Local 21 EXPRESS
April 2016
How Many Times Do San Jose City Employees Have to Win, to Win?
Last week, the Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Beth McGowen announced that she approved and signed the Police Officers Association’s Order and Final Judgment in the quo warranto action which declares San Jose City Measure B null and void.
In addition, Judge McGowen denied a last minute application to intervene filed last month by former San Jose City Councilman Pete Constant and the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association (financed by billionaire Charles Munger Jr.). These same people who took the original illegal action have a hard time giving up.
It has been a very long and painful road we have embarked upon together in our fight against Measure B and its destructive effects on the City of San Jose. But this major development means that Measure B will be removed from the books. This is a major victory for Local 21 and all the litigant Unions. Congratulations to our Leaders who have spent countless hours over the past couple of years resolving this ill-conceived attack on our members.
This is also a major rebuke to former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and his political and financial attacks on working men and women of this City. While he continues to push his anti-worker agenda through the State and elsewhere, this victory for our Union, and the residents of San Jose, should show everyone that Reed and friends stand for divisive and baseless ideologies.
Alameda County PACE Members – First Ever Contract Campaign Stepping Up the Pressure
Representing over a hundred and fifty social services professionals in Alameda County, the PACE bargaining team is close to securing a new multi-year contract. The agreement will be the conclusion of a strategic campaign that integrated communication, political, research, and negotiation efforts all to advance membership interests. Over the last few years PACE worker caseloads have skyrocketed while overall compensation has been frozen. To ensure management was aware of the issues at stake on March 29th PACE members gathered at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting in a show of unity and delivered over hundred signed petitions asking management to negotiate a fair agreement. PACE’s current bargaining proposals aim to address members concerns through a fair wage increase and special compensation for classes that have fallen severely below market. The next bargaining session is scheduled for the end of April where we hope to make significant progress towards an agreement.
Pace Members pack the Board of Supervisors Meeting
PACE also wants to send a huge THANK YOU to retiring President Jaime Leon, whose last day at the agency was March 31st. We wish him well and want to acknowledge his incredibly valuable years of service to his fellow PACE members, to Alameda County residents, and to the Agency. All of us owe Jaime a great debt of gratitude, and those of us lucky enough to have worked with Jaime will miss him greatly. Fortunately, Jaime is going to continue working with the bargaining team even in his retirement.
4,000 San Francisco Members See 3.25% Salary Increase and 1% Reduction in Pension Contribution.
For the third and final year of Local 21's three year contract with San Francisco , the Consumer Price Index formula produced a 3% raise and the contact provided for a .25% bump up from the CPI. In addition, the “floating” pension contribution formula resulted in a 1% employee contribution reduction. As a result, Local 21 SF members will see a 4.25% increase in pay except those employees hired before 2009 who will see that reduced by .25% to pay for a new employee contribution to retiree health. New employees hired after 2009 already make a contribution towards their retiree health and the combination of contributions is helping to wipe out a $4 billion long term deficit enabling the retiree health program to be self-funded within 30 years under a plan worked out between Local 21, the city and several other SF city unions.
In San Francisco the Fight Against Sutter’s New HMO is Heating Up – Watch out for Sutter to Show Up in Your Jurisdiction
The fight to keep Sutter Health’s new HMO, “Sutter Health Plus,” out of San Francisco is heating up as Local 21 and other unions across the city urge their members to take a stand against this anti-union corporation. At the January SF Health Services System board meeting, Sutter Health offered their new HMO to city workers. This HMO would compete with Kaiser, a very union friendly employer.
While Local 21 and other city unions normally appreciate more competition in the healthcare market for our members, we immediately realized that Sutter Health Plus would be a dangerous given Sutter’s long history of union busting, and tooth and nail opposition against healthcare transparency at the state level. To make matters worse, they are currently the subject of a class-action lawsuit, headed up by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) trust, which alleges Sutter has overcharged patients by millions of dollars through anti-trust and anti-competitive market behavior.
If Sutter succeeds in offering their HMO to SF city workers, we believe other jurisdictions will soon be next. Sutter’s track record both in the marketplace and at the bargaining table proves they can’t be trusted.
San Francisco city and county employee unions who are a part of the Public Employee Committee have already pledged to do what they can to keep this price-gouging corporation out of our healthcare market, but we need your help! Go to http://bit.do/stopsutter and sign the petition encouraging the HSS board to vote NO at their next meeting. If you are in San Francisco, come speak out at the May 12th HSS Board Meeting 1pm City Hall Rm 416.
Local 21 Staff News…….
Local 21 Research/Communications/Education Director Mike Seville Leaving for High Level Oregon ASFCME Post
Talk about mixed feelings – Research, Communications and Education Director Mike Seville was chosen recently to head up ASFCME’s statewide Oregon Council representing more than 25,000 Oregon public employees and one of the most prominent unions in the state. As proud of Mike and as excited for him as we are, it is a major loss for Local 21 and we will miss him greatly on a professional and personal level. “Mike has emerged as a seasoned labor attorney and skilled negotiator in addition to managing research, communications and educational programs for Local 21.” wrote Local 21 Executive Director Bob Muscat to the Local 21 Executive Committee and staff. Mike has made an enormous contribution to Local 21 members over his ten plus years working here.
Research, Communications and Education Director Mike Seville
Local 21 Admin Organizing and Communications Specialist Michelle Hatfield wins South Bay Labor Council Award
Over the last six years Michelle Hatfield has played an increasingly important role for Local 21 in the San Jose office. Now others are beginning to notice and she recently received the South Bay Labor Council’s “Young Leader Award” in recognition of her work increasing the political volunteer base from a handful of Local 21 South Bay members to 150 members who walk door to door and make phone calls to voters on behalf of Labor’s candidates. She serves on the SBLC COPE Committee and had has volunteered untold hours in critical Labor Council campaigns. Congratulations Michelle!
Admin Organizing and Communications Specialist Michelle Hatfield
New Oakland Lead Rep: Karmen Lee Ortloff
The plane crash that killed Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002 was hardly a fleeting news event for Karmen Lee Ortloff, Local 21’s new lead representative for Oakland and other East Bay chapters. Close friends of Ortloff -- the liberal senator, his wife and the Associate Chair of the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor (the name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota) Party -- perished in the tragedy, which essentially sent Ortloff into a whole new stratosphere of organizing.
Lead Oakland Representative Karmen Lee Ortloff
“I had always been involved in politics in Minnesota since I was a kid. It is the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party in Minnesota and the ‘L’ still means something,” Ortloff says. “And at the darkest moment, when all my political friends were mourning the loss of our friends in the plane crash, we wiped the tears and started to organize a big memorial that night at the state capitol with 10,000-plus people and for the rest of our lives. That is analogous to the labor movement; at our darkest moments, we need to organize.” For the past 13 years, Ortloff has been a top-notch labor educator, contract negotiator, and business representative for labor unions in the private and public sectors.
She takes over an area in which more than 900 public employees fall under the Local 21 banner. As the result of a recent two-year contract agreement, Local 21 Oakland members received a 4 percent pay boost last November and a one-time $1,100 “revenue sharing” payout this year. The contract is topped off with a second 4% raise in January 14, 2017.
IFPTE Local 21 Welcomes Sean Stalbaum, New South Bay Union Representative / Organizer
Sean has spent the last 18 years with the California Association of Professional Employees (CAPE, AFL-CIO) where he gained extensive experience organizing and representing supervisory and non-supervisory engineers, engineering technicians, planners, appraisers and numerous other professional and technical job categories at Los Angeles County— all of which makes him a natural fit for IFPTE’s professional membership.
Sean joins a team in the San Jose Local 21 office that includes and Lead Representative/Organizer Stanley Young and Administrative, Organizing & Communications Specialist Michelle Hatfield. Sean replaces Lamoin Werlein-Jaen as the Representative for Local 21's AEA, AMSP and CAMP Chapters. Lamoin recently departed Local 21 to join the teaching staff at the University of California Labor Studies Program.
 South Bay Organizer Sean Stalbaum
“I’m thrilled to join such a dynamic and intelligent Union and to have this opportunity to utilize my knowledge and experience working for the betterment of IFPTE Members’ careers,” says Sean.
“At CAPE, I had the unique opportunity to help rebuild what had been a struggling union,” Sean says. “We organized, improved representation services, more than tripled membership, and won agency shop as well as ran numerous contract and political action campaigns. Working together with CAPE’s Members, elected leaders, we successfully transformed CAPE into a force in Los Angeles County labor.” Sean and his wife of 14 years, Judy, have an 8-year-old son, Dylan.
|
