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| Child Welfare Debacle: What happened, a history of why it happened and the aftermath for workers. Peer training at House of Corrections hopes to be a model for both unions and prison facilities. The county contract vote -- just what did it mean? AFSCME 48's take on the Kettl Commission. Check out Political Opinion from AFSCME 48's newspaper.
Governor's Vetoes
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Budget Blues: Government Rollbacks, Privatization Schemes Seem Aimed at Union Workers Milwaukee workers were in a precarious state of mind in the fall of 2001. They knew an ax was whistling their way. They knew the swings would be hard. But they didn't quite know the size of the ax, its shape, its accuracy and whether anyone could deflect it. Welcome to the Budget 2001 Blues. This is the time when Council 48 leaders and staff representatives try to place themselves between the ax and its victims, engaging in rumor control, developing united plans of defense. This is when the ax is poised not just to cut jobs but to sever the safety nets for the most needy, least visible and often least vocal of Wisconsin's citizenry, the sort of folks labor groups often have to speak up for - the children, the elderly, the mentally ill, the homeless, the poor. Swing one was landed by the state legislature, which passed a compromise two-year fiscal budget that provided a puny cap raise in the mandated money heading for local governmental use, not enough to bind the bleeding of services the public depends on. Swing two was the sweeping pen strikes through this budget by Scott McCallum, who has inherited line-item veto powers other governors can only envy. With one eye on his plans to run for governor next year, another eye on what cuts would appear consumer friendly, with his ear cocked for the footsteps of press response, while peeking over his shoulder at which Republicans or Democrats would accuse him of breaking promises, with his other arm twisted by lobbyists and business buddies, McCallum was indeed in a contorted posture, from which he landed the ax 315 times with a hodgepodge of conflicting results (see sidebar).
Forecasts of what Ament will be up were hotly circulated before his formal presentation to the County Board Sept. 28. Last March, Ament asked all county departments, for 2002, to hold to their 2001 levels in initial proposals due Aug. 15. Now, given the state budget and the $50 million projected county deficit, many expected him to cut even further. Norquist will be putting his new budget online on Sept. 25 and job cuts are expected in there as well. So a lot of bad news has already landed as we write this, a lot of worst case scenarios are circulating and some actual administrative proposals have either leaked out or been floated out as trial balloons. It should be remembered that some big bad news came in late May when the county caved in to its own mismanagement, abandoned any further role in child welfare and let the state privatize the whole shebang. (See our extensive explanatory package of stories.) That action alone looked like it could cost 280 county jobs, most associated with Local 645, until Council 48 stepped in with a series of negotiations, an arbitration victory and other actions that softened the blow. Editor's Note: The Union actions helped hold the losses to one-third of the original fears, conditional on whether members accept retraining and reassignment. The human services divisions had 437 human services workers emplyed before the child welfare loss and cut down to 262 positions, but it looked like most of the 175 workers left out in the cold would continue either with other county divisions or by taking jobs with private agencies. Many trained social workers, by least seniority, were forced to leave or move to other divisions and classifications. It is still unclear how many of the 199 workers who received layoff notices will take advantage of the openings elsewhere that Council 48 helped identify. There is an understandable uncertainty if the positions they are being asked to move to would be retained in the budget wars. "The human toll is significant, saddening and frustrating," said Wayne Krueger, president of Local 645 who has been deep in negotiations with the county and his own members. "I'm dealing with people who are about to lose not just their jobs but their homes, their health coverage, their sense of service, and I think there is understandably a lot of hurt and anger." Because of the long service of many in the county's human service divisions, as Krueger pointed out, "least senior" often means people who have worked for the county for a decade. Initially, while the private companies in child welfare have plenty of positions to fill, there was little desire to apply among the Local 645 workers, Krueger said, because of "lower wages, fewer benefits, no employer paid pension -- and also, no whistle-blower laws to protect workers." Nevertheless, it is estimated that about four dozen county workers will take up these private jobs because they wish to stay in the area and continue in their chosen profession. Another factor: More county social services are clearly on the block. There are hard proposals to radically reduce such projects as the First Time Offender Program, Wraparound Milwaukee, supportive home care for the physically disabled and alcohol and drug treatment. A variety of other county locals expect to suffer job losses, too. Members of the largest, Local 882, have already been alerted by their president, Tim Allen, of some of the changes in public works and parks, that the administration is looking at. Underneath some schemes -transferring senior centers to the Department of Aging - are strong efforts to privatize. The county is also pursuing abolishing clerical, painter, maintenance and seasonal positions, closing pools, ending beach lifeguard services and reducing maintenance projects. Local 882 has already launched a strong campaign to inform seniors of what's heading their way. If senior centers are leased out to a private agency and pursue some limited federal funds, seniors of certain incomes or aged 50-60 could be cut out of the loop and recreational services would by law give way to other programs. The local is mailing senior citizens "points to ponder" and urges workers and seniors who object to speak up. Mental health services also face deep cuts in county jobs because of privatization proposals that would clobber AFSCME and other unions. Council 48 responded in late August with intensive informational meetings and action plans. The proposals could privatize both the county's community-based programs for the mentally ill and its inmate medical care, eliminating 200 county jobs while affecting nearly 1,000 mental health clients and 3,700 inmates. Everything is on the chopping block, from group home services to outpatient therapy and medication management. All this could theoretically save $3 million a year while totally up-ending long-term relationships that most mental health clients need with support staff. You may note, in all these proposals, that it is union jobs that are primarily at risk, not administrators, even though they might wind up with not much of a workforce to manage. Meanwhile, the court system that relies on sizeable county support has gone to war with the County Exec. Rather than do what other county divisions did under Ament's direction - provide a zero growth budget -- Chief Judge Michael J. Skwierawski asked for $3.7 million more just to hold the line on essential costs. He and others in the court administration have also heavily criticized the state for cutting 4% from the budget of circuit courts statewide. Skwierawski and others warn that the combined effect of all these cuts would reduce both staffs and judges and clog the court system into paralysis. As of this writing, neither Skwierawski nor Ament has backed away from his position. For months, of course, various government units have been issuing dire threats of how they must hold the line, and even retreat way behind the line for the sake of taxpayers. Nowhere in this process has there been much discussion of good enduring public policy, commented Bill Mollenhauer, one of the staff representatives for Council 48 who has been heavily involved in the process.
Expediency has ruled the day and curiously, despite its bizarre track record nationally, privatization is still being touted as a panacea. Working through private companies helps mask actual expenditures, operational boondoggles, levels of service and results. But privatization does have an advantage for politicians. While it may not produce real savings with quality services over time, its impact takes far longer to measure - usually until after the next election. So workers have reason to be worried. Not because the government is tightening its belt - what else is new? But because there is a trend afoot in Wisconsin to dump entire groups of experienced public workers. The trend continues even as the public begins to learn ever more disquieting facts about budget waste and questionable practices in such already privatized areas as W-2 and child welfare. That's why Council 48 is taking active initiative within and among its locals to galvanize both the workforce, the communities at risk and the general community to understand what's happening and how to react within the next few weeks and present a united front on why governments must keep quality service at the forefront of their fiscal thinking. The only cure for the blues is getting up on your feet and doing something. |
 Glum faces were common at AFSCME worker and leader meetings weighing the impact of county budget proposals. |