December 2007
A few glaring negatives aside, we’ve had a pretty positive year

    2007 has been a mixed bag of goodies, most of them of the positive variety. On the flip side, we have ended the year with one glaring negative – the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s decision to privatize its wastewater treatment operations. Again.

    I don’t know what the majority of MMSD Commissioners were smoking when they voted earlier this month to award a 10-year contract to the French-owned, multinational giant Veolia, but it had to be something pretty strong. Administration at MMSD claimed an annual saving of $3.5 million over the next 10 years when compared with re-municipalizing the operations.

    No profit for 10 years? Yet, by Veolia’s own admission, the privateer did not build into its offer any profit for 10 years. They also have to assume 25 percent of the increased energy costs, and claim they will increase staffing over the levels of the prior privateer, United Water Services (a division of the French-owned giant Suez).

    Unless Veolia, in coming to Milwaukee, suddenly has become a non-profit corporation, any child should have been able to see through the unrealistic terms of the offer.

    Not our MMSD Commissioners! The majority of them bought into those unrealistic allegations hook, line and sinker. Not only that, they also bought in to the fact that the past 10 years of privatization have been a good thing for the citizens of Milwaukee, the workers and the environment.

    In any event: I want to thank the four Commissioners who voted against the Veolia contract: Lyle Balistrieri, State Rep. Pedro Colon, State Rep. David Cullen and City of Milwaukee Alderman Ashanti Hamilton. They had the courage to stand up to phony allegations of MMSD’s Administration, and to stand for the public good. They also had the fortitude to stand with the workers. Thank you, thank you and thank you.

    We grew this year. On the positive side, our Union grew in 2007. The affiliation of the U.S. Bank Employees Union, 500 members strong, now Local 777 of AFSCME, was a wonderful thing. We competed for the Bank Employees against two other International Unions. We believe that the Bank Employees Union chose wisely when they opted to affiliate with District Council 48, and we will work hard to demonstrate to the Bank Employees the wisdom of their decision.

    In October 2006, Gov. Jim Doyle signed an Executive Order allowing 7,000 (about 1,600 in Milwaukee County) Home Child Care Providers to organize a Union. In March 2007, the vast majority of the Home Child Care Providers, statewide, chose AFSCME as their Union.

    I have been actively involved in negotiating the first agreement on behalf of the Child Care Providers. When that agreement is negotiated, our membership will increase significantly. This was another tremendous victory.

    Advocating for the disenfranchised. Our Union continues to be a major force in our community. Our mission is to improve the lives of our members and their families, but we also have a broader mission to make our community a better place to live and work. We must advocate for those members of our society whose voices are not heard, particularly those who for whatever reason are less fortunate.

    In this holiday season, those of us who enjoy a secure job and economic security should not forget those among us who are less fortunate.

    Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2008.

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November 2007
Duly noted: Facing difficult choices, Milwaukee’s aldermen, Mayor Barrett, County supervisors stepped up at budget time


    Every year we look to October and November as a time where the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County budgets take center stage. This year was different. The Wisconsin State budget, which should have been passed in July, was held hostage by the Republican-controlled State Assembly and stole most of the spotlight.

    The irresponsible Republican leadership in the Assembly tied up the budget with ultra-conservative initiatives, such as gouging public-sector collective bargaining laws. They attacked public-sector pensions, health insurance and sick leave, and pursued drastic cuts in transportation funds and the state compensation reserves.

    In the face of this intransigence, the governor and the Democratic-controlled Senate were faced with difficult choices up against impending and potentially devastating deadlines. They crafted and passed the state budget, and unfortunately for our members and the citizens of Wisconsin, it did not live up to the promise of the initial budget passed in the State Senate.

    From disappointment to doing the right thing. The final budget disappointingly froze revenue sharing which all municipalities, especially Milwaukee, rely upon to relieve property taxes and provide essential city services. An unrealistic property tax levy of only 2 percent was imposed for fiscal-year 2009, although the governor was able to exercise his veto and raise the levy limit for fiscal-year 2008 to 3.86 percent.

    That said, there were are victories in this budget, such as the restoration of $69 million in funding to the Wisconsin Shares program (child-care services to low-income families), and a 3 percent increase in transportation funding, including $12.8 million for Mass Transit services ($8 million to Milwaukee County).

    On the city side, Mayor Tom Barrett and the Milwaukee Common Council passed a very responsible budget which preserves city services, and even slightly increases our membership within the city locals. We thank them for their actions. Although we may have differences with the aldermen and the mayor on individual issues, they have proven to be friends to our Union and our membership.

    How we’ll endorse in ‘08. Unfortunately, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker continues to attempt to dismantle County government. His proposed budget would have cut critical services to the county’s most disadvantaged and needy populations. He again tried to destroy the parks by cutting staff.

    The County Board did the right thing by restoring virtually all of the cuts, and then overriding his vetoes.

    I am often critical of the County Board, both in this column and in public. But I also will not hesitate to commend them when they do something right. The majority of County Board Supervisors did the right thing in this budgetary process.

    We will weigh the totality of the supervisors’ records when we make endorsements for the April 2008 elections. We will take everything into account, including their actions – or in the case of the vast majority of the supervisors, their inactions during our bitter contract negotiations which culminated in December 2006, their attempted blackmail of our Union, and the pending layoffs.

    However, the verdict is in on County Executive Scott Walker: He has to go!

    Walker’s tenure has been a disaster for the citizens of Milwaukee County and our members.

    He has proven time and again that he does not believe in county government; he has viciously declared war on every program that benefits the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, and the disadvantaged children in Milwaukee County. He has attempted to destroy the county’s quality-of-life assets, most notably our great parks system. Time and again, his phony “no tax increase” strategy has brought our county to the brink of disaster time.

    Lena’s a shining light. Fortunately, we have a great candidate in State Sen. Lena Taylor, who in October announced her candidacy for Milwaukee County Executive. Sen. Taylor has proven her dedication to public service. Her knowledge of the critical issues facing Milwaukee County runs deep, and she’s committed to restoring the critical basic-need and quality-of-life services that historically have made Milwaukee County a great place to live and work.

    Thank you, Wendy. Lastly, and on a personal note: Wendy Strout, our Take Back Wisconsin staff person, will be leaving AFSCME to become director of the Wisconsin Civic Engagement Project. Wendy is a tremendous person with incredible talent. More than that, she is a great friend. I will miss working with her on a day-to-day basis. But I know that her work and ours will intersect, and that we will continue to benefit from her efforts. Good luck, Wendy.

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June 2007
Our New Progressive Agenda Took Center Stage at the 2007 National Leadership Conference


    Earlier this month, AFSCME International held one of the most important National Leadership Conferences ever held in the history of our Union. I was privileged to be one of the 2,000 or so AFSCME members to attend this conference in Washington, D.C., with brothers and sisters from all over the United States and Puerto Rico. There were about 10 of us from DC 48, and a total of about 35 from the three Wisconsin AFSCME Councils.

    What made this conference important wasn’t the forum held for the Democratic presidential candidates, although that made the national news. It wasn’t about the roll-out of the new AFSCME logo – a new logo, although nice, doesn’t change an organization.

    What made this conference historic and significant was that a new progressive agenda, utilizing the 21st Century goals we adopted at the 2006 International Convention, permeated the premises.

    Even more significant to those of us who’ve been involved with this great Union for many years was that the conference had a different “feel” to it – a palpable energy generated, perhaps, by our renewed focus and restated sense of purpose.

    Charting a new course. As you know, the goals of the 21st Century Committee were to create a new direction for our Union. Delegates to the 2006 convention realized that business as usual wasn’t going to cut it if we were going to rise up to meet the future’s many new challenges.

    With that in mind, we began charting a new plan of action, enhancing our capacity to succeed in the political arena and use politics to enhance the rest of our multifaceted agenda, which includes traditional collective bargaining and contract administration; the critical work of communicating with our membership and mobilizing for the myriad legislative battles we face; and positively influencing the budget struggles at all levels of government. These budget struggles directly impact all government workers, but also the workers we represent in private-sector service industries.

    The new direction also influences what is the lifeblood of our Union and the Union movement in general – ORGANIZING. Tying politics to the rest of the key Union agenda items was the most important message of the conference.

    We were sent home with a clear directive: reach 25 percent membership participation in the ASCME PEOPLE program in 2007, and 40 percent in 2008. It’s a daunting goal; we are currently at about the 10 percent level. But it is a goal we must strive to meet.

    The “ask” is simple: We are asking each of our members, who care about their jobs and the direction of our country to contribute $4 per pay period.

    What it’ll take to rise to the occasion. It’s a significant contribution, make no mistake about it. But it’s the most important investment you can make. We must have the resources to carry out our progressive agenda and influence the 2008 elections — from the White House to each city, village or town hall in which our members toil every day.

    When Wendy Strout, our Take Back Wisconsin staff person, comes to your membership meetings or meets with you one-on-one, listen to what she has to say. In the final analysis, I know our members will rise to the occasion and do the right thing!

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April 2007
Ongoing Museum Crisis Continues to Expose Privatization for the Bad Public Policy That It Is


    Old stories never seem to go away. During the past several weeks, the continuing saga of the Milwaukee Public Museum has been in the news. Once again, there’s an impending financial crisis. There is no need to rehash the sad debacle that brought us today’s crisis. But the entire sordid affair stems from a bad privatization deal hatched by stupid elected officials who were convinced that privatization was the “magic bullet.”

    The facts tell a completely different story. Prior to its mid-1990s privatization, the Museum had been a revered and treasured institution for 100 years. It took less than 10 years for the new management to run the place into the ground and spend the endowment fund illegally for operating expenses.

    During those same 10 years, the new management succeeded in raising their own salaries to ridiculous levels, creating all kinds of new executive vice president positions (which added little or no value to the Museum), and developed new perks for the VIPs.

    ‘It was our members who took the hit.’ The regular employees, Union members, did not share in the wealth. We negotiated regular wage increases, and the benefit levels did not rise beyond the norm. But when the crisis was revealed a couple of years ago, it was our members who took the hit. We were forced to give up about $2 million in concessions just to keep the Museum’s doors open.

    What did the other players in this drama give up? What concessions did the higher-up management make? What did the banks who hold the Museum’s debt give up? What did Milwaukee County — which ultimately is responsible for this fiasco by coming up with the privatization scheme in the first place — give up? The answer is simple: So far, nothing.

    To bail out the Museum two years ago, the County guaranteed a $5 million line of credit. The Museum has drawn down and used it, but has not defaulted on a penny. The $5 million line of credit has not cost the County a penny. Two banks hold the $20 million in Museum debt. So far, they neither have implemented any negotiated revised debt schedule nor reduced any debt or interest rates. Let me repeat: So far, only the employees have taken a hit. In the meantime, have you heard any credit given to them or words of appreciation uttered on their behalf in the press by the County Board Supervisors or the County Executive? I haven’t. Never mind that the employees have been directly responsible for keeping this community treasure afloat.

    I am not trying to diminish the efforts being put forward by Museum management to get out of this mess. The current leadership inherited the debt — they did not create it. It’s easy to raise money for a “sexy” exhibit, like mammoth bones. It is very difficult, verging on impossible, to get major donors to contribute money to pay off old debt — particularly when that old debt is tainted with the kind of history this Museum’s is.

    Privatization does not work! We applaud the Bradley Foundation and the anonymous donor for stepping up with a $5 million contribution to the Museum. We hope this spurs others to make major contributions. But don’t come to the employees and ask for any more concessions. We’ve already given.

    It is time for the County to step to the plate and do its fair share. After all, the County got us into this mess by privatizing the Museum in the first place. The banks, too, need to do their part. The challenge is for all of the stakeholders to strike the correct balance and put some “skin in the game.”

    Our elected officials have another challenge to meet, one that is uniquely their own: to find a way to get it through their heads that privatization does not work!

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January 2007
The County Contract: The Evolution of an Ordeal (squared)
    As I write this, the negotiations for a ‘05-‘06 and ‘07-‘08 contract with Milwaukee County appear to have finally been put to bed. To call these negotiations an “ordeal” is to understate the obvious.

    With the layoff of up to 130 of our members staring us in the face on Dec. 15, 2006, we went to court. We charged Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County Board and the County Executive with having violated the law in trying to blackmail our Union into a contract through illegal threats and the use of layoffs as an economic weapon. The judge agreed with us and issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the layoffs.

    Real negotiations at long last. Under the threat of a Dec. 27 return to court — and the likelihood of the TRO becoming a permanent injunction — the County returned to the bargaining table and engaged in real negotiations with our bargaining team for the very first time since we began bargaining in late 2004.

    Our bargaining team set two major priorities: health insurance reform and job security.

    As detailed in the article that begins on page 1 of our January 2007 issue, “County Workers Ratify Contract,” we were largely successful in attaining both goals.

    The audacity of ‘no.’ Why did it take so long? Why were these negotiations so difficult? One response answers both questions: A lack of leadership from the County Executive and the County Board of Supervisors.

    The health insurance proposals we were making should have been no-brainers for the County. We were asking for a rational system of premium sharing for health insurance plans. We believe that if you select a less expensive plan, you should pay less in premium contribution for that plan. And we were asking for a wellness/disease management program to keep future health care costs down by keeping people healthier. Yet, our elected representatives failed to see the wisdom of these proposals until the 23rd hour.

    A more important question is: Why did the County-elected officials single us out for their venom and anger? The answer is far more complex, but it boils down to a single point: We had the audacity to look them in the face and say “no.”

    We stood up for our members. We also refused to cave in to their demands that we shift the cost of health insurance and health care onto employees. We insisted that we look strategically at how to hold down future health care costs.

    We simply refused to back down.

    The ‘rights’ fight. We also insisted that we were going to exercise our right to let an impartial arbitrator decide our contract. We filed multiple prohibited practice charges asserting that the County had bargained in bad faith. We even had to file a prohibited practice charge against a County Board Supervisor because he tried to interfere with the internal operations of our Union!

    We won’t forget. There are lessons to be learned from this long and difficult ordeal. For one thing, we must always stand up for our principles, and for what is right for our members. This is true no matter how much heat we take from elected officials, the public and the press.

    Similarly, we also must always have one eye on the future. For all of their statements of support, very few County Supervisors stood up for us. Friends don’t blackmail friends! My own County Board Supervisor wouldn’t even return my telephone calls. Of course, now that the negotiations are over, they all want to be buddy-buddy again.

    We will move on. We will work together with elected officials who wish to work with us. But we will not forget. The Spring 2008 elections are right around the corner.

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October 2006
Framing our ‘permanent interests’ in a political context
    Politics and budgets. Every October, budgets are the major focus of our Union. In October of even-number years, budgets share the spotlight with the major election cycle – either on the national scale or for our statewide constitutional officers.

    Every election cycle, our political folks tell us that more is at stake than ever before. I am one of the folks who have said that time and time again.

    It’s true again.

    We know that our membership base is spread across the political spectrum – there is no such thing as a typical Union member. Some are diehard Democrats, but a significant number are Republicans, and a far greater number are Independent.

    It’s not about party affiliation. As a Union, we usually endorse Democrats. Why? Democratic candidates support our positions. I would personally love to support Republican candidates – if we could find some that support us. The way we used to be able to.

    There is no “label” which defines a Union-supported candidate. I don’t care whether a candidate for office is a Democrat, Republican or a member of another party. If that person supports us, we will support them. As many of you have heard me say, “Our Union does not have permanent friends or permanent enemies – we only have permanent interests.”

    Sadly, the Republicans in our state have moved so far to the right that it is impossible for our Union to support them.

    In the last legislative cycle, Republicans voted on virtually straight party lines to pass TABOR (the so-called “Taxpayers Bill of Rights”), which would have destroyed public services in Wisconsin.

    They also voted to take away our right to negotiate health insurance at the bargaining table.

    And they would have imposed a QEO on all public employees that would have destroyed collective bargaining for our members.

    The only thing that stopped these disastrous events from occurring was Governor Jim Doyle’s veto pen. Make no mistake: The only pro-worker, pro-collective bargaining candidate running for Governor is Jim Doyle.

    You don’t want to wake up on November 8th with a Republican Governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature. Read about the Doyle difference in this newspaper. Read about the issues, and vote based on your most important financial asset – your job – and the most important thing going – the financial well-being of your family!! Vote for Jim Doyle for Governor and Barbara Lawton for Lieutenant Governor.

    Other critical races. While we remain focused on the Governor’s race, other races are also critically important.

    Kathleen Falk is our candidate for Attorney General. Besides being the most qualified person running for A.G., Kathleen has a proven track-record as the pro-worker Dane County Executive. Imagine settling your contract with your employer in two weeks. As the Dane County Executive, Kathleen didn’t just do that once, she has done it the last two contracts. Kathleen is unique in that she is both tough and compassionate. She will make a great Attorney General!!

    And: Please vote for the other AFSCME-endorsed candidates:

    * Incumbent U.S. Senator Herb Kohl;

    * Congresswoman Gwen Moore (U.S. Congress, 4th District);

    * Candidate for U.S. Congress Bryan Kennedy (U.S. Congress, 5th District);

    * Milwaukee District Attorney Candidate John Chisholm;

    * Incumbent State Senator Jeff Plale (7th District);

    * State Senate Candidate Jim Sullivan (5th District);

    * Incumbent State Rep. David Cullen (13th District); and

    * Incumbent State Rep. Barbara Toles (17th District).

    Together, we will make the difference on November 7th!

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July 2006
Our Union’s future? It’s here. What’s at stake? Only everything
    Much has happened within our Union, both locally and throughout the United States, during the past several years.

    In Milwaukee, we have experienced the County Executive’s relentless attack on public services, and his insane efforts to dismantle County government and services.

    We lived through the scandal in the Milwaukee Public Museum, which has left that revered and respected institution bankrupt — and still on the edge of disaster.

    We have seen the outright stealing of public money and resources that resulted from the privatization of W-2 by private agencies – agencies that allegedly had serving the public welfare at the core of their mission.

    We have seen how inept the State takeover and the privatization of the Child Welfare system and its profoundly negative impact on the at-risk children in our community. And the list goes on and on.

    Unfortunately, our troubles are not unique. The crises our Union brothers and sisters face in virtually every state have reached epidemic levels. In 2004, public-sector workers who fought for and attained collective bargaining rights in Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky saw their right to Union representation and collective bargaining wiped out with the stroke of a pen by newly elected Republican governors. In Indiana, the new governor destroyed a collective bargaining relationship that had been in place for 15 years.

    Public-sector pensions and health care are under relentless attack by elected officials who are looking to solve their budget problems by taking away benefits from our members rather than attempting to fix the broken health care and health insurance industries.

    These unimaginative — and, frankly, evil — politicians would rather take away hard-earned benefits from middle-class workers so they can protect the insurance companies, the hospital systems and the consultants. These buffoons would rather protect their gravy train than stick up for working people. In their “Bizarro” world, it’s about lowering the bar for those of us who still have benefits rather than finding ways to raise that bar for all.

    The challenges we’re facing are unprecedented. Since the biennial International Convention in 2004, our International Union engaged in a process through which we’ve dissected and analyzed our Union from top to bottom. The recommendations resulting from that process are set forth in the 21st Century Committee Recommendations.

    If approved, these recommendations and the corresponding amendments to the International Constitution would institute far-ranging and much-needed changes. The amendments:

    * Emphasize organizing by integrating non-traditional workers (homecare and childcare workers) in addition to traditional workers.

    * Emphasize enhancing our political and legislative capabilities.

    * Emphasize developing Council and Local Union structures that’ll help us meet collective bargaining, contract administration, communications, public affairs, legal rights and organizing challenges.

    * Address the critical need to raise the resources to accomplish our goals.

    I strongly support the 21st Century Committee’s recommendations. At the upcoming International Convention (Aug. 7-11), we will take on and debate these critical issues. The future of our Union is literally at stake – and literally now. And, as ever, you can play a role in shaping it.

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May 2006
Coalition-building a winning response to Walker’s declaration of war on Milwaukee County
    There’s good news and bad news to report this month.On the good-news front, progressive forces in our state successfully defeated the efforts of ultra-right-wing Republican legislators to pass the most recent incarnation of TABOR.

    Although they marketed the constitutional amendment as the Taxpayers Protection Act (TPA), it was nothing more than TABOR II. And, if passed, it would have destroyed the ability of state and local governments to govern. Some of us believe that the destruction of government was their true goal all along.

    The coalition that joined forces to defeat TPA was made up of many different groups: labor unions; environmental advocates; the religious community; health care providers and advocates; groups which have as their mission the care and support of the aged, mentally ill, developmentally disabled, immigrants and those in poverty; groups representing local municipal, school district and county governments; the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents; and progressive political groups.

    Clear-thinking Republican State Representatives and State Senators stood with Democratic legislators, and with the coalition members, and voted for fiscal responsibility. Together, they shot down this terrible concept, and defeated the proposed constitutional amendment.

    Only a temporary victory. With great clarity, Sen. Sheila Harsdorf from River Falls and Sen. Ron Brown from Eau Claire, both Republicans, said: “Fiscal policy does not belong in Wisconsin’s constitution.” We thank them for their strength of character and their commitment to sound fiscal policy for the citizens of Wisconsin. We also thank their Republican colleagues who voted against TPA, and all of the Democratic legislators who stood unanimous in their opposition to TPA.

    On the bad-news front, I believe that this was only a temporary victory. We have to remain especially vigilant to prevent TABOR, son of TABOR, bride of TABOR or any other form of TABOR from rearing its head again. Those who oppose us and support TABOR are both relentless and shameless in the pursuit of their goals. As one of my colleagues stated, “These people have a way of taking a really bad idea and making it even worse.” Our enemies hate to lose and will spare no effort to bring this back again.

    Here’s more bad news: Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has taken his “Sky is Falling Tour” on the road. Walker has been County Executive since 2002. He spent about two years of his tenure collecting a paycheck from Milwaukee County taxpayers while he campaigned virtually full-time for Governor until God told him to drop out of the race last month.

    When Walker was first elected, he bragged that every day he didn’t blow up the County, he scored positive points. During his first year and one-half in office, he didn’t blow up the County. We supported his efforts to run County government during that honeymoon period. Unfortunately, the real Scott Walker showed up. Since that time he has worked either through action or inaction to do everything in his power to dismantle Milwaukee County government. This is the real Scott Walker.

    The “Sky is Falling Tour” is a slick PowerPoint presentation designed to show that Milwaukee County is going bankrupt. Walker points to all kinds of numbers that he believes support this premise. What’s missing in his presentation is any personal responsibility for the fiscal challenges we face. After four years of governing, he doesn’t assume any fault. Yes, he inherited problems, but his neglect of Milwaukee County has made those problems worse. Someone needs to remind Walker that he has been County Executive for four years – the County’s fiscal situation is his responsibility! He’s done nothing about the health care crisis. He’s done nothing to improve the way Milwaukee County governs on a day-to-day basis. He’s basically done nothing but whine about who did what before he was elected.

    Meanwhile, Walker and his administration have declared war on Milwaukee County. This is a fundamental attack on our members and our Union. It is also a fundamental attack on the citizens of Milwaukee County who rely on the safety net of County Government. I am talking about those citizens who live in poverty, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the aged and children in crisis.

    Part of the solution. The wealthy will always have a place to take their children for recreation or to recreate themselves. The wealthy have health insurance and will always be able to afford quality health care. The wealthy can afford to care for mentally ill or disabled members of their families. The wealthy can afford to provide proper care for their senior relatives.

    Make no mistake about it: In Scott Walker’s vision of Milwaukee County, there’s no room for the poor or at-risk citizens. He wants to create a County that ignores those people and those problems. And he will stop at nothing to line the pockets of the privateers and his supporters. He simply doesn’t care about the County. He stands for nothing other than tax cuts.

    So we must join together with like-minded groups and elected officials – with organizations and individuals who stand for something — and fight as hard as we can to prevent Walker from dismantling Milwaukee County government.

    Thankfully, there are many County Board members who share our values and are currently on the front line defending our members and supporting our efforts. But we must go on the offensive and put together the same type of coalition we joined to defeat the TPA. This is a war we have to win for the sake of our Union, our members and all citizens of Milwaukee County.

    We are a part of the community and we will be part of the solution.

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March 2006
Redirecting the ‘direct attack’ debate
    We know it’s open season on public employees. All you have to do is turn on the crazies on talk radio and at least half of their “tirade of the day” babble will be about public employee pensions and other related issues.

    One “prominent” (also racist) talk show host even went as far as to attack all teachers as being “evil” because he considers their Union (the State Teachers Union) evil because they support elected officials and candidates who support the Union’s issues, and try to un-elect those who do not. Yet, he does the exact same thing when he advocates for like-minded ultra-conservative politicians who echo his warped view of the world.

    At public forums, the folks from the so-called “Citizens for Responsible Government” cry about their allegedly high taxes. Yet these are the same people who enjoy the high quality of public services provided by the dedicated workers who work for the institutions they attack. What has changed over the years is that the attacks have shifted from a debate over the work we do to direct attacks on the workers who perform the work.

    Sending the quality message. For years now, I have talked and written about the need for high-quality public services. As a public service union, we understand better than anyone else that the long-term solution to the animosity toward public workers and public services (fueled by the ignorant) is to educate the populace about the need to grow the Milwaukee (and Wisconsin) economy. We understand that growth will only occur in our communities if we maintain high-quality public services.

    But two tragedies that occurred during the first two weeks of March make our “growth” defense of public service seem trivial.

    While performing routine sewer cleaning work in the City of West Allis, behind properly set up barricades and wearing the mandatory orange vests, two members of Local 80 were struck by a young driver of a car that blew through the barricades at 35 - 40 mph; apparently, she did not even attempt to stop (there were no skid marks). At the time this issue went to press, both workers were in critical condition. One had lost both legs in the accident.

    No doubt, this was an accident. No one is accusing the young woman of doing it on purpose. She, too, is in critical condition. But the accident highlights the dangers faced by public employees every day they go to work.

    So did an accident that took the lives of two of our AFSCME Council 40 Union brothers a week earlier. While at work patching Highway 41, the Winnebago County Highway Department workers were killed by a motorist who was not paying attention.

    Public workers go to work every day to make a family-sustaining wage and benefit package. They strive to provide a safe, secure environment, and a high quality of life. They want to provide their children, and the rest of us, with a better community.

    They’re in harm’s way every day. Nobody leaves for work in the morning thinking they will killed that day due to someone else’s negligence — or that they will be maimed and that their lives, their family members’ lives, will never be the same.

    Yet, the work a great many public workers perform puts them in harm’s way on a daily basis. Think about the highway and street repair workers, who routinely toil in one of our society’s most dangerous environments. Consider the work performed by correctional officers who guard inmates in our prisons and jails, and the constant dangers they face every day. Take a minute to mull (if you even can) the responsibilities facing the workers who care for our mentally ill – or the court work who find themselves in the midst of violent situations. And just think about the dangers confronting water department workers who enter unstable ditches while repairing broken water mains. The thing is, most of us don’t have to think about it because public workers do their jobs so efficiently, so well, that their work is invisible to the rest of us.

    It shouldn’t be. We all recognize the inherent dangers in fire and police work, but we often forget the dangers involved in so many other public service jobs. Unfortunately, it can take horrible tragedies like the West Allis and Winnebago County accidents to help us remember – and to make us realize our vulnerability.

    Which brings me back to my opening remarks, and the shift from arguments about the level of public service work to direct attacks on public workers.

    ‘Now, I’m livid.’ I have been angry about the direct and personal attacks for a long time. Now, I’m livid. How dare these idiots on the far right attack hard-working individuals who dedicate their lives to public service? I have often said that it wasn’t that long ago that public service jobs were not all that desirable. When the private sector was booming, people laughed at those who chose public sector careers. They aren’t laughing now.

    We fought hard for the wages and benefits we receive. So I am personally outraged when profitable private sector companies, which pay their CEOs and other top executives millions of dollars, renege on their obligations to their workers and retirees. Attacks on public sector benefits, pensions and wages are equally unacceptable. And attacks on workers should never be socially acceptable. For far too long, we’ve allowed our attackers to control the debate. It is time for us to start fighting back in earnest. How? By meeting these direct attacks head on.

    It’ll require us to do a better job of developing clear, crisp and consistent messages – to our brothers and sisters, to our lawmakers, to the private sector, to the public at large – about who we are, what we do and why it matters within the communities we serve. To get smarter about how, when and where to mobilize our resources. To recognize – no, embrace – once and for all the fact that we cannot separate politics from our unionism (as they are one and the same), and that we must patrol the legislative halls and campaign trails accordingly. With vigilance and with vigor.

    We owe the communities we serve – and our brothers in West Allis and Winnebago County — at least that much.

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December 2005
Gearing up for an 'increasingly difficult' year
    As we close out 2005, we should reflect back on the past year and analyze the good and the bad, the successes and the failures. In total, 2005 was a productive year for our Union. But we’ve got our work cut out for us once again in 2006.

    Bargaining. Many of our bargaining units were successful in negotiating successor agreements. All were able to preserve essential fringe benefits, most with just a few modifications. Health insurance continues to be the huge obstacle standing in the way of decent wage increases. The pressure to add co-pays and deductibles and to premium-share continues to be immense. On average, wage increases are in the 2 percent to 3 percent range.

    The most notable contract remaining open is our contract with Milwaukee County. We are at an impasse and headed toward arbitration. Unfortunately, some County officials lack the vision to truly address the issues confronting them. Example: Rather than confront the health insurance crisis by taking action to reduce health-care costs, the County merely wants to shift costs to the workers. So for all the crying and moaning from a few Supervisors, in the end, they merely want to punish County workers. We sincerely hope the Supervisors will wake up from their collective coma and start talking about the kind of sensible solutions to the health care crisis that our Union is proposing.

    Legislation. This is a huge area of concern. Extreme right-wing Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature have mounted an all-out assault on public employee collective bargaining. The October issue of our newspaper featured an article on AB 268, which would remove privatization and sub-contracting as mandatory subjects of bargaining. Since that article was published, another bill has been introduced — SB 242 — that proposes removing health insurance as a mandatory subject of bargaining. Meanwhile, another draft bill (no number has been assigned) would impose cost caps on successor contracts – a QEO for all public employees.

    All that stands between us and our collective bargaining rights being stripped away is Gov. Doyle’s veto pen. He has promised to veto any diminishment in collective bargaining rights as an attack on his "core values."

    If nothing else motivates our members to participate in the political process in 2006, the threat these bills pose should.

    Also on tap for the next legislative session is the most recent incarnation of TABOR (the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights), which would cripple government at all levels, and lead to more tax freezes. What is not on tap is doing something meaningful about the spiraling costs of health care and energy, or a serious push to promote real economic growth and job development.

    Budgets. It’s been a very difficult time for all municipal budgeters, given the imposed tax freezes and rising health care costs. But together with our activist members, our staff tracked the budget deliberations and, in general, we were successful in dodging the major bullets — neither the City of Milwaukee or Milwaukee County budgets called for significant layoffs. We owe a debt of gratitude to our friends on the Common Council and the County Board for their diligence in working to protect the interests of our members.

    But next year will be increasingly difficult.

    On a personal note: We recently lost a dedicated Union activist. Cecile-Marie Purdy was the president of Local 645, Milwaukee County Professional Employees, and one our Contract Administrators for Milwaukee County. She was also a good friend.

    Cecile lost her courageous battle with cancer shortly after we were given hope that she had turned the corner and would be returning to a position in the County.

    It is hard to say what we will miss most about not having Cecile with us. For me, I will miss her sense of humor, her wit, and her ability to weave a story and find something amusing in all situations. Our Union will miss her commitment and dedication to the members she served so well. She was a bright light in even the darkest times.

    Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cecile’s family, her husband Dave, and her children Melisa, John and Gregg.

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October 2005
AB 268: Why we can’t let this most recent attack on public workers’ rights slip through the cracks
    Most bills drafted and assigned numbers in the State Capitol just slip through the cracks; they become one of hundreds of bills the Legislature takes up every year. Assembly Bill 268 could have been one of those bills. But AB 268 is not just another bill – it is a fundamental attack on public employees and an attempt to undermine our basic right to collective bargaining! So we couldn’t let it slip.

    The bill would make subcontracting and privatization of public services a non-mandatory subject of bargaining in virtually 100 percent of negotiations. And if it’s signed into law? Should a public employer desire to privatize, our role at the negotiation table would be relegated to bargaining wage and benefit cuts in order to try to capture our own work and prevent the privatization.

    In my estimation, this bill is much more a frontal attack on our rights as workers to secure a fair, family supporting wage and benefit package than anything else. It is an attack on our job security, and an effort to advance the wrong-minded premise that privatization actually saves money.

    I testified at the Aug. 31 Assembly Committee on Labor hearing on AB 268, and along with Bob Chybowski, Executive Director of AFSCME Council 40, bore the brunt of the disdain and disrespect from Republican legislators who support this lousy bill. I tried to point out some of the examples of bad privatization, permeated with corruption and waste, that have occurred in Milwaukee County — W-2, Child Welfare, MMSD and the Milwaukee Public Museum, to name a few. Rather than engage in any real dialogue with me or any of the other AFSCME members who testified (see the lead story in the October 2005 issue of AFSCME 48 for some of what they had to say), they made the phony claim that they were supporting AB 268 to protect taxpayers. Anyone who witnessed this circus saw that the bill’s supporters cared little about taxpayers; they were engaging in a mean-spirited, partisan attack on the public sector and public workers.

    On the plus side, these AB 268 supporters were exposed as hypocrites: AFSCME members confronted them with the real facts. Repeatedly, we told them that the real budget crisis is being caused by runaway health insurance expenses. Not one of the Republican legislators on the Committee would respond to our questions about what they were doing to stop the rape of municipalities by health care providers and insurance companies. Perhaps they didn’t respond because they know that we know they aren’t doing anything.

    No return to ‘collective begging.’ Rest assured, if AB 268 passes, and if it survives the expected veto from Gov. Doyle, this is just the beginning. The next step would be to remove our right to bargain health insurance. After that, for all practical purposes, we will have turned the clock back 50 years, back to the days of "collective begging."

    This bill has shown us unequivocally that we can’t separate politics from our unionism. They are one and the same.

    Another plus: The AFSCME members who took their own time to come to Madison and testify, or to sit in the audience in support of their brothers and sisters, did our Union proud. Grassroots lobbying makes a huge difference. We should never assume that our friends in the Legislature will do the right thing unless we communicate our issue positions clearly and consistently. By going to Madison and testifying, we clearly showed our united opposition to this destructive bill. All of our members owe these dedicated activists our gratitude – and a pledge to continue communicating clearly and consistently.

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July 2005
Let’s get it straight: The Museum’s dire financial straits show us once again that privatization isn’t the answer
    Six months ago, if you had mentioned the Milwaukee Public Museum in casual conversation, the likely responses you would have received would have been that it is a really nice place to visit, and that it is a genuine community and regional treasure.

    Sadly, if you mention the Milwaukee Public Museum now, with financial mismanagement and having been brought to the brink of bankruptcy and closure, the response you’d get would be far different. Disappointment. Outrage. Shock.

    The financial ruin of the Milwaukee Public Museum was caused by a few people at the 120-year-old institution’s top. The volunteer Museum Board failed to provide adequate financial oversight and, in so doing, completely abandoned its mission and abused the public’s trust.

    Over the past several weeks, I have gotten to know some of the dedicated Museum staff members who are members of our Union. They are members of Local 526. Many have served through the transition of the Museum from a City-run entity to a County-run entity, and then from a County-run entity to a Public-Private partnership. These workers weathered storms in the past, and did their jobs in the same dedicated and sincere manner expected of professional, technical, white-collar, security and blue-collar employees. Many in the scientific disciplines were directly responsible for developing research and educational programs that contributed greatly to the public’s enjoyment and understanding of the Museum.

    Although the entire community will suffer from the recent events at the Museum, these hardworking individuals – not some faceless and nameless institution – are the true victims.

    An agreement was reached between our Union and the Museum. Our members will grant concessions which will total about $2 million over the next two-plus years, including wages, fringe benefits (health insurance, pensions, etc.) and layoffs. We were able to negotiate certain layoff protections and strings on the use of the money we were conceding, but it was a case of trying to salvage the best of a terrible situation.

    All of this happened because top-level administration ran the place into the ground by squandering Museum money and resources by loading up on highly paid vice presidents, directors and other top level managers; and lavishing them with expensive “perks.” All this while failing to do any fund-raising, which would have offset their lavish expenditures.

    The former chief financial officer, who for about a year also served as acting chief administrative officer, created a ridiculously generous “career ladder” for top administrators, which accounted for multiple undeserved promotions and salary increases. He bailed out in April – before the Museum’s dire financial condition was public knowledge – with a confidential severance package that some described as a “golden parachute.” It is my sincere wish that he, and others responsible, are charged criminally for what they did to the Museum. I also hope they are convicted and serve significant time in jail for what they have done.

    Another failed privatization. Meanwhile, the media so far has failed to focus any serious in-depth discussion on the core reason the events at the Museum took place. What happened was the result of failed privatization. The crisis and its real human costs would not have taken place had the Milwaukee Public Museum remained a Milwaukee County operation.

    So, add the failure of the Museum to the corruption of W-2; the profit-taking and failures of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District; the excessive expenditures attached to the state takeover and contracting out of child welfare; and the continued downsizing of mental health, and the failure of local health care providers to step up and provide the necessary services to the Scoundrels Hall of Fame. How many failed privatization efforts do we need in Milwaukee before we realize that privatization is not the answer?

    These significant failures, elected officials need to be reminded, have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Elected officials must also be reminded that there is a human cost to privatization. The Museum employees who have been laid off, and those left working who have been forced to take concessions, are paying a terrible cost for the failure of privatization.

    No public board would have been allowed to remain in office after failing, as this board did, to monitor the finances of the institution it was obligated to run. No public board would have allowed the administration to get away with the financial mismanagement and lack of accountability this one allowed at the Museum without bringing the responsible members to task for their incompetence.

    Government takes its hits when it fails to provide the best services for the best cost. When will we hold the private sector to the same standards when they use our public dollars?

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May 2005
It’s not negative space: Navigating the ‘no’ line of negotiation (in historical context)
    I was at the negotiating table recently, and the chief spokesperson opened our bargaining by announcing two "fundamental principles" regarding negotiations. The first principle was that the employer needed to cut costs. The second principle was that there was to be no decrease or diminishment in the level of services. I responded on behalf of the Union that our answer was "no."

    The simple answer of "no" is not that simple. An analysis of "no" needs to start from an historical context. Employers (including this employer) have been downsizing for many years. Public workforces have been cut to the bone. There is no more room in virtually any workforce to downsize without cutting services.

    This ain't semantics. What the general public does not know or understand is that in response to systemic downsizing, public employees have increased their work output so the public would not see a significant reduction in the quantity or quality of services. Some employers have attempted to improve work methods and create efficiencies, but for the most part, if taxpayers have been insulated from dramatic service decreases, it is because of the efforts of hard-working, dedicated public employees.

    As usual, our members will respond positively when the workforce is downsized. We will do our share and more. But enough is enough. It’s time for administrators and managers to tell the truth to elected officials whose mantra is to freeze or cut taxes. It’s simple: If you cut the workforce, you are cutting services.

    Because we are dedicated to the public and understand our obligations to taxpayers, the reduction in services may not equate directly to the loss of jobs (for example, the workforce may be cut by 10 percent, but the level of services will only be reduced by 5 percent). But without question, budget cuts mean service cuts.

    There are, however, some solutions for creative and bold municipalities and school districts to explore. We should not be looking at doing business as usual.

    My first suggestion to employers is to look at your staffing ratios. During the years you’ve downsized your workforces, you’ve generally left the size of management unchanged. This should not come as a huge surprise. When elected officials look at downsizing, they go to their administrators, supervisors and managers for recommendations. What a shock! They seldom recommend that their jobs be eliminated.

    When you are looking for ways to save money, go to your direct service workers as well as the administrators, supervisors and managers. Direct line workers know more about the work than anyone else. Ignoring them means ignoring the most valuable resource available.

    Also, if it can’t pass the "smell" test, don’t do it. It smells when five or 10 years ago, a municipality had a employee-supervisor ratio of 10 or 15 employees to 1 supervisor, and now the ratio is 5 to 1. It smells when our members are asked to make sacrifice after sacrifice and top managers get 5 percent to 10 percent pay hikes.

    My second suggestion is to look seriously at health insurance. I am not talking about simply shifting costs onto employees. I’m talking about actually taking steps to decrease overall health costs. Explore ways to incorporate "wellness" programs and disease management programs into the health care agenda.

    It is axiomatic: keeping people healthier will reduce health care costs. Create incentives to get insureds (retirees and actives) into these programs. Wellness and disease management programs are good for the workforce and good for society.

    Also, study ways to save money on prescription drugs. There is tremendous profit-taking going on in the pharmaceutical industry, including by insurance companies. There are ways for health plans to become more efficient and save money for the insureds.

    Think ‘coordinated & consolidated.’ My third suggestion is for communities to find ways to coordinate and consolidate services. This is a vehicle that is talked about a lot, but seldom acted upon. The reason it is seldom acted upon is turf. Elected officials are bold enough when they are asking us to make sacrifices. Why don’t they show some guts when it comes to giving up some of their power and turf?

    The bottom line is that when any employer comes to us and asks us to pony up while ensuring there are no losses of service when they cut our staffing levels, the answer is “no.” The answer will continue to be “no” unless we see an effort to save money in ways other than off our backs and at our expense. We have already sacrificed enough!

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February 2005
Doyle’s responsible ‘freeze’ is far more desirable than any reckless plan the state Republicans have been pushing
    Guess what? It’s still open season on public employees. For example, not a week goes by without hearing a story about the Milwaukee County Pension "scandal." Hard-working Milwaukee County employees are almost embarrassed to admit that they work for the County. Yet the public has no little knowledge of what really happened when the pension improvements were negotiated in 2000.

    For the most part, people are unaware that it was our Union’s negotiation team that raised the “red flag” and pointed out that there were serious issues involved with the pension settlement. It was our Union that demanded to see an analysis from the County’s actuary to determine whether the pension plan could afford the improvements that were being proposed to us by the County’s negotiating team (Dobbert, Zielinski, et al.). It was not the County Board Supervisors – some of whom are now crying that they were deceived and misled, when in fact they were asleep at the switch – but our Union that raised all of the red flags. And it was the County’s actuary who responded that everything was fine – the same actuary who apparently withheld telling the County Board that Dobbert did not ask the actuary to analyze the cost of the drop back benefit. He must not have thought that was information the County Board needed.

    Representatives of our Union even met with some supervisors, including the then County Board chairperson, to raise concerns about the pension settlement. These same supervisors were in on the strategy to settle with our Union last among all Unions in order to whipsaw us into the same settlement.

    A less direct (but dangerous) threat. So here we are in 2005. The County is now putting around $30 million per year into the pension (still less than it contributed during the early 1980s when the County budget was a fraction of what it is today). The County Executive is still crying about the problems he inherited, and using this rationale as the excuse to slash and burn as much County government as he can. And long-serving supervisors continue to wallow in their guilt over their failure to do their jobs on the due-diligence front back in 2000 and 2001. Some supervisors have even developed a level of hero status because they voted against the salary and pension packages back then – even though at least one voted “no” because she didn’t think the County’s health insurance proposal was generous enough, not because she was concerned about the pension improvements.

    Meanwhile, the attacks on public workers continue. Although we’re used to direct frontal attacks in Milwaukee County, shots are being fired at us from less direct, but no less dangerous, directions.

    In previous columns, I have written about TABOR, the so-called “Taxpayers Bill of Rights..” TABOR is still out there, lingering in the shadows, waiting to rear its ugly head. The lies about TABOR and why it is necessary continue to spread. I encourage all of our members to go back and read earlier issues of our newspaper to refresh themselves about the reality of TABOR and why it would be a disaster for Wisconsin taxpayers.

    In recent weeks, the talk has turned to the property tax freeze. A property tax freeze is coming; that was virtually guaranteed when Gov. Doyle proposed a freeze in his 2005-2007 State Budget. The only question now is what the freeze will look like.

    Framing the freeze issues. Our Union opposes tax freezes in any form. A property tax freeze does not represent, nor will it cause, property tax relief. The freeze takes away local elected officials’ ability to govern. It severely curtails their ability to respond to crises, and encourages risky borrowing schemes that likely will cost taxpayers more in the end. Freezes also reward those communities that have been bigger spenders and penalizes the ones that have governed frugally and responsibly.

    A tax freeze without addressing the overall issues of tax fairness – including corporate tax loopholes and an overhaul of the unfair income tax system – will not result in long-term property tax relief.

    Even though we oppose all property tax freezes, the Doyle freeze is far more desirable than the one the Republicans in the State Legislature have proposed. We have a huge fight before us to make sure the Legislature acts responsibly on this crucial issue.

    And remember: Just because we’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get us.

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December 2004
To advance a pro-worker, pro-AFSCME agenda in '05, we'll need to commit – right down to the core (values)
    The dust has now settled from the November election cycle. Although the election did not turn out nationally as our union would have liked, here in Wisconsin we enjoyed tremendous success. Carrying the state for Kerry/Edwards – more than doubling the margin of victory from 2000 – was a great achievement. It would not have been possible without an all-out effort from our "Take Back Wisconsin" staff, staff and volunteers from our international union who came from all over the United States, and the dozens and dozens of local volunteers and lost-timers who worked the campaign.

    The election of Gwen Moore to Congress as the first African-American Congresswoman to represent Wisconsin is a wonderful victory, as was the re-election of Russ Feingold to the U.S. Senate. Those two stories, coupled with Milwaukee victories in Wisconsin Senate and Assembly elections, and we can take great pride in our successes. Even Republican Alberta Darling had a real race for the first time since she went to the State Senate. Hats off to Jennifer Morales for running a great campaign against Darling and capturing 43 percent of the vote.

    'Rights' stuff is at issue. I sincerely hope that the dire predictions we made about the future of working people in this country prove unfounded. However, I greatly fear that if you share what I believe are our “core values,” the next four years will be very difficult. If you believe in human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, worker rights, the rights of labor organizations – even the "Bill of Rights" – the challenges will be significant. It is likely that the "radical right" will attempt to undermine or "re-interpret" our rights in each of these critical areas.

    The agenda of the Republican majority in both the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate remains unchanged. Rather than deal with the economic crisis of health care in our state (especially in southeastern Wisconsin), they’ve vowed to pass the flawed “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” (TABOR) that, if passed, would destroy Wisconsin’s economy and remove the rights of local elected officials to govern; redefine marriage for the umpteenth time; and pass a concealed carry law so that people could pack weapons while attending ball games, and school and church events. They also want to pass tax freezes which would bankrupt state and local services, and undermine our safety-net and quality-of-life programs, as well as destroy education.

    Time to roll up the sleeves. So: Our work is cut out for us. Our struggles remain. We need to come together and unite as never before if we are to advance a pro-worker, pro-AFSCME agenda in 2005. Our goals are consistent with those we have tried to accomplish in the past. We strive to make the lives of our members, their families and our communities better. We need to educate all elected officials so that we’re sure they understand that high-quality public services are an essential element to economic development and growth. And we will.

    As a union representing workers in the public service, we have always recognized that there cannot be a strong and vibrant public sector without an equally strong and vibrant private sector. We must convince our colleagues in the business community and throughout the private sector that the converse is also true – we cannot expect a strong and vital private sector in communities where public services are substandard.

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October 2004
As she sees it: Words of wisdom from Local 170’s Judy Navis
    Judy Navis works at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex. She is a steward, Executive Board member and the editor of the AFSCME Local 170 Newsletter. In the October edition, Navis wrote “Ignorance and Apathy ... At What Cost?” in her “As I See It” column. Her words say it all. I can only say, “Thank you, Judy.” And: I wish I’d written it -- R.A.

    "We now live in a country where, under George Bush, corporate CEOs can earn an average of $25,000 an hour! Yet according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the No. 1 job-creator for workers will be low-paying jobs at restaurants, including fast-food chains.

    "Of the top 30 growth jobs between now and 2010, nearly half will pay only $14,000 to $20,000 a year. And when it comes to paying taxes, just who do you think will benefit most from special tax breaks and tax giveaways? If you chose the expensive business suit over the hairnet, then you have a pretty good idea of what lies ahead if the current occupant of the White House is afforded four more years to work his "magic."

    "In the past four years, we have seen the demise of practically every principle this country was founded on, and everything this country is supposed to stand for. Yet, George Bush would have us believe that our very survival is dependent upon giving him another term in office.

    "Knowing full well that counting on his dismal record would be a very hard sell indeed, George & Co. have had to resort to what they do best: getting out their manual of dirty tricks.

    "The negative campaign tactics launched by the Republicans and the Swift Boat ad, in particular, have been deliberate attempts to divert attention away from the disastrous first term of George W. Bush. Because there have been no real accomplishments to boast of, the Republicans have been delegated to spewing their usual rhetoric, which has amounted to nothing more than blather, bluster and bluff.

    "From using half-truths, distortions and outright lies, Karl Rove has made good on his early promise to derail the momentum of John Kerry’s campaign by publically disgracing him, and by trying to make him look like a national joke. …

    "... This year’s presidential election is absolutely critical. It is clearly not a year to be swayed by hype or scurrilous ads, nor is it a year to waste your vote on the candidate you would most like to have a beer with, or on the candidate you think is the most congenial. This is the year to vote for competence and common sense.

    "It never ceases to amaze me what some people consider significant, or what criteria they use when making a decision as major as choosing the leader of their land.

    "I am reminded of the 1988 presidential election because of an incident that still boggles my mind today. Imagine my astonishment when out of the blue a co-worker of mine announced to me that she could never vote for Michael Dukakis — not because of his politics, but because of his “awful-looking” eyebrows. Martin Luther King Jr. summed it up best when he said, 'Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.'

    "If there is anything else that could rival ignorance and stupidity, it would surely have to be apathy and indifference. Staying home on election day because politics aren’t important in your life – or because you think your vote won’t matter, anyway – is not an option.

    "Barring the Florida debacle of 2000 happening here in Wisconsin this November, your vote does matter and can make a difference between four more years of ineffectual leadership — or having the chance to redefine our priorities under new leadership.

    "And if you think politics are not important in your life, think again. From our polluted air, contaminated water and mutated food, to a failing health care system, skyrocketing unemployment and loss of civil liberties, there is not a single facet of your life that is not inextricably linked to politics.

    "The right to vote is a privilege that allows us all the opportunity to exercise our freedom through action. Don’t let complacency or a temporary feeling of safety and satisfaction allow you to squander this essential liberty or cause you to use it in an irresponsible and frivolous manner." (by Local 170's Judy Navis)

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September 2004
How do we prevent wedge issues from overtaking our lives? We listen, learn, lock in – and vote
    I was listening to Milwaukee talk radio one recent morning and I found it very interesting. Ultraconservative talk radio is not my first choice for information. But like it or not, talk radio is an important source of news spin for many people in the Milwaukee area.

    I listen because I think it is important to know all sides of issues and how these issues are being expressed. I also listen because it’s like being inside of the opponent’s huddle. I recognize that we are a very diverse union representing members who have a broad spectrum of views. Portions of our membership listen to these pundits regularly; for some of our members and the community at large, these ultraconservative talk show personalities are their primary source of news.

    On this late-summer morning, I listened intently to this particular rant because the target of Charlie Sykes’ ravings was the Majority Leader of the Wisconsin State Senate – West Bend Republican Sen. Mary Panzer.

    Sykes characterized Panzer as a habitual liar and miscreant. Following Sykes’ line of logic, this leaves West Bend voters no choice but to vote for his candidate, State Rep. Glenn Grothman. Legislatively speaking, Grothman has been a completely unimpressive “back-bencher” who is so far to the right that even right-wing Republicans consider him an extremist.

    A telling tirade. Under normal circumstances I would have enjoyed Sykes’ tirade unconditionally, regardless of its lack of substance or truth. For the first time that I can remember, the Republican Party is hacking at its own, demonstrating internal dissent rather than its usually stoic party discipline.

    Let me say up front that our union has never supported Mary Panzer. She has consistently been anti-public employee and anti-public service. Historically, she has been unpleasant and unreceptive when AFSCME members have attempted to talk with her about our critical issues. She is also a laughing stock regarding her personal history, having falsely claimed she had a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin when she never finished college.

    But the circumstances surrounding the Sykes harangue are anything but normal. His attack represents a shift in the politics and policies of key members of the Republican Party toward the extreme right-wing philosophy of Sykes and others like him. The so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), the proposed constitutional amendment on taxes – which if passed would in a few short years destroy public services and public education in Wisconsin – is indicative of this shift to the right.

    But it’s not just the shift that’s disconcerting; the subsequent rancor effectively serves to empower those legislators on the Republican side of the aisle who would increase the acrimony and lack of civility in the Legislature.

    Politics as (un)usual. They’re not interested in solving the serious economic and social issues that confront this state, such as the loss of family supporting jobs, the lack of health care and its exorbitant cost, and the deterioration of the economic base which support public services. Instead, these legislators prefer to focus on wedge issues – to the exclusion of everything (and everyone) else. As a result, they threaten to prevent the Legislature from considering the real issues that affect our lives in favor of debating issues that they hope will provoke vetoes from Gov. James Doyle – vetoes they intend to use as a means to unseat him in November 2006.

    What really matters. All of this highlights the need for the labor movement and other like-minded organizations to engage in member-communication and issue-education at an unprecedented level. Our union has long recognized that merely endorsing candidates is not enough to convince our members to vote for a particular candidate. We realize that we must be able to explain the candidates’ position on issues critical to our members and our communities.

    This isn’t a philosophical argument we’re making or some theoretical position we’re taking: This is real life, and how we vote impacts member jobs and their wallets. How we vote impacts our communities and the services we provide. It impacts our quality of life and the safety-net programs that protect the least fortunate among us.

    So we owe it to ourselves, our families and our communities to become engaged in the election process and learn as much as possible before we cast our votes. We must not vote on knee-jerk wedge issues without learning all of the facts.

    I urge all of our members to become involved and educated voters and to learn why our P.E.O.P.L.E. committee endorsed certain candidates. Vote as if your economic well-being depended on it. Because it does.

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June 2004
Family Care fiasco, TABOR tussle merely a prelude for the contentiousness to come this fall
    Traditionally, the late spring edition of our District Council 48 newspaper highlights the challenges we face in the coming months. This issue’s highlights include updates on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) and the deteriorating situation in the Milwaukee County Department on Aging. But sadly, these stories are only two of the serious issues facing our Union and our members, and both have deeper and broader implications.

    The Milwaukee County Department on Aging fiasco has highlighted the real agenda of County Executive Scott Walker’s administration. We are now seeing the “slash and burn” anti-government, anti-poor-people Scott Walker we all expected from the first day he took office.

    
Lost jobs as 'collateral damage.' Walker used to say that every day he doesn’t dismantle county government, he enhances his credibility among county workers. Well, it took him a little longer than expected, but the dismantling has now begun in earnest. His cuts to the Milwaukee County Parks system were just the opening salvo of his broader plan to divest Milwaukee County government of the responsibility of providing for the basic needs and the quality of life of our most vulnerable citizens.

    Under the Walker plan, our community’s poor, aged, infirmed, mentally ill and at-risk children will just have to look elsewhere for their needs.

    Under the Walker plan, the elimination of family-supporting county union jobs is merely "collateral damage." The elimination of jobs is far less important than protecting incompetent, highly paid administrators such as Department on Aging Director Stephanie Sue Stein, whose $112,000 job is being protected by Walker even though her mismanagement (along with her cronies) of the Family Care program has led to a $5 million plus deficit, and placed long-term County participation in the program in serious jeopardy. It also will cost us up to 30 union positions.

    On the other hand, one has to credit Walker for his single-minded efforts to find someone else to blame for his administration’s ineptitude and mismanagement. He has become a master at blaming either the Union, or his predecessor, for anything that goes wrong. In the case of the Family Care fiasco, Walker couldn’t find a way to blame Ament, so he just flat-out lied to the media and blamed the workers and our Union.

    Walker’s blatant dishonesty underlies our challenge and shows us what we can anticipate in dealing with the County Executive.

    Clearly, Walker intends to craft his campaign for the governor’s mansion by attacking hard-working public employees and by bragging about his efforts to dismantle Milwaukee County programs and services. Thanks for the warning! We now know that we have to gear up for some of the most vicious and difficult negotiations we have ever faced when we go to the bargaining table this coming fall.     We will need to show solidarity and a united front as never before, and we will need to mobilize our membership as never before.

    The 'real' Scott Walker. Also, now that we have met the "real" Scott Walker, we have been put on notice to do everything in our power to prevent him from taking his dog and pony show to Madison. It would be nice to get rid of him, but the damage he could inflict upon all of us as governor is unthinkable. Again, thanks for the warning, Mr. Walker.

    TABOR: It’ll be back. As we go to press, I am happy to say that for the time being, the fight over TABOR has been postponed. But TABOR is not dead; it is just napping. TABOR has been put on temporary hold because the state Senate Republicans cannot come to a consensus on a proposed constitutional amendment.

    As you’ll read in this issue, TABOR is a terrible idea. The right-wing TABOR advocates have as a cornerstone of their agenda the goal of destroying the very public services that make our communities great places to live, work and play.

    This agenda again highlights the challenges we face this fall. Our elections take on an entirely more urgent slant against the backdrop of Walker and pro-TABOR proponents. We must multiply our efforts to elect pro-worker, pro-Union, pro-AFSCME candidates at all levels of government.

    We will be contacting you to let you know the candidates we support and have endorsed, but more important, to let you know the stance they take on the issues which are essential to our lives.

    By committing ourselves to our collective goals, we can use the fall elections to positively shape the future of our jobs, our lives and our communities.

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June 2003
Corporate America reflects the face of evil
    What is the face of evil? We see daily images of squalor and starvation in third world countries. We have seen the carnage caused by terrorists abroad and at home, and we have seen the pictures of families and friends devastated by violent crime. We also see fictional representations of evil on television and in movies, some laughably silly and others real enough to give us nightmares.

Executive Director Richard Abelson writes a regular column for the AFSCME 48 newspaper.

    But it is often difficult to identify evil around us when it is dressed up in $1,000.00 suits, or resides in the esteemed offices of corporate America or the hallowed halls of government.
    For example, if we are to believe the federal government, Martha Stewart is today’s source of evil in corporate America. After all, they accuse her of parlaying an insider stock tip into a vast fortune of $50,000 to $75,000. That explains the vigor with which the feds are going after her.
    Personally, I am not a big fan of Martha. She is just a little too self-righteous for me, and I have an inherent distrust of anyone who cares that much about how napkins are folded. However, I am having a real problem working up energy about Martha’s insider trading, the vast fortune she made, and the government’s case against her, when the crooks who scammed tens of thousands of workers out of their jobs, pensions, and savings at Enron, Tyco, and Worldcom, are still living life in the fast lane with no government prosecution in sight. Worse than that, there is still no federal action to correct the real evil that has been done to these tens of thousands of workers and restore to them their savings, pensions, and their jobs.
    The Wisconsin State Legislature is the focal point of some interesting public policy decisions in recent days. As I write this column, the budget is not yet adopted. However, the Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee of the State Legislature have passed their version of the State Budget. There are many interesting provisions of this Republican budget. I am going to focus on just one.
    Democrat Governor Jim Doyle’s budget contained a painful reduction in State Revenue Sharing in the second year of the budget. This reduction meant about a $9 to $10 million reduction for the City of Milwaukee in the second year. Other municipalities around Milwaukee and the State were going to take proportional reductions. The important factor to remember is that Revenue Sharing is the long-standing vehicle by which the State of Wisconsin returns tax dollars to local governments based upon need, and it utilizes a formula of equalized value of property so that the lower property value communities (like Milwaukee, Cudahy, West Allis, Beloit, Racine, Marinette, and others) receive more revenue sharing dollars than higher property value communities (like River Hills, Chenequa, and Elm Grove).
    The Joint Finance Committee’s Republican budget actually adds $20 million to the Revenue Sharing program in the second year of the budget. However, it changes the formula for the distribution of the Revenue Sharing dollars, so that instead of a reduction of $9 to $10 million in the second year of the budget for the City of Milwaukee, the reduction will be $24 million. You may ask where the additional $14 million that Milwaukee will lose and the additional $20 million that the Republicans added back into the budget will go? Why it goes to those communities in desperate need – River Hills, Chenequa, and Elm Grove. Seems fair to me, “Rob the poor and give the rich.” Perhaps that can be the new logo for the Republican Party bumper sticker.
    The change in the State Revenue Sharing formula adopted by the Republicans should be recognized for exactly what it is – the most shameful money grab by any politicians in Wisconsin State Legislature in decades. The Republicans have intentionally adopted a formula which penalizes every community in need in the State where people of color and poor people live, and shamelessly moves the money to affluent, white communities. Make no mistake about it, this Republican proposal is mean-spirited and I dare to say, evil.
    Now let us focus right here in Milwaukee. Our Union embarked on a bold organizing program approximately two years ago. We targeted low-income school bus drivers as a group that would benefit greatly from Union representation, and we have been successful in organizing these workers. Hundreds of school bus drivers in Milwaukee driving MPS children have joined the AFSCME family, and we were successful in negotiating a collective bargaining agreement which would have provided the bus drivers with a fair wage increase and health insurance for the first time.
    So what did the bus companies do? Rather than do the right thing – live with the fair new contract and give their workers the dignity they deserve – they cooked up a scheme to inflate their bids to MPS to ridiculously high levels (which have nothing to do with their real costs of driving our children to school), so that MPS would not award them routes. They then used the fact that they were not awarded routes as an excuse to close down their unionized terminals in Milwaukee and lay off 300 plus unionized bus drivers. There is also strong evidence that administrators at MPS were a part of this scheme and colluded for years with the bus companies allowing them to earn excessive profits at taxpayer expense.
    The face of corporate evil exists in Milwaukee. Look no further than the managers and executives of Durham and Laidlaw Bus Companies to see what evil looks like!
    Our Union is carrying on the fight for the bus drivers who stand to lose their jobs. We are leaving no option behind in our search for a solution which will bring justice to the drivers and to punish both the companies and those administrators at MPS who are responsible. We are also waging a pitched battle to prevent the Republican budget passed by the Republican controlled Joint Finance Committee from becoming law so that drastic layoffs of our members who work for the City of Milwaukee and other municipalities do not take place.
    Make no mistake about it brothers and sisters – there is evil all around us.

Earlier Columns

     March 2003
Workforce Development
    I recently returned from a national training conference in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute. I attended this conference as one of two labor representatives on the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County. The Conference’s purpose was to create a national imperative among workforce development and investment boards to create and advocate for the creation of a “high road agenda” for workforce development.
    For two decades, as the productivity of America’s workers grew, wages fell, then stagnated. Just to keep from falling further behind, workers put in more and more hours on the job. Manufacturing industries (historically the route to a middle-class life for unskilled and semi-skilled workers) have hemorrhaged jobs. Globalization has encouraged employers to move production from the U.S. to low-wage countries. Jobs in many sectors have been out-sourced and shifted to lower wage and nonunion workforces. In the 1980s and early 1990s unemployment was high and there were a surplus of skilled workers. Employers used this surplus as an excuse to dismantle job training programs, thereby destroying entryways to jobs and career paths. Many secure, full-time jobs have been replaced with temporary, contingent and part-time positions, often employing the same workers who once held full-time jobs.
    The low road economy we have now depends on high levels of education and skills but does not provide them; values family self-sufficiency but eliminates family-supporting wages and benefits; thrives on the creation of good jobs but rewards companies that move good jobs away and those which hold down wages so that workers cannot even afford to buy the products they make. Too many employers have chosen the low road path through our increasingly global economy. They have built their strategies for profit-making around low wages, few benefits, no job security and a polarized and disempowered workforce.
    Workforce Investment Boards (WIB), such as the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County, can be a pivotal part of the effort to move a high road workforce agenda. As labor representatives we need to be worker advocates on our WIBs to prevent them from merely being the contracted out human resource departments for low road employers. We need to advocate for connecting good union jobs and programs to the public workforce development system.
    Three strategies were presented to assist us on the high road. The first is a “High Road Community Audit.” This is not just an employer survey. A High Road Community Audit is a comprehensive view of a regional economy exploring both the demand side (employers and jobs) and the supply side (the needs of the workforce). The High Road Community Audit seeks to generate information that ensures that the resources of the Workforce Investment Act system are directed towards employers providing good jobs, more often than not, Union jobs.
    The second strategy is the realistic development of self-sufficiency standards. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) requires WIBs to set the wage standards that determine the eligibility of working adults for training services. Workers earning below these self-sufficiency standards are eligible for intensive services and training using local WIA funds. The standards should not be set so low that workers who do not make a family sustaining wage are left out. Self sufficiency standards should be used to direct public resources to programs which prepare workers for the better jobs in our community and restrict public funds from flowing to providers and employers who do not invest in the well-being of their workers or their communities.
    The third strategy involves the WIA mandate that the Workforce Development Boards play a broader role in labor market policies and economic development decisions designed to attract and maintain jobs. This is an opportunity for members of WIBs to be advocates for the responsible use of public dollars. The question, “Should public funds be used to promote business that hires workers for minimum-wage, no benefit jobs?”, is appropriately posed by labor representatives and other advocates of high-road job development on WIBs. As I wrote in my column in the last edition of the AFSCME District Council 48 Newspaper, as with the Park East Redevelopment plan, WIBs need to advocate that public subsidies should be made public, and require the repayment of public funds by employers who do not live up to the level of job creation they promised in order to get the subsidy.
    Building a stable and vibrant Milwaukee economy is essential if we are to grow ourselves out of the current economic crisis and protect and preserve the public sector services and programs essential to the basic needs and quality of life of Milwaukee County residents. In the present political atmosphere where no elected official will even talk about revenue-side solutions no matter how reasonable, economic growth is our only short-term solution.BR>Back to Top

January 2003
Urban Sprawl Impacts Our Union and Our City
    Most people look at the issues confronting them as unique. This is especially true when we are analyzing the issues confronting our City or our region. Imagine my surprise when I attended a conference on the National Budget Crisis in Washington, D.C. in December and heard a presentation from a speaker named Greg LeRoy, the Director of an organization called Good Jobs First based in Washington, D.C.
    Mr. LeRoy talked about issues that relate to urban sprawl and how sprawl impacts Union members. Sprawl is a "term of art" that is not easily pinned down, but generally it is identified with development patterns that have low density and a lack of mixed use buildings; a lack of transportation options other than personal automobiles; strict separation of residential from nonresidential property; and job growth in newer suburbs with job decline in core city and older suburb areas.
    Mr. LeRoy cited urban experts who defined factors which combine to fuel sprawl: peoples preference for large-lot/low-density housing; white flight from urban areas with minority residents; lack of regional planning or the lack of a coordinating agency with real power; "redlining" against older areas by banks, other lenders and insurance companies; crime and perceptions of crime; declining quality of central city schools; contaminated land or "brownfields" in core areas; restrictive suburban zoning that effectively excludes multi-unit dwellings and mixed-use development; and extensive highway spending coupled with comparatively little funding for public transportation.
    This list describes Milwaukee! To say I was surprised is an understatement. Just when you convince yourself that your problems are unique, you find out that you are part of a larger, in fact national, predicament.
    As a public employee labor union, and as an organization committed to social justice, we have involved ourselves in elements of the problems arising from the effects of sprawl. However, we need to focus our attention on the whole of the problem, not just parts. As Mr. Leroy says, "Suburban sprawl is bad for union members. Simple put, unions are urban institutions. Urban density is good for union density."
    As more and more jobs are created in Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee County, a number of things happen - (1) the Milwaukee tax base is eroded; (2) Milwaukee unemployment rises because the poor, unemployed workers from the disadvantaged neighborhoods are unable to access those jobs; and (3) problems resulting from unemployment, such as crime and substance institutions and public employees (our members) suffer.
    Unions must get involved in the economic development debate. We have to get involved in efforts to direct funds to revitalize blighted areas and promote economic development in the core urban areas instead of encouraging the further deterioration of cities in favor of the suburbs. If developers want public funds to aid in their development projects, we must insist that these developers create good-paying jobs with fringe benefits. If they fail to produce the promised number of jobs, they should be required to repay that portion of the public funds they received. Further, we must insist that the people hired for these jobs come from disadvantaged neighborhoods and if these new workers want to join unions, that the employers agree to neutrality in the union campaign and that recognition be granted through card-check. These efforts are necessary if we are going to create an economy, which will sustain and grow the public sector.
    This is our challenge if we are to grow the public sector and keep it viable in the future.
IN MEMORIAM

    Our Union has lost an old friend and colleague. Retired Staff Representative Earl Gregory passed away suddenly the week before Christmas. During his twenty-plus years as a Staff Representative for District Council 48, Earl negotiated hundreds of contracts, handled thousands of grievances, and advised and consulted with virtually every Local Union in the Council. Many active and retired Union members stayed in close contact with Earl through his activities with the Milwaukee County Labor Council Bowling League. Our sincerest condolences go out to Earl's wife, Betty, his daughter and his extended family.
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October 2002
Union has deep reasons to drive for Doyle