Governor-elect Scott Walker has not even been sworn in and the assault on working Wisconsinites and unions has already begun. He’s keeping up his tradition of torpedoing negotiated labor agreements with his assault on State employee contracts negotiated by Council 24 and the other State employee unions.

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

    It’s a tradition Walker perfected as Milwaukee County Executive when he orchestrated the rejection of our labor agreement, one that we negotiated in good faith with his labor relations director — an individual who also sits as a member of Walker’s cabinet.

    Walker’s contempt for working people is boundless. In “Scott Walker World,” there is no CEO who makes enough money and no working person who deserves what he/she earns.

    But Walker’s assault on public employees isn’t just limited to the ratification of our labor agreements. He wants to fundamentally change the collective bargaining laws that have been the lynchpin of our rights. He has also threatened to decertify State employee unions. Why? Because they will not simply cave in to his demands to gut their wages, pensions, health insurance and working conditions.

    Walker doesn’t think we deserve a voice. Given Walker’s relentless attack on the Milwaukee County workforce, we know he believes that if you work on his plantation, you don’t deserve a voice. I know these are provocative words, and I do not use them casually. Walker’s ultra-right-wing agenda has nothing but contempt for workers and the unions that represent them.

    Some of our members didn’t believe Walker’s campaign promises. His blind allegiance to the business community, and his willingness to give to the wealthy and business interests (the WMC, MMAC and all the rest of the alphabet soup of business organizations) at the expense of working people, have no limits.

    As I mentioned, Walker wants to change our bargaining laws. He wants to remove health insurance and health care as mandatory subjects of bargaining. He has also said he intends to remove pensions as a mandatory subject and force employees to make contributions to their pensions — even though we already pay a contribution based on wage modifications we made decades ago so that contributions are made with pre-tax versus post-tax dollars. He has even raised the prospect of “right to work,” which would bring back the days of freeloaders not paying for the work that is done to negotiate and represent employees at a workplace.

    They’re attacking the working class. These are specific attacks. However, there is a greater right-wing campaign going on in the media, in our neighborhoods, even at our dinner tables. They have painted public employees as the new privileged class. They tell us that we are the new elite.

    Of course, nothing is further from the truth. We need to tell folks the truth: The fair pay and benefits that public employees earn lifts our economy up. We don’t tear it down. Our wages and benefits pay taxes and purchase the goods and services that drive our economy.

    Their attacks strike at the working class. The truth is that collective bargaining and the trade union movement represent the greatest anti-poverty program ever initiated in our country. Through collective bargaining and the union movement, more workers and their families have been lifted into the middle class. We will not sit by idly and watch Walker and all the rest of the attackers take away what we have worked so hard to attain.

    All we’ve ever asked for was fair wages, benefits and working conditions for our members. We organized to get these things, and we intend to keep them. If class warfare is what Walker wants, class warfare is what he will get.

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August 2010
There will be more challenges, more change during this next critical stretch

    At our International Convention (June 28-July 2), we elected a new International Secretary-Treasurer, Lee Saunders. Lee was elected by a narrow 4,000 votes out of the 1.3 million cast.

    When Lee asked me to serve as one of the co-chairs of his election campaign, I was honored and gladly accepted. I supported Lee without hesitation because I am convinced that he has both the ability and the capability to lead our Union now and in the future. Lee has the boundless energy and vision we need to grow our Union and keep it at the forefront of the labor movement.

    Now, the task before us at the International Union level is to put the election behind us and rebuild any relationships that were damaged during the run-up to the elections.

    Good people stood in support of both candidates. Danny Donohue, the President of CSEA of New York State, was the other major candidate for Secretary-Treasurer.

    Danny has been a friend of mine for many years. He is a fine person and a great trade unionist. He demonstrated class and dignity on the Convention floor when the election results came in. His message of solidarity should be taken to heart. We’re going to need every bit of that solidarity in the months ahead.

    Significant challenges ahead. In Wisconsin, the challenges we face are greater than any we have faced in the past. The public’s opinion of public workers has never been lower. Our wages and benefits are under attack from right-wing politicians like Scott Walker who believe that there isn’t a CEO who makes enough money, and that there isn’t a middle-class working person who earns what he or she is paid.

    To help us meet these challenges head on, we’ll need to make some changes. One of the major ones: We’re making changes to our political program.

    Since 1978, we have partnered with Wisconsin Council 40 for our political program, PEOPLE. For much of that time, we also partnered with the Wisconsin State Employees Union, Council 24. In the mid-1990s, Council 24 split from PEOPLE and set up its own political action program.

    However, simply because we have done business in a certain way in the past, it doesn’t mean that we should not strive to make changes that will improve the way we do business in the future. DC 48 is currently in the process of restructuring our political action program to create a new PEOPLE organization that severs our partnership with Council 40, and creates a new one with Council 24.

    This change makes practical sense. Council 24, which is a very large membership base right here in Milwaukee County, is a resource that we have not successfully engaged in our political struggles within the county. Council 24 members are our natural allies — they face the same struggles we face on a statewide basis.

    Putting working families first. I am confident that this new alliance, when it is up and running, will serve our membership for many years to come in an efficient and effective way. We will work closely with our sisters and brothers in Council 24 to elect people who believe in public service performed by public employees who are accountable to the elected bodies for whom they work.

    This fall’s election cycle is one of the most critical we have ever faced in Wisconsin. Together, we will make a difference and change the negative right-wing politics which attack working families and working people. We can get Wisconsin moving again and do what’s right for our communities, our families and our friends.

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May 2010
The sharing and sending of messages is up to us

    An interesting national study was published toward the end of April. The study was authored by two researchers from our own University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Dr. Keith Bender, Associate Professor, and Dr. John Heywood, Distinguished Professor, both from the Department of Economics. The study is entitled “Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years.”

    The study’s conclusions are reported in this edition of the newspaper (see page 3). In short, the study concludes that public employees are far more likely to be substantially more educated than workers in the private sector, and that when benefits are not considered, public employees are paid between 11 percent and 12 percent less than comparable private-sector workers. When benefits are considered, they are still paid between 6.8 percent and 7.4 percent lower than comparable private-sector workers.

    The researchers also determined that over the last 15 years, public-sector workers are losing ground to their private-sector counterparts.

    Frankly, this is information that doesn’t shock those of us who work in the public sector. We have known these facts for years. Now, juxtapose these facts against the “opinions” of the typical person on the street, what you hear from the talking heads on talk radio, and what you hear from extreme right-wing candidates like Scott Walker and Mark Neumann.

    Instead of recognizing the contributions made by public-sector workers and recognizing the programs and services provided by public workers — and the value those programs and services bring to their communities — they are constantly demeaning public-service workers as highly paid and under-worked burdens to society. This study blows them and their wrong-minded ideology right out of the water.

    Our hometown newspaper buried its story about the Heywood/Bender study deep in the issue. Yet, when a well-known right-wing think-tank did a biased and unsubstantiated “study” alleging that public-sector pensions are excessive, they found that newsworthy enough to run that story on the front page, above the crease.

    Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to ensure that the proper information is shared with our friends, neighbors and even our families. And we must do this work ourselves. We cannot count on the media or elected officials to spread this message for us.

    A critical International Convention. Our International Convention will be convening in Boston on June 28, 2010. This is a critical convention for our Union, with specific importance for our state.

    At the 1972 International Convention, a young man was elected International Secretary-Treasurer. His name was William “Bill” Lucy.

    Bill was a veteran Union staff member, having been a member and activist from Contra Costa County, Calif., and later as a Union staff member who was assigned greater and greater responsibilities.

    He was a veteran of the civil rights movement, a front-line activist of the tumultuous 1960s. Bill was the senior Union staffer in 1968 in Memphis, Tenn., during the strike by AFSCME-represented sanitation workers when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

    For 50 years, Bill has served our Union with honor. He has been our International as Secretary-Treasurer since 1972. He has challenged the powerful, and stood up for the dignity of all workers. He has championed the public sector, and the programs and services we provide.

    Bill will be retiring just before the start of the convention. He will be missed. But the wheels continue to turn, and we will be electing Bill’s successor.

    The District Council 48 Executive Board and Delegate Assembly have unanimously endorsed Lee Saunders. You can read about Lee in this edition of the paper.

    We also will elect a new International Vice President for the Wisconsin District. The DC 48 Executive Board and Delegate Assembly have endorsed Jana Weaver for the position.

    Please read about Jana in this edition. I am certain that when you learn about her, read about her background and experience, and in particular how she intends to represent all of Wisconsin on the International Executive Board, you will agree that Jana is a great candidate.

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March 2010
Misdirected anger, myths and missing the boat

    2009 is drawing to a close. It has been an eventful year for our Union and for our members. Much has happened, both good and bad.

    Lately, I have been receiving a steady stream of e-mails to the general DC 48 mailbox from folks from the general public. The theme that runs through the e-mails is a general frustration at what they believe to be the high wages and benefits we receive as unionized public employees compared with their personal experiences in the private sector (if they are still employed).

    Their anger toward public employees is genuine. They write that they have lost their defined benefit pension; that they either have lost their health insurance or have to pay hundreds of dollars each month to keep coverage for them and their families; and that they have had to take wage freezes or deep wages cuts in order to keep their jobs.

    Let me say unequivocally that my heart goes out to any worker, public or private, who is struggling in today’s economy. It stinks that the brunt of the recession has been borne by middle-class Americans who just want to put in a fair day’s work for fair and just compensation.

    Unfortunately, their frustration and anger is misdirected at public workers for a number of reasons. First, public employees have for decades bargained and sacrificed higher wages in favor of job security and quality fringe benefits. The employees we represent in Milwaukee County average $17 per hour, about $34,000 per year. Considering our members perform entry-level work requiring little training, up to professional work which requires bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and in some cases even higher education, this is simply not in tune with the public perception that all public-sector workers are just “raking in” the money. In large part, with program and service cutbacks and the privatization of public-sector jobs, job security no longer exists in the public sector.

    We also are facing pay reductions through wages concessions and furloughs, so public sector wages are not staying even. Public-sector workers also are suffering in this economy. Fewer and fewer workers must try to keep up with the workloads, as well as face the frustration of not being able to provide the kind of quality services they want to provide for the public that pays the bills via taxes.

    Taking away vs. giving back. Secondly, benefits have diminished in quality over the past 20 years. Most health insurance plans have significant co-pays, co-insurances and deductibles that did not exist two decades ago. Most public employees contribute significantly toward the premiums for their health insurance. The myth that all public-sector workers get “free” health insurance is simply that, a myth.

    Third, and most important, the people who advocate for taking things away from public-sector workers are missing the boat. If fair and decent wages, benefits and retirement are taken away from all of those who still have them, then what is the hope of any worker ever getting those benefits again in the future? Even if those people whose anger if directed at the public employee no longer want or expect these things for themselves, don’t they hope that one day their children will enjoy them?

    I often wonder why there is a disproportionate anger directed at our neighbors who are just trying to get by, instead of directing the anger at those who brought our economy to ruin. Maybe it’s just easier to be angry at a peer than the Wall Street bankers who are so far away. But just because it’s easier, it doesn’t make it right.

    On a personal note . . . I want to express my sincere thanks and best wishes to Mary Parker and Jim Burnham upon their retirements. As you can read in following pages, Mary has been a steadfast member of our staff for 35 years. She has brought her considerable talents to work day in and day out, and her contributions have made us a better and more effective organization.

    It is hard to summarize my feelings about Jim’s retirement. As a staff representative, Jim exemplifies what you look for in the position. He has all of the technical skills, but he never loses touch with the human side of working with our members. Simply put, he cares deeply about the members of this union. He wears his emotions close to the surface, and always acts with compassion for what he believes. It has been an honor to have been his colleague during my tenure with DC 48.

    I wish nothing but the best to both Jim and Mary. I wish them long retirements, with prosperity, health and happiness.

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December 2009
Taking the good with the bad as we set our sights on 2010

    2009 is drawing to a close. It has been an eventful year for our Union and for our members. Much has happened, both good and bad.

    On the positive side, we completed a major renovation of the Union’s headquarters at North 35th Street and West St. Paul Avenue, which brings the building into the 21st century, making it viable for our membership for decades to come. This renovation added an elevator so that our members and retirees with disabilities have full and complete access to our building. It also added a disabled accessible washroom and made cosmetic improvements to the building’s front and side. These changes were long overdue, and we can take great pride in our investment in both the neighborhood and our long-term vision of our Union’s role in our community.

    Jobs secured in city, suburban pacts. Also on the positive side, we were able to negotiate many labor agreements that protected the job security of our members. The contract that got the most press was our agreement with the city of Milwaukee, which provides job security to our members through 2011. However, there were numerous suburban contracts that accomplished the same goals.

    These contracts could not have been achieved if our local Union leaders and members did not recognize the need for action in these extraordinary economic times. The leaders of our Union saw that the need for innovative thinking has never been greater if our members were to weather the terrible economic conditions and preserve the services we provide as well as our members’ jobs. These contracts did not come without sacrifice, but we remained focused on the future.

    On the negative yet at the same time positive side, the leadership of our Union underwent a major transition earlier this year under difficult circumstances. I extend my congratulations and thanks to Brian Stafford, the newly elected president of DC 48; Cathy Muir, the long-serving secretary of DC 48; and Paul Wasemiller, the newly elected treasurer of DC 48.

    I also would like to extend my congratulations and thanks to the entire executive board of DC 48. Our executive board comprises dedicated rank-and-file members of our Union, whose service to our members is seldom acknowledged — and, in my opinion, much under-appreciated.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize what is happening in Milwaukee County. As you can read elsewhere in this edition of our newspaper, things have not gone well for our members who work for the county. We negotiated a tentative agreement with the county in good faith. The tentative agreement coupled sacrifices by our members with job security. Sadly, the County Board rejected the tentative agreement.

    We unfortunately are saddled with elected officials in Milwaukee County who lack the courage and vision to lead the county and resist Scott Walker’s desire to dismantle county government. I want to sincerely thank those County Board supervisors who supported the integrity of the bargaining process and voted in favor of the tentative agreement.

    To those County Board supervisors who opposed the tentative agreement, and to one supervisor in particular, who supported the tentative agreement and then screwed our members in the budget process, please note that we have long memories. Our Union was here before you were elected, and we will be here fighting for our members and our community long after you are gone.

    New challenges ahead. 2010 brings us new challenges. We look forward to the governor’s election in which the candidates could not offer us a clearer choice. Our PEOPLE Committee has endorsed Tom Barrett. We have not always agreed with the positions Tom has taken as Milwaukee’s mayor. However, we have never questioned Tom’s dedication to public services and his commitment to the citizens of Milwaukee.

    Contrast that to his likely Republican opponent, Scott Walker, whose only commitment is to his ultra-conservative ideology and a self-serving ambition to gain higher office. Walker has been running for another office since the day he was elected county executive. His slash-and-burn philosophy has devastated the programs and services so many citizens of our county rely upon every day. We simply cannot allow Walker to bring his brand of devastation statewide (as much as we would love to get rid of him locally).

    In closing, I wish all of you a healthy, happy and prosperous holiday season, and a much better 2010.

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October 2009
On raising the bar for all – and reframing the debate

    There are many, many reasons to be proud members of AFSCME at the national, state or Council levels. Our organizations run at extremely high levels of efficiency in the face of dramatic challenges.

    Not enough attention is given to the hours and hours of “behind the scenes” activities that our Union engages in every day in order to provide representation to the 1.4 million active members we represent nationally and internationally, the tens of thousands of members we represent in the three Council affiliates in Wisconsin, and the 10,000+ members right here at D.C. 48.

    The services we provide under our huge “tent” are far-reaching, and extend well beyond traditional contract negotiations and contract administration, which most members think of as the traditional services. They involve legislative activities at all levels of government (federal down to local municipalities), public affairs and communications, public policy, political activities and organizing, among other functions.

    We represent a diverse group. Consider the logistical problems in representing the diverse group of workers we represent at DC 48. Our core majority of members are local government public-sector workers. However, we also represent about 2,000 private-sector workers. Some of these private-sector workers were formerly public workers who have seen their operations privatized, such as the former Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District employees now working for Veolia, the former Milwaukee County employees now working at the Milwaukee Public Museum and the former Doyne Hospital employees now working for Dynacare.

    But over many decades, we have organized and represented many other private-sector workers. On the private, non-profit side, we represent workers at Catholic Charities, the United Way, Milwaukee Center for Independence, Legal Action and many others. On the private, for-profit side, we have represented employees at Dental Associates for more than 25 years; recently, we affiliated almost 500 Milwaukee employees at U.S. Bank. In addition, we organized home child-care providers during the past few years. More than 800 home child-care providers are now members of DC 48.

    Resisting and reframing. As we try to cope with the challenges of the current economy, there is tremendous pressure on employers to seek new, and sometimes even more stupid, ideas on how to cut our wages and benefits (i.e., furloughs). And there is even more pressure on employers privatize the work performed by public workers, or outsource the work performed by private-sector workers.

    We can and will resist these efforts. But we have to keep in mind what is driving the mindset that shapes these issues. Our neighbors and friends have taken huge hits in these trying economic times. They have lost their jobs due to plant closures and downsizing. Many of those who are still working have taken pay cuts and seen their retirement savings decimated. When their employers provide health insurance, they are paying $500, $600, even $1,200 a month just to keep their families covered.

    The elected officials are listening to these good people, who have done nothing wrong, but are victims of this economy which has been devastated by corporate greed and the terrible national policies of the past 10 years. The debate also is fueled by the ultra-conservative, know-nothing, talk radio personalities who make their living spinning hate, chaos and dissension, and contribute nothing positive to society.

    Answering the mobilization call. We need to take control of this debate. Why are we allowing the arguments to be about how much we should have taken from us? Why aren’t we shouting that we want the debate to be about raising the bar for all workers? Why aren’t we demanding answers to questions like, “Why we are rushing to eliminate decent paying, family-supporting jobs, and creating subsistence level minimum wage (or barely above) jobs in their place?” As Union workers, we know how fortunate we are to have affordable health care. But why aren’t we screaming that health care and health insurance shouldn’t just for the fortunate, it should be the right of all Americans?

    We will be asking our membership to mobilize in coming weeks on these questions and other issues. We know that AFSCME members will answer the call, and turn out in great numbers for your fellow Union members, your neighbors — and yourselves.

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July 2009
The trouble with furloughs and grandstanding gimmickry

    Furlough [fur-lo], n. — to lay workers off from work, especially temporarily; a leave period granted a prisoner, usually as a reward for good behavior and to reduce incarceration costs; recently replaced the dog as an elected official’s best friend.

    Just ask Tom Barrett or Scott Walker: Furloughs are their new best friend. There are, however, some differences in the positions these two notable public officials recently took.

    Let’s take Mayor Barrett first. He has fully admitted that the city of Milwaukee is not in crisis mode for 2009. He stated publicly that the reason for the furloughs was the impending budget crisis coming in 2010 and 2011, and his intent to start dealing with this crisis early. His proposal to furlough city employees for two days (one of which has already occurred) was done in conjunction with three-day holiday weekends to give employees some value added at the same time they were losing income.

    We are challenging the city’s implementation of the two furlough days through our contractual grievance procedure.

    A disingenuous explanation. County Executive Walker is not nearly that forthcoming with the truth. His reason for attempting to implement the furloughs? A supposed $14.9 million deficit. Rather than gracefully back off when it became apparent that his economic crisis was phony, he stuck to his guns. He intended to go forward with reducing the workweek (from 40 hours to 35) for most county employees even after his lies were exposed and the real county deficit was revealed to be somewhere between $4.4 million (less than one-half percent of the total budget) all the way up to a $600,000 surplus.

    From Walker, there was no assertion that the county would be saving for a future economic crisis. It was simply a headline-grabbing, stupid power grab by the grandstanding, wannabe governor.

    Walker apparently forgot to read the county ordinances. We filed a grievance against his reduced workweek, and we prevailed (see page 1). We challenged Walker that the right to reduce employee hours (after the budget is set) is vested with the legislative body of government — the County Board of Supervisors. By county ordinance, the county executive does not have the unilateral right to cut hours. We also argued that a prior arbitration decision limited the reduction of hours to a temporary reduction. Walker’s reduction through the end of year, and perhaps beyond, was more or less permanent.

    Fitting “King Scott’s” attitude that he doesn’t make mistakes, he pouted in the media after he lost. He’s appealing the arbitrator’s decision.

    But this simple analysis begs the real issue. Both the mayor and the county executive chose to grandstand over this issue and announce their intentions in the media before ever sharing their thoughts with the Union.

    We need to be engaged in the dialogue. It is no secret. Our Union is no fan of furloughs. For decades, our collective bargaining agreements have contained reduction in workforce language which predicated reductions using the seniority layoff provisions of the agreements. At no time did the city or county ever propose to replace our seniority layoff language with across-the-board furlough language at the bargaining table. Also, no Union member has ever proposed that we abandon our seniority layoff language in favor of across-the-board layoffs.

    Make no mistake, we are all about saving jobs. But we need to be engaged in a dialogue before we can determine what is to be gained from furloughs. Neither Barrett nor Walker ever tried to engage in any dialogue. As such, the position we took was based on our contract language.

    Walker says that it would be useless to talk. However, that flies in the face of the progressive results we have reached with employers who have engaged us in real crisis negotiations, such as MATC and the Milwaukee Public Museum.

    In the absence of an overall strategy and a total agreement, furloughs are nothing more than a gimmick. They put off the hard decisions on program and service cuts. That is why furloughs are popular among elected officials. Why make hard decisions when you can make public pronouncements and pretend you are doing something meaningful?

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May 2009
‘Hybrid’ Income Maintenance model puts us back on the quality services track

    During the past few months, we have been engaged in a project that was just finalized in the past couple of weeks. I am speaking about the state takeover of the management of Milwaukee County Income Maintenance services. With the passage in the State Legislature of Assembly Bill 194 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 161, the path has been paved for the smooth transition of these programs from being county run (or in reality, Scott Walker mismanaged) to state run by people who really want to see services effectively delivered to Milwaukee County citizens with critical needs.

    The “hybrid” model utilized by the state in this transition is extremely creative, and we are confident that it will prove equally effective. From the standpoint of the 300 or so AFSCME 48 represented employees, it also means job security in these uncertain and difficult economic times.

    By proposing and implementing the hybrid model, Gov. Doyle and his representatives in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families clearly sent the message that the dedicated, hard-working frontline workers — who worked for years under the mismanagement of Walker and the incompetent leadership of Corey Hoze, among others — were not at fault for the critical problems that exist in delivering these services.

    It’s about quality services & jobs. A tremendous debt of gratitude is owed to Gov. Doyle and his staff, and to the Milwaukee County Legislative delegation. This includes, but is not limited to, Sen. Lena Taylor, Sen. Spencer Coggs, Rep. Tamara Grigsby and Rep. Chris Sinicki. The delegation’s leadership on this issue was both courageous and forward-thinking. Unfortunately, there are members of the County Board who still do not understand why our Union was supportive of the hybrid model and why we worked so diligently to see the implementing legislation passed. There were two reasons and only two reasons — jobs and quality services.

    In the face of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, we do not believe it would have been a good idea to put 300 high-quality county employees out of work and make them reapply for their own jobs with the state. If they were lucky enough to be rehired (best-case scenario: about two-thirds of them would’ve been hired), they would have had to start as new employees with no seniority, no vacation and no sick leave.

    It was ‘hybrid’ or complete takeover. Some County Board members seem to think that if there hadn’t been a hybrid model adopted, the state would simply have let the county continue to run the program. To those County Board members, I respectfully request that they recall what happened to Child Welfare, and how a majority of the County Board members who were serving back then threw our members under the bus when the state came in and terminated the Child Welfare relationship with the county. The state was as serious as a heart attack when it told the county in no uncertain terms that it was going to take over Income Maintenance.

    If the hybrid model had not adopted, the only alternative was a complete takeover.

    We did what our members expected us to do. Be absolutely certain that we will always opt to protect our members and their jobs. We regret that folks we consider allies disagree with our position, but we are a labor union and will always pursue the result that advances our values and represents the best interests of our members.

    The real issue is Walker’s intentional failure to provide adequate services to people in need in our community. Walker has carried out a policy of slash-and-burn government and mismanagement in order to fail, so he can reward his cronies and privatize as much as he can. Walker has falsely tried to convince the general public that the issue is the pension benefit, or some other issue that he thinks would advance his candidacy for governor. These are pure and unadulterated lies.

    We know that well-intentioned members of the County Board wanted to do better. We know they sincerely wanted to fix Income Maintenance and keep it as a county operation. However, they are simply not empowered to manage the day-to-day operation of any facet of county government. It was beyond their ability to “fix” these services in the face of a hostile and anti-government County Executive.

    State to county employees: ‘How can we do this better?’ It is now time to look forward to working with the state to provide the citizens of Milwaukee County with the high-quality services they deserve and are entitled to. The state has actually come in and, for the first time in memory, asked the employees for their suggestions on how things can be done better and more effectively. Needless to say, the floodgates opened and opinions flowed freely. On that point alone, contrast the working environment that the state is creating to the toxic work environment of the Scott Walker-managed Milwaukee County.

    The hybrid model makes possible the return of the Income Maintenance functions to Milwaukee County in a few years. We all look forward to a time when these programs can be returned to County government where they belong.

    Needless to say, there will have to be major changes before that happens. The biggest change will be replacing Walker with a county executive who wants to provide government which serves the people of Milwaukee County.

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February 2009
In Walker’s world, ‘stimulus’ still means tax cuts and trickle-down economics

    As the vast majority of the American people celebrate the administration of President Obama and hope with great optimism that there are better days ahead, our hopefulness is tempered by the knowledge that the last eight years of Republican control have left us with the worst economic crisis in the last 70 to 80 years.

Last month, our Union engaged in one of the most grueling budget cycles we have ever endured. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker continued his unrelenting attack on the essential services and programs provided to the citizens of this County.

    Yet, even in the face of the vast failures of the last administration, the conservative diehards continue to beat the drum of their failed economic policies. I picked up a copy of Forbes magazine the other day, and there was a commentary by the publisher, Steve Forbes, blasting the Obama stimulus plan and instead advocating for more of the same old tax cuts that the wealthy enjoyed over the last eight years. The rationale is that individual Americans can spend their money better than the government can spend their money.

    This argument does have some intrinsic attraction. Who doesn’t want more cash to spend? However, this philosophy of “free” spending and lack of oversight is pretty much the reason we are in the mess we find ourselves.

    Our own joke of a County Executive, Scott Walker, came out with his version of this economic philosophy during his Feb. 16 “State of the County” address. After first categorically rejecting Milwaukee County participation in any stimulus money, he is now proposing that the County rebate its 2009 portion of the property tax and declare a sales tax holiday for all of 2009 as an appropriate use of stimulus money.

    It appears that Walker is now convinced that stimulus money is coming our way. He just can’t stop himself from trying to come up with a way to put that money directly in the hands of wealthy people (who are overwhelmingly his supporters) instead of finding meaningful ways to make that money work for the middle class, the unemployed and the other “at risk” people in our community.

    Of fallacies and failed economic policies. There are multiple fallacies to the Walker proposal. For example, the tax holidays he proposes are currently not legal. Obama’s stimulus package is designed to keep folks in their jobs and create employment so that we can rebuild the economic foundations of our community and our Country. I am a home owner and would personally benefit significantly if I didn’t have to pay the County share of property taxes in 2009. But what would I and others likely do with that money?

    Most likely, I would apply it to student loans taken out for my kid’s education. Perhaps I would pay off some of my credit card bills or put it into a savings account. I might spend part of those dollars on a consumer purchase, but even if I spent every last dollar of the property taxes I get back, it would not be enough money to employ a single person in a family-supporting job. And unless a huge number of us coordinate our spending patterns, there is little hope that enough money would be poured back into the local Milwaukee economy to provide a major bump.

    Also, substantial numbers of Milwaukee County citizens rent. They are important contributors to property taxes through their rent, but do not pay directly. They tend to be young workers who have not yet purchased homes, folks who can’t afford to buy homes or people who have lost their homes (in large part, not Walker supporters). They get no tax break when their landlords enjoy a property tax rebate. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for my rent to be reduced because my landlord enjoyed a property tax windfall.

    The sales tax holiday is just as phony. We don’t pay all of our sales tax at one time. Most likely, I would not consider my daily sales tax savings significant enough to sock away every day to then spend on another purchase. Even if I am one of the lucky ones who still plan to make a “big-ticket” purchase, I would probably choose to upgrade the item with my sales tax savings, or get what I originally set out to purchase and simply to spend the extra money. In any event, it is extremely unlikely that I would take the sum total of all the money I would save during the year-long sales tax holiday and make a “big ticket” purchase I didn’t already plan to make.

    Let’s get real. The Obama stimulus plan is the opposite of the last eight years of greed and manipulation by the wealthiest people in our country and their conservative Republican buddies. It is a stimulus designed to invest in our communities and our infrastructure, get people back to work, create opportunity for our youth, rebuild and strengthen our middle class, and jump-start our economy.

    Government can do this better than the invisible hand of trickle-down economics. I, for one, am no longer willing to wait for wealthy people to spend money so that eventually the rest of us can see a small piece of the action. It didn’t work for the average citizen the last eight years, and it won’t work in the future.

    Scott, take your failed economic policies on the road when you run for governor. I can’t wait for the entire state to reject them.

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December 2008
Mismanaging with the intent to fail: The Walker Saga continues

    Last month, our Union engaged in one of the most grueling budget cycles we have ever endured. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker continued his unrelenting attack on the essential services and programs provided to the citizens of this County.

    Budget cuts are just one prong of Walker’s nefarious efforts. We can fight those directly — head on, so to speak. But some of his other efforts are less direct, and are only visible if you scrutinize carefully or happen to be a county government “insider.” I have characterized these Walker efforts as “mismanagement in order to fail.” I hold to my assessment.

    Let’s examine two of Walker’s underlings. The first is Corey Hoze, Director of the Department of Health and Human Needs. The best thing I can say about Hoze is that he seems to put in long hours, although I wouldn’t exactly call it quality time. Take the Call Center, which recently has been in the middle of much media controversy. There is absolutely no question that Hoze is intentionally mismanaging the Call Center in order to justify the privatization of the operation.

    The Call Center crisis. The functions of the Call Center are critical. The Center is the gateway for clients in need to access the critical safety-net services the county administers. It is supposed to be staffed with more than 20 employees so that citizens calling in don’t have to wait so long before they talk to an actual person. However, in Hoze’s own budget narrative, he admits that the average staffing of the Call Center has never been higher than 16 workers. Often, because of illness or other time off, the average staffing levels are 11 or lower.

    As the dialogue heated up over the budget deliberations, and the Call Center controversy became a focal point of dispute, Hoze cynically heated up the staffing shortages by failing to assign other qualified workers to the Call Center to fill in for absent workers. He then passed on the information on to his allies in the community, namely the Scott Walker surrogate, Hunger Task Force, so they could mount a massive campaign on Walker’s and Hoze’s behalf to privatize the Center.

    Let’s be absolutely clear on this point, Walker’s and Hoze’s transparent undermining of quality services hurt some of the most at-risk people in Milwaukee County — the people Hunger Task Force claims to care about — for blatant political purposes and in the face of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

    The Ceridian boondoggle. As I write this column, the fate of the Call Center is up in the air. The votes do not appear to be present on the County Board to support Walker, Hoze and the folks at Hunger Task Force. However, the votes are also not there to support a veto override vote (in the face of a likely Walker veto) to increase staffing at the Call Center, which actually would make the Center work for the at-risk population needing the critical services. In the meantime, Hoze continues to manage with the intent to fail in order to justify privatization with Walker’s blessing. I personally told Hoze that I thought he was the most incompetent Director of Health and Human Services for at least 25 years, and possibly ever. He is a joke when compared to his dedicated predecessors. But terrible performance seems to be what Walker wants.

    A second Walker underling who also fits the profile is Racine reject Dennis John, whom Walker picked to manage the information systems division of Milwaukee County. One would think that being able to generate an accurate seniority list for union employees in the County would not be a big deal. After all, this is not a new expectation. Seniority lists have been provided by the County to the Union for decades.

    But the County has a new data system — the boondoggle called Ceridian, for which the County has spent millions of dollars — is more than two years late coming on line, and still cannot perform the most basic of functions. We met with John in mid-December and he informed us that it could be, in his words, “years” before we get an accurate seniority list.

    We are not interested in a seniority list as an intellectual exercise. We have layoffs coming up in Milwaukee County. Without an accurate seniority list, how can we properly protect the contractual layoff and bumping rights of those targeted workers? But it doesn’t stop there. Without accurate seniority lists, vacation selection picks cannot be made, overtime cannot be properly assigned, and job postings cannot be properly filled.

    Shed the dead weight. The day-to-day mismanagement of Milwaukee County is a conscious effort of Scott Walker and his underlings. The efficient operation of the County is secondary to Walker’s interest of sucking up to his rich business contributors, and creating an agenda to run for governor.

    There is a need to clean house and get rid of the Walker administration’s dead weight. We only hope that the majority of County Board Supervisors will wake up and hold Walker’s feet to the fire before it is too late for so many at-risk people who rely on the critical programs and services Milwaukee County provides.

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August 2008
Securing our future: Customer service in the public service

    As I read the local newspaper and Internet blogs, I am constantly struck by the criticism leveled against public employees and the work we perform on a daily basis. Let me forcefully state that from A to Z, I believe public employees almost always perform their jobs with professionalism, courtesy and dignity. Public services, virtually without exception, provide taxpayers with the most cost-effective — and accountable — programs and services.

    Yet, hardly a week goes by where a newspaper article or blog alleges some perceived horror story regarding the delivery of a public service, or relates some horrendous experience a citizen encountered when dealing with a governmental entity.

    Are we correct when we say that 99.9 percent of all public services are delivered without incident and to the satisfaction of the public?

    Can we dismiss these statements as merely being the product of disgruntled folks who had unrealistic expectations or invalid claims to begin with?

    Is there something more sinister at work?

    The answer to all of the above questions is YES.

    Dismantlers with intent. At our recent International Convention in San Francisco, Sen. Hillary Clinton, when referencing the current state of federal services and the current Administration’s attitude toward public service, stated: “The current Administration’s motto seems to be, ‘If it ain’t broke, we haven’t tried hard enough.’”

    Make no mistake about it, there are elected officials (including our County Executive) who are trying to dismantle government. They’re managing so that government, and the employees who perform those services, fail. They short-staff and the workloads become impossible to accomplish. In the case of our 24-hour, seven-day institutions (jails, mental health centers, juvenile justice facilities, etc.), the workload is often just plain dangerous. Yet, these same elected officials blame the workers who perform miracles every day just to keep the operation going.

    But there is another side of the coin. At times in the face of the pressures of elected officials who want to see government fail, bad management that won’t (or in some cases can’t) manage the work effectively and/or short-staffing due to budget reductions, some public workers lose sight of the fact that they are in the public service. Regardless of the pressures we face, that’s something we can never forget. We’re in the public service to make our communities a better place to live, work, play and raise families. Treating everyone with dignity and respect is essential when performing of any public service job.

    Staying the ‘service’ course. As I stated at the outset of this column, I sincerely believe that 99.9 percent of all public service by public-sector workers is performed to the satisfaction of the public and without incident. A portion of that other 1/10th of 1 percent can be attributed to disgruntled citizens with unrealistic expectations. But there is a portion of justified dissatisfaction with public programs and services caused by public workers who have simply lost sight of why they do what they do.

    We must get them on track and remind them that “customer service” is critically important in the public sector — for all the reasons you know. And for this one: By making customer service our priority, we remove the argument from the menu of reasons our enemies give to dismantle government services. Here it is, in basic terms: job security.

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June 2008
Infrastructure crisis calls for CETA-type solution

    Summer approaches and our weather continues to give us fits. The record, or near record, snowfall of the winter of 2007-08 left its mark. Potholes plague us on many streets; driving on some of them is like riding a roller coaster at Six Flags Great America.

    Now, record rainfalls and tornadoes are putting a greater strain on our resources. We're contending with downed trees and power lines, flooding along our rivers and in low-lying areas, and in most of our homes, flooded basements. Yet, when we look at the misfortune of homeowners in the Wisconsin Dells area, Lake Delton in particular, our problems do not seem as overwhelming.

    In a bigger-picture context, though, the holes in our roads, the strain on our resources, underscore a deepening crisis all its own: our deteriorating infrastructure. It’s not just happening in our community. It's happening in virtually every urban area (and more and more rural communities) in the United States — from the bridge that fell last year over the Mississippi River, killing and injuring dozens of people, in Minneapolis-St. Paul; to the failing or soon-to-be-failing dams in rain-ravaged in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. But it is happening here, and the evidence is becoming more and more apparent.

    A collection of crises. Last year, a city of Milwaukee study indicated that the basic maintenance cycle of street replacement has been extended into the 22nd century. The replacement of water pipes has been delayed, even though many water mains are already 100 years old. The deferred maintenance of the Milwaukee County Parks System has been calculated at $500 million; the longer we defer, the more expensive the repairs become.

    These represent only a small slice of the critical infrastructure issues that continue to spill over into our daily lives — and at a time when we're experiencing some of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression of the 1930s, no less.

    There's the housing crisis, with home foreclosures increasing by 75 percent in 2007 and likely to accelerate dramatically this year with 2.5 million loans scheduled for rate resets. Low-income and minority homeowners are suffering disproportionately: 55 percent of mortgages obtained by African-Americans and 46 percent of mortgages obtained by Latinos are sub-prime.

    There's the fuel crisis. All of us feel the pinch at the gas pump. Nobody thought gas would cost more than $4 a gallon in June, 2008 — or, as some now predict, $5 a gallon gas by the end of the year (if not sooner). There's the trade deficit — it's growing while the dollar is at a 60-year low against foreign currencies.

    The consequences? The middle class is disappearing, and manufacturing jobs are being eliminated and shipped overseas. Good-paying jobs are lost. When jobs are being created, they're primarily of the low-paying, non-union variety — which drives down the standard of living for all working families. On top of all that, health care is becoming unaffordable for millions of American workers, and eating up resources which would otherwise be available for wage increases for those of us fortunate enough to still have health insurance.

    A call to action. Yet the Bush Administration remains deaf, dumb and blind to the crises around us, and unsympathetic to the plight of working people. Its policies have fostered a relentless shift in the distribution of income and wealth into the hands of the top 1 percent of all wage earners.

    It's time to sound the emergency bell — or re-sound the unheard or ignored one that’s been clanging for some time now. Our Congressional leaders need to act immediately to provide tax reduction incentives and federal funds for research to companies that invest in rebuilding our core manufacturing base industries.

    Many of us remember the CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) program of the 1970s. It provided a path for thousands of workers to become public employees, and enhanced the provision of critical public services — and, in turn, our infrastructure — that would otherwise not been affordable to local governments.

    We still have many members who started their careers in public service as CETA employees. We need a CETA-type program now — before it's too late for millions of American workers, our nation's infrastructure and, frankly, our future as a nation.

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March 2008
Lena Taylor: A proven leader who’ll get us back on track

    The April 1, 2008, spring election provides all AFSCME District Council 48 members, their families and their neighbors with a historic opportunity. For more than five years now, our County has been held hostage by the right-wing ideology of Scott Walker. The results have been catastrophic.

    Sadly, Milwaukee County is falling apart — as the billboards say, “I blame Scott Walker.” The list of severe problems is too long to fully review. But here’s a sampling:

    * Our parks system, once the crown jewel of Milwaukee County, is in a state of abject neglect and deterioration due to Walker’s mismanagement, staffing cuts and flawed vision. There’s $300 million in deferred maintenance in the Parks Department alone. This is a debt our grandchildren will be saddled with for decades.

    * The Milwaukee County Transit System, once honored as America’s best mid-size transit system, is in complete disarray, having fallen victim to Walker’s annual service cuts and fare increases.

    * The County’s Public Aid office is unable to respond to critical client concerns due to chronically short staffing and unreasonably high workloads. The budget for the office has fallen by 10 percent since 2002 when Walker took office (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/14/08).

    * In January, the National Institute of Corrections issued a report citing dangerous security breaches, along with bad management and over-crowding, at the House of Correction in Franklin and the downtown work-release center (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/25/08; also see page 7 of this newspaper). “Systematically poor security,” “exceptionally deficient fire safety” and “very low” employee morale spell danger for staff and the general public.

    * Meanwhile, $91 million in federal transportation money is in jeopardy because Walker refused to collaborate with other local officials, like Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and agree on a plan to spend the money to benefit Milwaukee County citizens.

    She’ll take a practical approach. Fortunately, we have an alternative. State Senator Lena Taylor is a proven leader. She has the vision, experience, compassion and dedication to lead Milwaukee County and get us back on the right track. Lena is committed to the hard-working citizens of Milwaukee County.

    We need to get back to the business of solving Milwaukee County’s problems. Lena will do just that. Under Lena’s administration, we will not be held captive to Walker’s doctrinaire policies. She’ll take a practical approach to governing — and she, unlike Mr. Walker, will work with the County Board, other governmental bodies and key stakeholders.

    We can make history. Also: Lena understands the unique and vital role that County employees play. She knows County employees need to know that their time is valuable and their work is important. She recognizes that productivity, efficiency and morale go hand in hand. So: All AFSCME members can be movers and shakers on April 1, 2008.

    We need to talk about Lena Taylor — as well as about our other endorsed candidates — and convince all of our Union brothers and sisters, their families, their friends and their neighbors to get out and vote on April 1.

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.

    We have an opportunity to elect leaders with vision and courage. We can end the five-year nightmare. We can make history. We can take back our County.

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