Utah AFSCME Local 1004

AFSCME/FYI – Thursday, June 7, 2007

National/Political

Black Labor Vows ‘We Will Not Be Made Expendable'

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Black Agenda Report

June 6, 2007

"We're tired of living between ‘hard times' and ‘bad times,'" said William Lucy, addressing the 36th annual convention of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), late last month. "We cannot cure the system, as it is. There is an urgent need for a New Economic Subscription." The new arrangement requires that "we dismantle the corporate agenda." …… The CBTU's first mass gathering was in Chicago, at the old LaSalle Hotel, in 1972, the same year William Lucy became secretary-treasurer of the now 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). At that inaugural convention, the 1,200 delegates all paid their own way. …… Republican front-runner Rudolph Giuliani ridicules the whole concept as "socialized medicine," said AFSCME union President Gerald McEntee. The audience, heavy with New Yorkers, burst into "boo's" at the mention of Giuliani's name. "They [Republicans] are enriching the members of their party and impoverishing everyone else," roared McEntee. Sensing a good crowd, McEntee explicated the significance of George Bush's middle initial. " "'W' stands for "wicked," "wretched," "worst," and "wrongheaded." Only the elderly, and very busy note-takers, stayed in their seats.

Funds Still Reward Execs for Poor Performance

By Michael Katz

TheStreet.com

6/6/2007 10:54 AM EDT

Few investors want to lavish rewards on corporate executives for a lousy performance. But if you own shares in a mutual fund, there's a good chance you are doing just that. A study of the proxy voting records of 29 mutual fund families by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Corporate Library and the Shareowner Education Group indicates that between July 2005 and June 2006, fund managers backed management-sponsored proposals on executive compensation just over three-quarters, or 75.8%, of the time. That represents a slight uptick from 75.6% during the year-earlier period. "These mutual funds are failing to protect the assets of their clients," says Gerald W. McEntee, president of AFSCME.

Reuters: Mutual funds fail to stop excess CEO pay – study

Financial News: Three investors 'complicit' in excess corporate pay

Boyda: I Have a Big Target on My Back (no link)

By David M. Drucker,

Roll Call

June 6, 2007

Whether House Democrats can sustain and grow their 15-seat majority in 2008 could depend on freshman Rep. Nancy Boyda’s (D- Kansas) ability to hold the Republican-leaning 2nd district in the midst of a GOP onslaught that’s already under way. And Boyda knows it. …… The National Republican Congressional Committee has been running radio ads that attempt to tie Boyda to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — Republican activists here call her “Nancy Squared” — while the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees is up on television with spots defending the Congresswoman.

Palm Beach Post Florida Politics blog (FL): Union Ad Boosts Mahoney

The Patriot-News (PA): Under GOP barrage, freshman Democrats get help

Edwards losing party Dem vote

BY ROBERT NOVAK

Chicago Sun-Times

June 7, 2007

The dynamic performance by John Edwards in last Sunday's Democratic presidential debate, assailing his competitors for the nomination, got high marks from political reporters, Republican politicians and left-wing activists. But not from the Democratic establishment. Once their great hope for the future, Edwards now is massively unpopular among party regulars who neither like nor trust him. …… A politically accident-prone Edwards also has cooled the ardor for him in the labor movement, where an endorsement from the Change to Win coalition led by Andrew Stern and James P. Hoffa now is far less likely than it was last December. Hoffa is reported to still regard Edwards as the most pro-labor presidential candidate, but he now doubts whether Edwards can be nominated.

Book Report: What Hillary Has to Fear

By Jonathan Darman

Newsweek

7:02 p.m. ET June 6, 2007

The soft landing of two major biographies of Sen. Hillary Clinton has calmed jittery supporters. The two books—“A Woman in Charge” by Carl Bernstein and “Her Way” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.—provide thorough, and often critical, looks at the Democratic front runner’s life and career. But they lack the juicy new revelations about the private life of Hillary and her husband that many in political circles had expected. That said, the books do draw out what could be a problem for Clinton in a general election campaign: her perceived weakness as a manager.

Related item from Time: A SIDE-BY-SIDE VIEW OF THE HILLARY CLINTON BIOGRAPHIES

They Know How to Caucus / Teresa Vilmain and Other Experts in an Arcane Presidential Art

By Alec MacGillis

Washington Post

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had a decision to make. After someone in her campaign leaked a memo late last month suggesting that she skip the Iowa caucuses, the New York Democrat needed to show that she was committed to winning the crucial first contest on the presidential nominating calendar. Her campaign repeated at every turn that it was serious about Iowa, pointing out that she had been spending a lot of time in the state. But on Tuesday, it offered the ultimate sign of its intentions: It promoted Teresa Vilmain. Vilmain, 48, has been a near-legend among caucus operatives since she ran Michael S. Dukakis's Iowa campaign two decades ago at the age of 28.

Giuliani Health Proposal Seeks Individual Coverage / Candidate to Unveil Market-Based Plan Easier on Employers (no link)

By LAURA MECKLER and JOHN HARWOOD

Wall Street Journal

June 7, 2007

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, moving his presidential campaign beyond its signature issue of national security, is preparing to lay out a health-care plan that would mark a significant change in how health insurance is paid for in the U.S. Mr. Giuliani, currently leading opinion polls for the 2008 Republican nomination, wants to move tens of millions of people from employer-based health insurance to the individual market as a way of giving people more coverage choices. It is an idea he alluded to in Tuesday's Republican debate in Manchester, N.H., and later expanded on in an interview.

Democrats fail to achieve ‘do-good’ Congress

By Alex Barker and Edward Luce in Washington

Financial Times

June 6 2007 18:06

When they took control of Capitol Hill in January, Democratic leaders heralded the beginning of a “do something, do good” Congress, in contrast to its “do nothing” Republican predecessor that they had ejected in November. Almost six months later Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, has mixed results to show for it. After a burst of activity in its first 100 working hours, the Democratic majority has struggled to break the lock of a divided government to move dozens of proposed bills into law.

Editorial: The Inadequacy of Civil Unions

New York Times

June 7, 2007

A potentially groundbreaking legal battle over Connecticut’s exclusion of gay people from the state’s marriage law has catapulted the debate over same-sex marriage to a new level. Appearing last month before the state’s highest court, a lawyer representing eight same-sex couples led a spirited attack on Connecticut’s refusal to grant gay couples the freedom to marry. He also challenged the notion that civil union laws — like those enacted in Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and most recently New Hampshire — are a constitutionally adequate alternative.

Senate bill would exempt DP benefits from taxable income

The Advocate

June 07, 2007

Two U.S. senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would end federal tax inequities that apply to employer-provided health insurance for domestic partners. Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Gordon Smith from Oregon are the Senate sponsors of the bill, a version of which was introduced into the House in March by Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington State.

New Government Figures Show Unions Winning More Elections

Center for Union Facts LaborPains blog

June 6, 2007

The Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report has some interesting figures that cast doubt on Big Labor’s drive to push the coyly misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act.” The bill would replace secret ballot elections — where employees deciding whether to join a union get an honest-to-goodness vote in private — with an open process subject to intimidation, coercion and confusion. ……. So the real question is: if the rhetoric about winning elections is false, why do union bosses really want to deny working Americans democracy on the job?

Related post from the Nat’l Assoc. of Manufacturers blog: Card Check: Unions Already Winning More Elections

It’s more aptly called the ‘Employee Coercion and Intimidation Act’

By Danielle Ringwood, senior director of legislative affairs of Associated Builders and Contractors and a member of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

The Hill

June 06, 2007

If I were trying to sell you something called the “Employee Coercion and Intimidation Act,” you would most likely not be interested. How could you explain supporting something with a title like that? That’s the question supporters of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) asked themselves when devising the terrible bill that would rob workers of the right to a private-ballot election when deciding whether to join a union. The answer they came up with was simply to give it a nice-sounding name. But a misleading title can only go so far when attempting to deceive America’s workforce.

Federal Workers Protest Contracting Out of Their Jobs

by James Parks

AFL-CIO

Jun 6, 2007

Hundreds of federal employees spent their lunch hour today rallying, chanting and carrying signs in front of the agency that is supposed to be protecting their rights but, instead, is shipping out their jobs to nonunion contractors. Members of AFGE Local 12 rallied outside the U.S. Department of Labor to protest Labor Secretary Elaine Chao’s decision to contract out 250 jobs throughout the department to GAP Solutions Inc.

Change to Win Shutters Lobby Shop (no link)

By Tory Newmyer

Roll Call

June 5, 2007

When five major unions riled the labor movement two years ago by announcing they were splitting off from the AFL-CIO, they explained the move by saying they wanted to focus less on political and lobbying activities and more on organizing. So it struck some as odd this year that Frank Clemente, a former Public Citizen strategist who originally joined the breakaway group to help it develop issue campaigns, registered to lobby for it. Leaders of the group, known as Change to Win, apparently agreed. Just four months after Clemente filed his first lobbying report, they let him go and shuttered the department he was hired to lead.

I.R.S. Moves to Close Tax Shelter Shortly After I.B.M. Uses It to Save $1.6 Billion

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

New York Times

June 7, 2007

For the second time in 12 months, the government has moved to block a tax shelter that had been aimed at converting billions of dollars of corporate profits, on which taxes have yet to be paid, into profits that will never be taxed. The move by the Internal Revenue Service came two days after International Business Machines said that it used the technique to avoid paying $1.6 billion in income taxes.

Another Vote Set On Countrywide's Exec Pay Policies (no link)

Kate Berry

American Banker

June 7, 2007 Thursday

Activists are trying for a second year in a row to get Countrywide Financial Corp. to adopt a proposal that would give shareholders a nonbinding "say on pay" for top executives. The proposal, by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, seeks a "yes" or "no" advisory vote from shareholders at Countrywide's annual meeting June 13. ….. Rich Ferlauto, the union's director of pension and benefit policies, said there is "general shareholder concern" about the compensation of Angelo Mozilo, the Calabasas, Calif., mortgage giant's chairman, chief executive, and co-founder, despite a drop in his base salary and bonus this year.

Reuters: Countrywide urges no shareholder voice on exec pay

Los Angeles Times: Countrywide resists oversight on pay

Ingersoll-Rand shareholders approve vote on pay

Reuters

June 7, 2007

Diversified manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand Co Ltd. (IR.N) said on Wednesday that shareholders approved a motion calling for an annual shareholder vote to ratify the pay packages awarded to its top officers. …… The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees submitted the proposal.

ACS Board Faces Shareholder Opposition Ahead Of Thursday (no link)

By Kaja Whitehouse

Dow Jones News Service

6 June 2007

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) directors are facing election opposition ahead of the company's annual meeting Thursday by shareholders protesting the board's compensation practices. …… "We have serious misgivings about the judgment of directors who serve on compensation committees responsible for the administration and grant of backdated stock option awards," AFSCME said in a May 23 letter to 400 ACS shareholders.

State/Local

New Hampshire House, Senate Approve Card-Check Bill for Public Sector Unions (no link)

BNA Daily Labor Report

June 7, 2007

The New Hampshire House May 31 approved legislation (S.B. 216), already passed by the Senate, that would require public employers to recognize unions that have received written authorization from a majority of employees in a bargaining unit. The measure will go to Gov. John Lynch (D), pending Senate acceptance of House amendments to the original bill. …… Under the version approved by the House, unions could collect "writings signed and dated by employees in the form of authorization cards, petitions, or such other written evidence" deemed suitable by the state Public Employees Labor Relations Board. Signatures would have to be obtained within a six-month period.

Ohio leaders won't require Iran, Sudan divestment

Associated Press (OH)

Wed, Jun. 06, 2007

House Speaker Jon Husted has given four of Ohio's five public pension systems until Thursday to agree to give up half their investments in companies with business ties to Iran and Sudan in exchange for killing a bill that would have made divestment mandatory. …… The funds had criticized the bill, sponsored by freshmen Reps. Josh Mandel and Shannon Jones, as an attempt to drag their investments into politics. "The first and only purpose of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System is to manage the funds it holds in trust in order that the pension and health insurance costs are paid for the exclusive benefit of current employees, retirees and their beneficiaries," said Andy Douglas, executive director of Ohio's largest state employees union, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association.

State lends Youngstown schools $15M / The state will take its money back monthly out of Youngstown's subsidy.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR (OH)

Thursday, June 7, 2007

The good news is the state has come through with $15 million to wipe out the city school district's general fund budget deficit this year. The bad news is the money is only a loan that will have to be repaid over the next two years, so, in reality, the debt isn't gone, only deferred. …… The district also negotiated three-year wage freezes in contracts with its 460 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union workers and its 15 craft union employees.

State law puts county contract in limbo

By LOREN GENSON

Chillicothe Gazette (OH)

June 7, 2007

The Ross County commissioners have not signed a labor contract with union workers in the County Engineer's office due to a state law hampering the negotiations. The law requires all public contracts of more than $500 to include a form signed by the contractor disclosing any donations of more than $1,000 in campaign funding to elected officials involved with the contract. If there are none, a statement must be signed saying there are none. Without the statement, the contract with workers belonging to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, could be rescinded and deemed null and void, said Ross County Prosecutor Mike Ater, who is the county's legal counsel.

MINNESOTA STATE EMPLOYEE HEALTH PLAN TO USE E-PRESCRIBING

Governor Tim Pawlenty news release

June 6, 2007

Taking another step to contain health care costs through technology and electronic medical records, Governor Tim Pawlenty announced today that the State of Minnesota will implement e-prescribing for state employees and their dependents through a new prescription benefits manager. ……. “Unions suggested that the state flex its buying power muscle to cut a better deal on prescription drugs,” explained Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, a union of 19,000 state employees. “Our health care savings will reduce premium increases and help hold down costs for the state and its workers.”

Union turns down last offer by state in salary dispute

By NANCY HICKS

Lincoln Journal Star (NE)

Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007 - 05:15:37 pm CDT

The day before the state and its largest employees union made legal arguments over a wage dispute, state negotiators made one last offer. The state offered to raise salaries by 5 percent each year for workers whose pay was below comparability in that offer made on May 24, according to a letter from Gov. Dave Heineman to top legislative leaders. …… The special master ruled that employees should get up to 10 percent in each of the next two years in order to get salaries comparable to wages paid similar workers in similar states, pointed out Mike Marvin, executive director of NAPE/AFSCME Local 61.

Related article from the Associated Press: Union turns down offer

State workers’ union rolls expand as payment nears

Adam Wilson

The Olympian (WA)

June 06, 2007

More state workers are unionizing just in time to get an earlier raise and pick up a check for $756 next month. The check was meant to reimburse union workers who paid too much in health-insurance costs last year. But people who didn’t incur those costs and sign up in the next month also are eligible for the reimbursement money. Workers in the Health Care Authority have rejoined the Washington Federation of State Employees, reversing their revolt of two years ago over mandatory dues. The union says that reflects renewed interest among state workers in representation. But critics view the lump-sum health-benefits rebate as an unfair incentive to unionize.

Pawtucket union pushes for contract

By: Douglas Hadden

Pawtucket Times (RI)

06/07/2007

Putting faces - and vivid green AFSCME T-shirts - to the anonymous budget lines governing their pay and benefits, members of city union Local 1012 turned out in force Wednesday night to press their case before the City Council that their new contract reached with the city should be given final council approval. Approximately 130 members of the 320-member local, a unit of Council 94 AFSCME, AFL-CIO so jammed the council meeting held in the Municipal Courtroom that not only did 30 people have to stand, but many more spilled over into both side hallways.

Related article from the Providence Journal: Councilor says pact was just tabled

'Wow!' -- State recognizes millions in cost-saving innovation

By Stephen D. Price

Tallahassee Democrat (FL)

June 6, 2007

……. More than 700 state employees attended the event, which this year awarded 490 winners statewide for their innovations and productivity improvements worth $332 million in cost savings, cost avoidances and increased revenue for state government. Cash prizes ranged from $250 to $2,000 and winners received plaques and commendation certificates for thinking of better ways to do their job. …… This year's awards come after a legislative session in which state workers did not receive a raise, but a one-time payment of $1,000, which after taxes works out to $673 each employee.

Group Says Tax Cuts Will Hurt Many

John Kennedy

Orlando Sentinel Central Florida Political Pulse

Jun 6, 2007 1:10:54 PM

…… While legislative leaders have been quietly shopping ideas back-and-forth in recent weeks -- all behind closed-doors, the anxiety over lost revenue has been rising among cities and counties. Many have have already imposed hiring freezes, which are affecting local economies, said Doug Martin, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the state's public employees' union. "Currently, hiring has ceased across the state," Martin said. "And this is a big sector of our economy, the public sector."

Gainesville Sun: Social workers pushing back against tax cuts

Daytona Beach News Journal: Poll: Floridians counting on big tax cut

Union, city continue fight over longevity pay

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake (MT)

Thursday, Jun 07, 2007

A significant number of unhappy City of Kalispell employees plan to take their complaints about troubled contract talks directly to the city council on June 18. Also, they plan to set up informational pickets later this month to take their case on the final sticking issue — longevity pay — to the public. …….. The 73 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local No. 256 have been working for the City of Kalispell under a contract that expired June 30, 2006 — and a three-year clock will start when a new one is signed. Contract talks have been underway since April 2006.

Same-sex benefits changing / Universities look for ways to stay within the new law

BY DAWSON BELL

Detriot FREE PRESS (MI)

June 7, 2007

Michigan public employers who have traditionally provided health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of their workers are gradually changing or dropping coverage after two court rulings that such benefits violate the state's marriage amendment. But response has differed across the state depending on circumstances, including whether the employees are covered by a union contract and the timing of contract expirations.

Senate panel votes to privatize foster care, juvenile justice

Associated Press (MI)

June 6, 2007 6:54 PM ET

State Senate Republicans want to privatize more of Michigan's foster care, adoption and juvenile justice systems in next year's state budget. Republican say the proposal would save money in the next fiscal year, while Democrats worry the bill would relinquish too much public oversight of critical programs and cost more than 800 state employees their jobs.

A cure for road rage: close road

By Hector Becerra and Tony Barboza

Los Angeles Times (CA)

June 7, 2007

It started last year when Caltrans began widening California 138, a main east-west route in Southern California's fast-growing high desert region. Motorists angry at construction delays threatened road workers and damaged equipment. Also, flagmen have been attacked in what officials describe as bizarre incidents of road rage. Two workers were hit by cars and a third was shot with a BB gun. …… One motorist threatened to climb a water tower and shoot workers with a high-powered rifle, said Terri Kasinga, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

SEIU Has Little Love for the Taxpayers

Center for Union Facts LaborPains blog

June 6, 2007

A large chunk of dues money for SEIU leaders comes from the paychecks of government employees — which means it’s actually the public paying those bills. Union officials are thus put in the position of holding up the public for greater and greater sums (precipitating, among other things, a vast entitlements crisis). Today’s episode comes from the Ventura County Star in California.

__________________________________________________________________________

AFSCME Information Center

Department of Research & Collective Bargaining Services

American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees