February 2004 - News

This is the first monthly newsletter that Local 552 has mailed out for several months. There are many reasons for this. The most important is we have several members who have currently or could potentially lose their jobs. In order to defend these members, we may have to file for arbitration to appeal their potential dismissal. AFSCME Local 552 has not had to do this in over ten years. At that time, the cost of an arbitration averaged $3000.00. Our newsletter is the most costly monthly expense we have. To save money, we may not be mailing the newsletter out as often as we have in the past. However, we do have a web site which costs our local less than one monthly newsletter for a year of operation, yet fewer than ten people per week access this web site. If you want current and up to date information on your union local, please check our web site at www.afscme552.org for the most current and up to date information.

Here we are one month into 2004. As a bargaining unit we can look forward to no cost of living increase, which for two-thirds of our members means no raise in salary. In 2005, if you have to cover your family with health insurance, an increases in that premium will definitely cause a decrease in your monthly take home pay. I often hear the question what can we do to stop this?

Well, on March 2, 2004, Minnesota holds precinct caucuses. A precinct caucus, for folks who have never attended one, is basically a neighborhood meeting by political party affiliation. In Minnesota, we have four major political parties: the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, the Republican party, the Independence Party, and, the Green Party. Anyway, while I certainly have a favorite political party here, please understand that I, as a person, do not dislike union members who choose to affiliate with another party. As a union, we need our members to understand our common goals and objectives. It is essential that our members take these issues to their
own precinct caucuses and convince the other members of their political subdivisions that we all want to make Minnesota and the good old USA a better place to live and raise our children.

The first question we need to answer is can we continue to accept a 0% cost of living adjustment in our collective bargaining agreements. DFL ers, Republicans, Independence, and Green Party members need to understand that as public employees, we have accepted substandard wage and benefit increases for more than a decade. In the 1990's, while many saw large pay increases, we received very little while our workloads increased far beyond the accepted capacities that we worked in the 1970's and 1980's. I know my friends and neighbors are shocked to hear that all convicted felons do not receive probation supervision, let alone any period of incarceration.

The day that only level-3 sex offenders receive meaningful probation and parole supervision is not just around the corner, but staring us in the face! Do our, and our neighbors, sons and daughters need to be kidnapped and murdered before the people in St. Paul and Washington D.C. wake up and realize that by providing early and meaningful probation and parole intervention in offenders lives mean that we can actually prevent these tragedies from occurring in the first place?

We, the members of AFSCME Local 552 make our livelihood out of convincing people, who do not want to change, to make changes that not only make their lives better, but improve the quality of the lives of all of the people who live in the communities we serve, lessening the risk our clients pose to the communities. Why, I ask you, can't we convince our friends and neighbors that the services we provide is valuable and should be continued? The answer to this question is WE CAN! Attend your precinct caucus, like you do with your clients, convince your friends and neighbors that we can build a better community, but we all get what we pay for!

AFSCME Day on the Hill is Thursday March 11, 2004. Last year, we had ten Local 552 members attend this event in which over 1500 other AFSCME members also attended. You can sign up by attending our February union meeting on February 19, 2004 at 12:30 PM in HSB room 110. If you do not want to spend an entire day at the capital. MCA and MACPO are also sponsoring a Capital Day on Wednesday February 25, 2004. From 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM, you can attend a breakfast with your lawmakers. Seating for this event is limited, so please contact Sherry Munyon at Capital Hill Associates, as soon as possible, if you would like to attend this exciting corrections event!

What could be the very last AFSCME Council 14 convention will be held on March 12th and 13th 2004. I say it could be the last one, because the four Minnesota AFSCME councils are currently in merger talks. The end result may be a new merged council. Local 552 has six delegates to this convention. At the January union meeting, Pat Guernsey, Cate Wagner, and Will McDonald were nominated to attend. We still have two openings! Nominations will be open again at the general union meeting on February 19, 2004.

2004 promises to be a year with many changes. Many of us will be moved around, caseloads are certain to rise and the stress level will be high. We must strive to work together to solve our problems, focus on who actually created them and unite to find a solution. Lets help each other get there. That is what being a union is all about.