AFSCME District Council 48 County Layoff Report

Workers
Serving
Milwaukee

Layoff Notices Hitting 199 County Workers
Editor's Note: Updates to this story were posted December 2001.
    The bad news is hard and basic. In early July about 199 human service workers, members of AFSCME District Council 48's Local 645, will receive layoff notices from Milwaukee County. Their jobs will end probably before the fall begins for many, by Sept. 30 for others and perhaps as late as the end of the year for a few.
    That timing depends on how quickly the state, intractable in its decision to drop the county as a provider to its Milwaukee Child Welfare Bureau, replaces the county's services with private companies.

Wayne Krueger during a recent AFSCME protest.

Those services are considerable. Aside from operating two of the five geographic sites in the county for placing foster children, the county had operated countywide adoption services, foster-home licensing and related duties. The state has suggested that continuing such services without chaos within a couple of months is a slam dunk, but even the private companies lined up to replace the county are grumbling about how they can possibly come up to speed in this time frame.
    The impact of the layoffs will actually encompass all the county human service spheres staffed by Local 645. A recent key decision by an arbitrator reinforced aspects of Council 48's interpretation of the county contract and protected seniority. So while the county is dropping 199 child welfare positions, the 199 layoffs will be spread across all the human service workers in Local 645 regardless of the divisions they work for.
    Layoff notices will go to the 199 least senior human-service workers whether they work in child welfare or in such other service areas as the Department of Aging.
    While benefits as contractually negotiated would stay the same for the most senior workers retained, Wayne Krueger, president of Local 645, predicted that "there will be some demotions -- changes not just in title and duties but also pay."

How county lost its child welfare role. Details.

In-depth background on child welfare.

    Clerical workers in child welfare, also members of Council 48, are not facing layoffs at this point because the county is shorthanded in these clerical needs and intends to internally transfer them, Krueger said. All this also means that while the elimination of child welfare from Milwaukee County involvement actually impacted about 290 jobs, including supervisory personnel not covered by unions, the actual downsizing may only affect about two-thirds of the total.
    All the workers who receive layoff notices will also be extensively interviewed for other available county positions, said Krueger. In normal circumstances that means dozens will likely be offered chances to stay in county services that are currently understaffed -- for instance, in early July there were about 40 unfilled positions at the House of Corrections, Krueger said.
    But what positions are open, which are offered, how compatible child welfare workers will feel with these careers and what open positions may actually wind up frozen for a while -- all that is in a state of flux. Various county divisions, fearful of what they are facing in the next county budget, are hiring only to retain essential personnel in the current environment, AFSCME 48 was told by several sources.
    The Milwaukee County Board is right now contemplating the total county budget and what can be maintained even as it is dealing with a state legislature that is making big noises about cutting back operations, and that directly affects the money the county receives for many services. Both supervisors and legislators are tossing about proposals that could reduce services, and union positions, throughout state and county operations.
    That makes the summer a key time for union workers in particular and citizens in general to pay attention to the budget wars and proposals and make "their own sort of noise," as one county official put it.
    The protection of seniority and other contractual positions earned in negotiations also mean the laid-off workers are first in line for recall for three years and one day after a layoff takes effect.
    A concern about being able to report problems in the system is key to the thinking of many child welfare employees, Krueger points out. "Their responsibility is for the children," he said, and the lack of protection for workers who take a stand is a major issue for human service professionals who want to speak up when they see something that is wrong, misleading or just not working. By training and the nature of their advocacy for children, social workers in the county have been among the most outspoken when things haven't gone right with foster care or the system is being overwhelmed. They would certainly not have the freedom or the protection to do so when working in the private sector.
    "It sure is hard to find a single social worker for one of the private companies who has spoken up or stepped forward about the problems," said Krueger.
    As reflected in AFSCME 48's previous in-depth looks at the child welfare situation, many involved in child welfare and in the federal lawsuit against the state over its system believe the state has a long memory. It was, after all, complaints from county child welfare workers, itemizing how the system was being overwhelmed and how the state, in their view, was not responding, that created some of the factual information that led to the lawsuit against the state. Several observers -- and not just members of AFSCME -- have suggested that the state's subsequent actions, combined with county mismanagement and then a failure by the county to defend its child welfare workforce, reflect a sort of "payback" against these workers.