Mar 1, 1998

It’s is a big bargaining year in the public sector as well as telecommunications. In 1998 CWA public and health care workers will lobby, negotiate and mobilize for job security, better pay and benefits and improved working conditions for thousand of members.

Clerical, administrative and social workers; university staff, corrections officiers, parking meter readers — the list of occupations continues to grow along with CWA’s largest sector, presently numbering some 85,000 members.

CWA’s public workers are employed by states, counties and municipalities, each with its own set of laws governing labor relations. Privatization threatens public workers at every turn, with defense contractors such as Lockheed-Martin peddling high-tech services, and Aramark, a well-connected provider of food services for government institutions, expanding by subcontracting for health care and social service jobs. Moreover, many CWA nurses and medical personnel bargain with private employers, where managed care and consolidation of facilities threaten to eliminate positions.

“Our members are fighting for job security, raises and a better quality worklife,” said Brooks Sunkett, CWA’s vice president for public and health care workers. “Mobilization is the key to victory. We need every public sector member involved.”

The financial picture for many states, is strong, Sunkett explained, and states have had a windfall from welfare reform.

“Part of our challenge,” he added, “is to make sure this money not be squandered on tax cuts for big business and the wealthy.”

Contracts nationwide expire this year for nearly 50 small to mid-size bargaining units representing some 4,000 CWA public and health care workers. Thousands more in states with no collective bargaining law will lobby state legislatures and local governments for a better deal.

In June 1999, contracts expire for 35,000 public workers in the state of New Jersey. Said CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino, “We know next year’s bargaining will be tough, but we’ll be ready.”

At the Bargaining Table
UPTE/CWA Local 9119 is currently bargaining a first contract for 3,800 research professionals at all nine campuses of the University of California.

The University Professional and Technical Employees have focused on eight primary issues identified by UPTE members, with wages, layoffs, training and development, and transfers, promotions and reclassifications topping the list.

CWA Representative Libby Sayre, who heads the bargaining committee, said they hope to soon have a contract settlement but that there are job security and fairness issues to be resolved.

Local President Jelger Kalmijn, a member of the bargaining unit, said, “The university’s proposals are not just bad for researchers, they’re bad for research as well.”
Following bargaining talks Jan. 29 and 30, Sayre and bargaining team members Pete Livingston, Bernard Cleyet, Jim Lutz and Richard Autio detailed in a letter to management their objections.

Management “poison pills” include a proposal to eliminate seniority as a protection against layoffs and to allow supervisors to rewrite job descriptions and decrease the salary of researchers who, with hope of gaining a promotion, request job reclassification.

“Our team believes that UPTE members would not ratify an agreement that so dramatically and unequivocally undermines the union’s ability to protect the jobs of its members,” write the local’s bargaining reps.

CWA’s District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, last summer, personally lobbied the lieutenant governor and mobilized CWA locals to help UPTE win a first contract for 4,000 technical workers. He is prepared to take a similar approach alongside UPTE researchers.

“The university must understand that the full power of CWA stands behind its members in UPTE,” said Bixler. “Our legislative clout, combined with our member activism, makes us a force to be reckoned with.”

UPTE also this month begins bargaining for 2,000 healthcare workers at UC medical centers.

Confronting the State House
CWA’s Missouri State Workers Union just completed what for their unit is the closest thing to bargaining. Every three years Local 6355 goes through what is called a meet-and-confer process. It yields a resolution, somewhat similar to a contract, which sets the ground rules for labor relations.

The local represents 6,700 Missouri Department of Social Services workers: eight divisions in 400 offices spread over 115 counties.

Local President Judy Gregory and a team of members including income maintenance, child support and youth services specialists, began meeting in June with representatives of Gov. Mel Carnahan, managers and personnel staff.

“There were times when the meetings were contentious — we didn’t know we’d agree,” says Gregory. “But we managed to keep our cool.”

They came away with 24 new titles, a union security clause, extended time to file grievances and the right to examine personnel files.

But the real work of fighting for raises takes place annually in the legislature.

“We’re going to have a big lobby day April 1,” said Gregory. “We’re not working for peanuts anymore.”

On April Fools’ Day, the local plans to bus in workers from across the state for a rally at the state capitol in Jefferson City. Members will comb the halls of the statehouse, pigeonholing lawmakers on a host of bills.

One measure would restore budget cuts to prevent 140 layoffs. Another would bump case workers two steps higher on the state pay scale. A third would protect workers from excessive caseloads.

Said Gregory, “We anticipate having a very busy day.”

Other statewide CWA units that employ similar “bargaining” strategies include the Texas State Employees Union (Local 6186) and the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees (Local 3570). TSEU will get a breather in 1998 — the Texas legislature meets only every other year.

Prescription for Success
Typical of CWA’s private sector health care units, Nurses United/CWA Local 1168 will bargain several contracts in 1998, the largest for 2,300 registered nurses and medical technicians now employed by Buffalo General Hospital in upstate New York. The situation is complicated by the fact that Buffalo General is in the process of a merger with Millard Fillmore Hospital and Childrens’ Hospital of Buffalo, to be completed by March 31.

“Half-way through the bargaining process,” says Local 1168 President Debbie Hayes, “Our employer is actually going to change.”

A new corporation, CGF, will manage the three heretofore independent not-for-profit facilities.

“They want to consolidate programs, and they want to bargain with us about how to do that,” said Hayes. “We want to make sure it is done in a way that won’t hurt our members.”

Seniority rights vs. the flexibility to move people around is certain to enter into bargaining talks. Hayes said she has received assurances that the new management will not cut bedside care givers, but she is skeptical they might change their minds after programs are combined.

Top bargaining issues are job security, a fair wage increase, keeping good health benefits, and preserving the quality of patient care.

Recent surveys reveal that nurses and health care workers by a wide margin believe that closing facilities and reducing staff has a detrimental effect on both quality of care and stress levels of employees.

“Our people are saying the same things,” said Hayes, who is starting to tally the results of a CWA survey, “Nurse Practices and Quality of Care,” distributed earlier to District 1 health care workers. The results, she said, are sure to figure into bargaining.

CWA represents 15,000 health care workers in the private sector, and another 10,000 employed by various state institutions.