Pay, worker rights and privatization among issues

It has been a busy spring for AFT Public Employees locals across the country. From lobby days to rallies at state capitols, public employees are answering the union's calls for legislative action that educates lawmakers about their work, their issues and most of all, quality public services.

Highlights of these activities include:
A state employee rally in Madison, Wis., which drew several thousand unionized government employees who are frustrated with Gov. Jim Doyle who continues to move forward with plans to cut jobs and outsource work to the private sector. The rally was jointly hosted by AFT-Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Employees Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

"Today's 'leaders' need to realize that you get what you pay for in public services and that without good public services, Wisconsin's quality of life is headed downhill," said AFT-Wisconsin president Bob Beglinger.

To date, AFT-Wisconsin has thwarted the governor's privatization plans for members' jobs, including physicians and dentists who work for the Department of Corrections and employees who work for the state lottery.

In the midst of challenging Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposal to change public employee retirement benefits (see related story), the Illinois Federation of Public Employees (IFPE) was busy fighting for members' jobs at the state Department of Military Affairs.

Terry Reed, an IFPE field service director, says, "Persistent pressure on the governor's office by the union to rescind the layofffs or face pickets and a massive campaign exposing the ill-planned layoffs" were contributing factors to the governor's decision to call off the layoffs.

Reed says union members also called state and federal lawmakers to protest the plan, and the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Labor Relations Board charging the state with failure to bargain.

AFT Connecticut hosted three lobby days-one in April, one in May and a third in June. Among their priorities: educating lawmakers about their responsibilities to enact a fair tax system that will provide adequate revenue, which is needed to support quality public services.

Specifically, the union supports efforts to reform the state income tax by adding graduated steps for wealthier citizens with incomes starting at $250,000 a year and legislation to reinstate the estate tax. Failure to reinstate the estate tax will cost $190 million a year, according to AFT Connecticut.

Other legislative priorities include passage of clean contracting legislation that standardizes rules for contracting with the private sector to do government work and creates a new oversight board with the authority to ban contractors implicated in corrupt practices from doing business with the state.

The Kansas Association of Public Employees held a lobby day in March to petition lawmakers to approve adequate pay increases for state employees and reject attempts by the university system to undermine civil service rights and protections for workers at six Kansas universities.

Among those lobbying lawmakers that day was William Glover, a custodian specialist and president of KAPE's Kansas State University chapter, which represents about 150 university employees.

"When you go to work for the state, you think you are going to get fair pay and good benefits," says Glover. "But the pay has never been good and the working conditions are not the best." He adds: "If we are going to go anyplace with working men and women, we are going to have to organize and we are going to have to show solidarity in fighting for our rights, our pay and our benefits."