OFFICE EMPLOYEE LEADERS DISCUSS TOP CONCERNS

Fourteen leaders from AFT affiliates that represent office employees spent two days at the national union’s headquarters in late February discussing a range of serious issues that secretarial staff face on the job and in their unions. The office employee task force members, who represent workers in both K-12 and higher education, identified excessive workloads, job cuts, health and safety concerns (such as indoor air quality and ergonomics), lack of training opportunities and rising health insurance costs as some key issues.

The meeting included a lively presentation from Dorothy Wakemore, a Canadian health and safety expert, who led members through an exercise in which they physically “mapped” the health and safety hazards in their workplaces using paper, string, colored markers and stickers. This was the latest in a series of meetings organized by the AFT PSRP division to bring together leaders from specific job classifications. The meetings help the division develop programs for each job category and shape the PSRP program and policy council’s discussions.

750 PARAPROFESSIONALS AFFILIATE WITH EDUCATION MINNESOTA

A large group of paraprofessionals in the suburban Minneapolis district of Osseo voted in March to affiliate with Education Minnesota. The formerly independent Osseo Educational Professionals represents about 750 paraprofessionals. For more than 10 years, the AFT and the Minnesota Federation of Teachers had tried to affiliate the union, but many of its members were military spouses (a base is nearby), so the resulting high membership turnover made it hard to organize. But the current campaign, led by Education Minnesota—the joint AFT-NEA state affiliate—spanned 18 months before the successful vote.

Among the key issues: strengthening the union’s negotiating, job security, professional development and lobbying, according to Education Minnesota organizer Michelle Duke. A separate union, Education Minnesota-Osseo, already represents teachers, health specialists and early childhood instructors in the district.

EL PASO FEDERATION USES BUDGET ANALYSIS TO DEFEAT CONTRACTING

When the school district administration in El Paso started raising concerns about a deficit in the food service department, the El Paso Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel didn’t just accept that as fact. The union discovered that the “deficit” was coming from budget items such as utilities and the salaries of maintenance workers who worked on kitchen equipment. In reality, there was no deficit. The union had been especially concerned because they viewed the alarm over the budget as laying the groundwork for privatizing food service operations.

In the morning on the same day the school board was to meet to discuss the issue, the union held a press conference to get out the real budget facts. At the board meeting—packed with food service workers—administrators reluctantly admitted there was no deficit, and board members unanimously rejected the idea of looking at private contractors for food service. “If you get the public and the board the true and correct information, they will do the right thing,” says local president Francis Wever.