaukee-area state legislators

Wisconsin members of US Congress

City of Milwaukee Common Council


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© 2009 AFSCME District Council 48
3427 W. St. Paul Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53208
Phone: (414) 344-6868 Your e-mail feedback is welcome!

Obama, Pelosi reaffirm commitment
to finish the health reform job
(1/31/10)

    During his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, President Barack Obama urged Congress not to walk away from health reform and to finish the job.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has stated repeatedly that the House is committed to putting a reform bill on the President's desk, but she's also said the Senate bill has several significant flaws and that the House cannot pass it as is, according to the Jan. 29 edition of "AFSCME Federal Legislative Report."

    AFSCME and the rest of the labor movement agree with the Speaker: The House cannot and should not approve the Senate bill without "addressing the tax on high cost health plans and other flaws," according to the report. Pelosi has proposed that the House and Senate complete negotiations over changes to the bill passed by the Senate -- a package of changes could then be debated by the Senate under reconciliation, or majority vote, procedures. Under such procedures, Senate Republican leaders would be prohibited from blocking the bill through a filibuster; a simple majority of 51 votes would be sufficient to approve the changes. Once the Senate approved the package of changes to its health bill, the House could then approve the Senate bill.

    The Speaker's plan "appears to be a path to move health care forward in a way that will best protect AFSCME members," according to the report. Another advantage to the Speaker's plan is that it would enable the Senate to quickly move forward on a jobs bill, a critical AFSCME priority. As of Jan. 29, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was assessing Pelosi's plan to determine whether Senate Democrats would agree to it.

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County Board Rejects T.A.
We’d Reached in Good Faith
(10/14/09)

    This morning, the Milwaukee County Board rejected the tentative agreement your Union had entered into in good faith.

    On Sept. 22, AFSCME-represented Milwaukee County workers ratified a two-year agreement with the county. In exchange for guarantees of no layoffs or privatization of county services through 2010, workers agreed to a two-year wage freeze. Two Milwaukee County Board committees approved the deal. But on Sept. 24, the full County Board deferred voting on the contract.

    Then late this morning, the full board voted 11-6 to reject the T.A.

    What’s next? We are arranging to commence the exchange process of final offers, and we’ll be moving the matter to arbitration as soon as possible.

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DC 48’s Findley Appointed
to City Election Commission
(9/14/09)

    AFSCME District Council 48 Administrative Assistant Stephanie Findley recently was appointed by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to serve on the city of Milwaukee Board of Election Commissioners.

    Her term, which officially began July 1, runs through June 30, 2013.

    Election Commissioners are responsible for providing a “trustworthy environment to register voters and conduct elections,” according to information posted on the commission’s Web site. The board comprises three commissioners appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Common Council for four-year terms. Commissioners represent the “dominant political parties (i.e., Democratic and Republican),” with two of the commissioners representing the party of the winner in the most recent gubernatorial election, according to the commission's Web site.

    Congratulations, Stephanie.

Stephanie Findley