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Make
It a Union-Made Memorial Day Barbecue
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June,
2013
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From
the desk of Local 34 President Jean Diederich
June,
2013
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Updated
5/8/2013
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Join
AFSCME Next Wave And Keep the Wave Rolling
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African
American Labor History
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Minnesota
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Labor
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Labor
Day History
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Screening
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AFSCME
Local 34 5/23/2013
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Monday,
May 27th is Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day when we
remember the men and women who died while serving in the
United States Armed Forces. There are a number of ceremonies
being held across the state.
Working
men and women have strength in numbers and the goal of our
legislative and political efforts is organizing that
strength to win the good pay, retirement security, safe work
environments, broad access to quality education for our
children and much more. By mobilizing through the union
movement’s state-level and nationwide get-out-the-vote
effort, union members elect candidates who support and will
enact a working families’ agenda.
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Possible
unionization vote among child-care providers!
After
a debate that took nearly 10 hours over three legislative
days, the Minnesota House of Representatives approved
historic legislation that extends
collective-bargaining rights to family child-care providers
and personal care attendants. The bill passed 68-66 after
surviving 20 Republican amendments trying to undermine it.
With the victory – which was eight years in the making –
about 11,000 family child-care providers gain the ability to
vote on forming a union to act with a unified voice to
improve the future for providers, children, and working
parents. The law covers licensed and unlicensed providers
who care for children in the state’s basic sliding fee
program. A
handful of Democrats voted no along with all the House
Republicans, who waged an intense floor fight against the
daycare unionization drive. The issue drew demonstrators to
the Capitol from both sides of the issue.The bill became the
sticking point of the 2013 session, taking 17 hours of
debate in the Senate and three separate long debates in the
House.
Republican opponents had 119
amendments lined up to undermine the collective-bargaining
bill. The most bizarre - proposals attempting to buy off
supporters by allocating $2 million in state money to the
DFL, or to AFSCME and SEIU, if the unions gave up their
organizing drives. The
Senate had already passed the bill and Democratic Governor Mark Dayton
has now signed it into law. The bill sets up possible
unionization votes among child-care providers who get state
subsidies, and separately among care attendants to the
elderly and disabled. Congratulations to Local 3400, CCPT
(Child Care Providers Together) on this positive result
after all of your hard work over the past eight years!!! ~
AFSCME |
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One
of the most productive legislative sessions for working
Minnesotans! The
2013 Minnesota Legislature adjourned at midnight on
Monday, bringing to a close one of the most productive
legislative sessions for working Minnesotans in a
generation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO said.
“After
a decade of devastating cuts, budget gimmicks, and
giveaways to corporate special interests, Governor Dayton
and the DFL majority in the Legislature passed a budget
that restores cuts, invests in jobs and education, and
makes taxes fairer for middle class Minnesotans,” said
Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson. “Minnesota
won’t turn around overnight, but the 2013 session was an
enormous step forward.”
The
DFL Legislature passed bills that will help countless
numbers of working people in Minnesota, including:
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A 26 week extension of unemployment benefits for any
worker whose employer locks them out
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Agreement between labor and business on worker’s
compensation reform that increases benefits to injured
workers and finally recognizes psychological trauma as a
workplace injury
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The right for childcare providers and personal care
attendants to vote on whether they want to form a union
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Investments in job creation tools, an infrastructure
bonding bill, and key construction projects like the Mall
of America expansion
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Closing corporate tax loopholes, reducing property taxes,
and ensuring the richest pay their fair share in taxes
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A monumental investment in E-12 education, including the
guarantee of all-day kindergarten in every public
elementary school
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Significant funding increases for MnSCU and the U of M,
which will enable a tuition freeze for students,
significant increases in the state grant and aid program,
and passage of the Dream Act
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Ensuring highly trained professionals run passenger rail
service
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Guaranteeing the freedom to marry to all loving and
committed couples
While
this was a productive session, one major disappointment
was the Minnesota Senate’s failure to work with Governor
Dayton and the House on a meaningful minimum wage
increase.
“Hundreds
of thousands of low-wage working Minnesotans and their
families who deserve a pay raise are extremely
disappointed in the Senate’s failure to agree to a
meaningful minimum wage increase,” Knutson said.
“Between now and the 2014 session, our coalition will be
having conversations with lawmakers and their constituents
about why a significant minimum wage increase is good for
workers, small businesses, and our entire state." ~
Workday Minnesota |
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Making
taxes fair!
While our landmark collective-bargaining bill grabbed most
of the attention, the Legislature also passed another
long-time AFSCME goal - making taxes fair. The omnibus tax
bill makes sure corporations and the state’s richest
households do more to pay their fair share, while it
provides tax relief to the middle-class. The bill adds a
fourth income tax rate for the top 2 percent – those with
average taxable incomes of $617,000 a year. The bill also
closes a major corporate tax loophole, adds a sales tax for
some business-to-business transactions, levels the playing
field for local merchants by taxing internet sales, provides
direct property tax relief to homeowners and renters and
provides additional property tax relief through higher local
government aid (LGA) and other state payments to communities
and school districts. ~ AFSCME
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New
Trustee: Douglas
Graham was elected to fill the one year Trustee position
vacated by Katie Farber when she retired. Please join us in
thanking Doug for stepping forward to fill this important
position for our local.
Union
Leadership Program:
Reminder that the deadline for applications to the Minnesota
Union Leadership Program is May 31st. Local 34 will cover the
costs for this program for two of our members if they are
accepted into the program. This is one of the agenda items for
our June 19, 2013 Executive Board meeting.
Contract
Vote:
there will be a vote on one issue only at the June 5, 2013
General Assembly - Clinical Nurse Specialists wage adjustment.
Since this is a change to our contract, we will hold a special
vote at the June 5th General Assembly to approve that change.
Master
Negotiations Committee:
We have been meeting for the past few months and have agreed
to a number of proposals for the contract. We have agreed that
each Local will bring their final supplemental proposal items
to the next meeting on June 6th. That means that we will spend
the first 1/2
hour of our General Assembly on June 5th to finalize our Local
34 supplemental issues. Please bring your suggestions to the
meeting. The Master Negotiations Committee will wrap up their
work at the June 6th and June 24th meetings. After that, the
final contract proposal will be polished and readied for
presentation to the Employer at our first Negotiations meeting
on August 12th.
Health
Insurance:
Our self
insured reserves continue to grow at a steady rate. I think
that we can safely say that you - the employees - are helping
to hold down the costs by watching the costs of the services
you and your families use.
Retirement
and Dental Insurance: There
has been a change in the process for dental insurance through
the union. At such time as you are officially retired from
Hennepin County, you will be contacted by mail with the
information about enrolling in the dental program as a
retiree.
Health
Care Savings Account for Severance Pay:
Stephen Cook and Jacquelin Poole are the chairs of the ad hoc
committee working on the education of the membership about
what such a plan would entail. Please contact them if you are
interested in serving on that committee.
Thank
you’s
were given to Katie Farber, Cathy Cowden and Joe Weston for
their years of service given to the Local.
Are
You New to the County?
Just Transferred into Local 34? To sign up as a union member,
or to get answers to questions about AFSCME and membership
benefits, please contact Heather Hemmer, Local 34 Membership
Secretary.
Twinkies
- Union No More: The
new owners of Twinkies snack cakes announced last week they
will re-open four shuttered production plants in the coming
months, but have no intention of doing business with the labor
unions that have represented the workers at those bakeries for
generations.
Coverage
Changes Pending for Some County Employees:
The Hennepin County Board will direct staff to align its
policies, procedures, and employee benefit coverage with state
law, pending the August 1st implementation of the Freedom to
Marry bill. Special thanks to Commissioners Peter Mclaughlin,
Jan Callison, Gail Dorfman, and Linda Higgins for their
support of this action. |
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Money
and power has concentrated at record levels while most Americans
are struggling to pay the electric bill. Why do the
rest of us stand for it?
“We’re
conscious of the injustice, but not fully conscious of it,
because frankly, we have enough to worry about in our own
lives. As such, we’ve come to accept these injustices as
simple facts of life – prepackaged side effects of the human
condition, as natural and intertwined with our existence as
water to a stream, beyond our capacity to affect in any
significant way.” ~ Mike David |
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John
Herzog - WEB Developer
AFSCME Local 34,
P.O. Box 15222, Commerce Station, Mpls., Mn. 55415
There is,
of course, no guarantee of success. But politics is not about
observations or predictions. Politics is what we create, by what we do,
what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine." ~ Paul Wellstone
Have a great day
and thank you for visiting our union's website!
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