From the Desk of the Secretary

To:       All Local 749 Members
From:   Ian Shackleton, Secretary
Date:    July 14, 2011

Brothers and Sisters,

Today, the Presidents and some officers of the AFSCME Locals met at Council 4.  This Presidents + 1 meeting has become a weekly occurrence since the failure to ratify the SEBAC Tentative Agreement.  The general intent of these meetings has been of strategy moving forward, and open communication between AFSCME and its Locals, in both directions.

There has been some very significant progress to come out of these meetings, and a lot of it is reaching culmination.  There are 4 main items:

The first point is nothing new.  AFSCME has always fought hard in the General Assembly to promote legislation in favor of Public Employees and the working class, and fought just as vehemently against legislation that would harm us.  The landscape is different, though, and we find ourselves with less friends in the General Assembly, and with a mountain of legislation poised to strip us of rights and benefits to be fought.  AFSCME continues to do its work on this front, and is always looking for assistance.  If you're willing to spend a day at the Capital, please find out more through the Council 4 website at http://council4.org.

The second point involves the whole of union leadership looking in the mirror and identifying fault.  We have identified a number of communication breakdowns, and are all working diligently to correct these, so that if there is a new agreement struck, or for any future issue like this or of any other kind, we can accurately and quickly provide our members with solid, timely, and undisputed information.  Our goal is to have information available to our members, from their unions, before they have to read it in the newspaper.  This is no small challenge in an age of instantaneous media, but we will make our best effort.  A way to assist in this is to join our mailing list:  Email me (from your personal account) at ianscott76@gmail.com, with the subject "Local 749", and include your name, job title, and work location.  This will allow us to include you in any of our updates and important bulletins, and I promise not to spam you with unnecessary emails.  You can ask your coworkers who already receive said updates; I limit what I send to important updates, and try to only sent hard facts.

The third point is simply that we're not giving up yet.  That is not to say we are "re-voting" anything.  SEBAC has cast their votes and the SEBAC T.A. that we voted on June 15 has been defeated.  However, understanding the significant issues to be had with that T.A., AFSCME has begun work to make proposals toward a new T.A.

We cannot say it will be a "better deal"; concessions are never good.  But the intent is to draft a proposal without the significant pitfalls of the last, one of the most significant being Healthcare.  And we are not alone in this effort; your brothers and sisters in the State Police are involved in similar work.  We are hoping, not to invalidate those who voted no, but to propose a new agreement that respects and adjusts to the reasons behind a no vote.  This isn't an easy undertaking.  Not only do we have to create a proposal that can overcome the significant and justified anger surrounding the last T.A., but we are doing this in a vacuum, not knowing if the Governor's Office, or the unions who backed the first agreement, are even receptive to re-negotiation.  Which brings me to the last point...

On Monday, SEBAC will be voting to amend their bylaws.  The Governor's Office has made statements to a willingness to renegotiate being tied to "SEBAC looking into their bylaws".  The idea of SEBAC amending their bylaws from the current, and oft misunderstood by the media, 80% standard, to one of a simple majority, would make passing any minor modification of the last T.A. a simple matter, but would forever cripple Collective Bargaining and Public Employee rights in this state.  The damage would be catastrophic.  Any future Governor, or even Malloy himself for that matter, could reopen, or even cut, pension and health care benefits with a simple layoff threat.  Imagine 3 years from now, the next Governor wants to drop pensions entirely in favor of 401k's.  He threatens 10,000 more layoffs if we don't give them up.  In a simple majority ratification situation, he could do it... easily.

SEBAC votes Monday on this proposed change to its bylaws.  AFSCME, through Sal Luciano, will be voting against any such change.  Much like in the ratification vote, Sal's vote is weighted to reflect ASFCME's overwhelming numbers and 28% of State Employees, but the standard on a bylaws change is 66% as opposed to 80% on the agreement.  AFSCME alone does not have the power to prevent such a change.

On Monday we will find out 2 important things that significantly impact how we move forward:  The result of SEBAC's bylaws vote, and the Governor's response to it.  Our hope is that all sides see the intrinsic value in the current format, and that SEBAC does not change its bylaws, yet Governor Malloy is willing to return to the table.  I can make no guarantee about either of them, but will make the information on both points available as quickly as possible following the respective decisions.

Yours in Solidarity,

Ian

Ian Scott Shackleton
Recording Secretary,
Webmaster, Steward
Local 749, AFSCME
http://local749.org
ianscott76@gmail.com