Representatives of State Workers United have been meeting with Governor Jack Markell's office about saving money in employee benefits. State Workers United is a coalition of 13 unions representing educators and state workers. The group selected from State Workers United to engage in these discussions are from the coalition's "Big 4": Delaware State Education Association; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees; Corrections Officers Association of Delaware; and Delaware State Troopers Association.
Both sides of the discussion have been pleased with the results and will be communicating to members and legislators in the near future with details.
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The Legislature returned to session on March 15th after a long break during which the Joint Finance Committee worked on the budget. At the current time three big challenges face the legislature. First, the budget remains daunting in spite of some revenue improvement. Second, this is a redistricting year. Every ten years, following a census, state representative and state senate districts are redrawn to reflect population changes. Politically, this can be a highly charged exercise. Districts can be redrawn not only to reflect population, but also Party affiliation. Finally, once again, gambling venues will be on the agenda. For the third straight year, lawmakers will try to decide if they wish to increase the number of sites for gambling in Delaware.
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Mark your calendar for Monday, April 4th. Unions have designated this day as a national solidarity day. April 4th, 1968 is the day Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in the city that day to support a strike by sanitation workers. Given the full-scale attack on public employee unions across the country, and given King's own commitment to Labor, this day was chosen to bring attention to places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio where basic rights are being taken from public employees. Local union leaders will be receiving ideas for observing April 4th.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
SHAME IN WISCONSIN!!!
Tonight in Wisconsin Governor Walker just went all the way over the line into the territory of petty dictator. After weeks of insisting that denying workers collective bargaining rights was all about the budget, he took the disgusting legislation out of the budget and had the Senate Republicans pass it without the super majority which would have required the absent Democrats.
This is not only a day of infamy, but a day of awakening as well. There is only one way to win now in Wisconsin; out in the streets. Workers in Wisconsin have had their legal vehicle taken away from them. There is nothing left but civil disobedience, direct action and strikes.
The Labor movement was born in the streets. If we have to die, it should be in the streets.
This is not only a day of infamy, but a day of awakening as well. There is only one way to win now in Wisconsin; out in the streets. Workers in Wisconsin have had their legal vehicle taken away from them. There is nothing left but civil disobedience, direct action and strikes.
The Labor movement was born in the streets. If we have to die, it should be in the streets.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Coffee Catastrophe??
I'm not a coffee drinker, unlike my wife and many friends. However, I'm aware of what is happening with coffee prices. They are up. Coffee is more costly than it has been for fourteen years. Since the summer, commodity coffee prices have nearly doubled.
The reasons for coffee prices are a combination of events intersecting in the proverbial "perfect storm": Bad weather caused poor harvests; China and India both have new middle classes for which coffee has become a fad; and Brazil has attempted to corner the market and hoard coffee.
So why all the coffee talk?
Because of what's not being said. No one is predicting a coffee bankruptcy. No one is assuming that the critical coffee conditions remain unchanged. No one is suggesting an austerity plan for coffee drinkers.
For those who really care about coffee, they can look back over the years and know that the coffee price rise is not a never-ending inflationary trend. The situation is acute, not chronic.
Now, compare that with what is going on around the country with public employee pensions. In too many states lawmakers are looking at pension contributions coming off the bountiful 1990s when investments carried the cost of the plans, and comparing it to the contributions following the 2008 financial collapse when states had to increase their share. By looking at a snapshot of pensions that establishes a baseline year around 2000 or 2001 and an ending year of 2010 or 2011 one gets a very high inflation rate for the costs of pensions.
However, pensions are designed to withstand bad years and even bad decades. That's why it is more telling to look at pensions in twenty or thirty year increments. When viewed for the long run, America's public employee pensions are healthy. We should not drastically change pension policy to adjust for the current downturn.
Coffee prices go up for a few months or even years, then they go back down. Don't stop drinking coffee. Don't stop public employees from earning a fair pension.
The reasons for coffee prices are a combination of events intersecting in the proverbial "perfect storm": Bad weather caused poor harvests; China and India both have new middle classes for which coffee has become a fad; and Brazil has attempted to corner the market and hoard coffee.
So why all the coffee talk?
Because of what's not being said. No one is predicting a coffee bankruptcy. No one is assuming that the critical coffee conditions remain unchanged. No one is suggesting an austerity plan for coffee drinkers.
For those who really care about coffee, they can look back over the years and know that the coffee price rise is not a never-ending inflationary trend. The situation is acute, not chronic.
Now, compare that with what is going on around the country with public employee pensions. In too many states lawmakers are looking at pension contributions coming off the bountiful 1990s when investments carried the cost of the plans, and comparing it to the contributions following the 2008 financial collapse when states had to increase their share. By looking at a snapshot of pensions that establishes a baseline year around 2000 or 2001 and an ending year of 2010 or 2011 one gets a very high inflation rate for the costs of pensions.
However, pensions are designed to withstand bad years and even bad decades. That's why it is more telling to look at pensions in twenty or thirty year increments. When viewed for the long run, America's public employee pensions are healthy. We should not drastically change pension policy to adjust for the current downturn.
Coffee prices go up for a few months or even years, then they go back down. Don't stop drinking coffee. Don't stop public employees from earning a fair pension.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Labor's Biggest Enemy is Jealousy
Labor has had many enemies in my lifetime and has been prematurely declared dead a couple of times. As an organizer in the 1980s I saw a lot of simple injustice. For example, unionized janitors making one dollar above minimum wage would be terminated for a non-union crew willing to work for 25 cents above minimum wage. Or health care workers who wanted to unionized would have a professional union prevention firm run a campaign of psychological intimidation against them.
In my young years with the Service Employees International Union we fought these battles in the streets. We became experts in direct action, civil disobedience, big rallies and big marches. In Los Angeles we won the Century 21 organizing campaign after LA riot police attacked and beat a group of peaceful marchers. It seems the parade permit didn't account for much.
However, the less obvious enemy of Labor was more harmful. One of Ronald Reagan's first moves against unions was to break the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). The less obvious enemy here is not President Reagan, but the jealousy of the American public including many union members. Reagan saturated the public with information about the high wages and good benefits of PATCO members. Remarkably, this message appealed to the most base element in people. Many, too many people, including many people from other unions, were jealous of these white collar professionals. The result was that the federal government was able to utilize replacement workers for the air traffic controllers, breaking their strike, with no public outcry, and little solidarity from the rest of Labor.
The next major union to be broken by jealousy was the United Auto Workers (UAW). In the 1980s and 1990s every yahoo from California to Maine had an anecdote about a guy their cousin knew who worked in an auto plant, making big money, and sleeping on the job every day. So, when the automakers begin to break down the UAW through foreign outsourcing, too many people didn't care.
And so it has gone with union after union, and the refrain of the jealous, "I don't get paid that well! I don't have health care or a pension!"
For several decades public employee union workers were ignored by the green eyed monster, jealousy. After all, who wanted to make the sorry wages of a public employee, or heaven help us, do their jobs: teaching, social work, law enforcement, etc.
Public service jobs no longer look so bad.
To explain what changed, let me digress with yet another anecdote. During the George W. Bush Administration the historic wage gap between men and women narrowed. What a surprise! Was Bush a feminist? No. What actually happened was not that the wages of women had risen, rather the wages of men had dropped. Thus the gap between the two narrowed.
Now, getting back to public employees today. Public employees are no more well paid than they ever were. Public employees have benefits, not rich benefits, just benefits. HOWEVER, other American workers had been pushed down so low with bad pay and simply no benefits, that now public employees seem to be living in high cotton.
If public employees and their unions go the way of other union workers. The country will sink even deeper into this recession. We must have spending power back at the main street level and that means decent wages and benefits for public employees who make up a sizable portion of workers in all states. If my dear readers do not believe this, watch what happens to the so called economic recovery after the public sector sheds another 250,000 jobs this year. We are due for yet another economic setback.
Americans must put aside petty jealousy that comes with rampant individualism and instead adopt a sense of community with other workers, their neighbors, the teachers of their children, the cops who keep them safe at night, the people who repair their bridges, who care for their aged parents, who counsel the mentally ill, and who make their water safe to drink.
In my young years with the Service Employees International Union we fought these battles in the streets. We became experts in direct action, civil disobedience, big rallies and big marches. In Los Angeles we won the Century 21 organizing campaign after LA riot police attacked and beat a group of peaceful marchers. It seems the parade permit didn't account for much.
However, the less obvious enemy of Labor was more harmful. One of Ronald Reagan's first moves against unions was to break the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). The less obvious enemy here is not President Reagan, but the jealousy of the American public including many union members. Reagan saturated the public with information about the high wages and good benefits of PATCO members. Remarkably, this message appealed to the most base element in people. Many, too many people, including many people from other unions, were jealous of these white collar professionals. The result was that the federal government was able to utilize replacement workers for the air traffic controllers, breaking their strike, with no public outcry, and little solidarity from the rest of Labor.
The next major union to be broken by jealousy was the United Auto Workers (UAW). In the 1980s and 1990s every yahoo from California to Maine had an anecdote about a guy their cousin knew who worked in an auto plant, making big money, and sleeping on the job every day. So, when the automakers begin to break down the UAW through foreign outsourcing, too many people didn't care.
And so it has gone with union after union, and the refrain of the jealous, "I don't get paid that well! I don't have health care or a pension!"
For several decades public employee union workers were ignored by the green eyed monster, jealousy. After all, who wanted to make the sorry wages of a public employee, or heaven help us, do their jobs: teaching, social work, law enforcement, etc.
Public service jobs no longer look so bad.
To explain what changed, let me digress with yet another anecdote. During the George W. Bush Administration the historic wage gap between men and women narrowed. What a surprise! Was Bush a feminist? No. What actually happened was not that the wages of women had risen, rather the wages of men had dropped. Thus the gap between the two narrowed.
Now, getting back to public employees today. Public employees are no more well paid than they ever were. Public employees have benefits, not rich benefits, just benefits. HOWEVER, other American workers had been pushed down so low with bad pay and simply no benefits, that now public employees seem to be living in high cotton.
If public employees and their unions go the way of other union workers. The country will sink even deeper into this recession. We must have spending power back at the main street level and that means decent wages and benefits for public employees who make up a sizable portion of workers in all states. If my dear readers do not believe this, watch what happens to the so called economic recovery after the public sector sheds another 250,000 jobs this year. We are due for yet another economic setback.
Americans must put aside petty jealousy that comes with rampant individualism and instead adopt a sense of community with other workers, their neighbors, the teachers of their children, the cops who keep them safe at night, the people who repair their bridges, who care for their aged parents, who counsel the mentally ill, and who make their water safe to drink.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Markell on Public Employee Unions
Governor Jack Markell wrote an article for Politico.com showing a political maturity that is refreshing in today's environment. The article is copied below:
By GOV. JACK MARKELL | 2/23/11 4:47 AM EST
I’m not the likeliest candidate to speak out on behalf of the labor demonstrators in Wisconsin. After all, my own relationship with the unions in Delaware has been a bit iffy since I took office as governor two years ago.
Within two months of becoming governor, as I faced a budget shortfall of 25 percent of my state’s entire budget, I proposed an 8 percent pay cut for state workers, which was reduced by our Legislature to 2.5 percent and restored a year later.
Several times during that first legislative session, more than 1,000 union members came to the state Legislature to protest against me and my proposals. The impeachment signs were hard to miss.
My own background before politics is hardly labor-oriented. I have an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a bastion of the free market. I spent time in banking, management consulting and working with the investment community as a senior executive in the telecommunications industry.
I’m also sympathetic to the need in Wisconsin and other states to secure pension and health benefits concessions from public workers.
We’re in the same position in Delaware. What taxpayers fund for these benefits is certainly not sustainable.
But with that background, I also believe the call to get rid of unions goes too far.
Perhaps that’s because, as governor, I’ve spent so much time visiting our state agencies and watching our people work. I often spend time there explaining my own unpopular proposals — including those to cut their pay and benefits.
Their work is often grueling, dirty and unappreciated by many. They bathe vulnerable patients in state hospitals. They plow streets in the middle of the night, when the rest of us are asleep. They keep our streets safe by dealing with the worst of our society. They help kids learn — even when those kids haven’t eaten since they last left school, haven’t bathed in a week or have come to school from a shelter.
That’s the reality for many of our state employees.
It’s true that my job as governor would be easier without having to deal with public-sector unions. Some of them file frivolous grievances. Some union members have unrealistic expectations about wage increases when so many of their neighbors throughout the state don’t have jobs, wages or benefits. I’m sometimes frustrated by that attitude.
But my job as governor is not to make my own job easier. It’s to make sure that the quality of life for my constituents will be better tomorrow than it is today. That’s why we focus every day on putting more people to work and improving our schools.
On balance, it’s better for our state when unions have the right to speak out and to have a place at the table — when they represent those whose voices may not be heard.
Those discussions might be painful. But it would be worse if they didn’t take place at all.
Jack Markell is governor of Delaware.
By GOV. JACK MARKELL | 2/23/11 4:47 AM EST
I’m not the likeliest candidate to speak out on behalf of the labor demonstrators in Wisconsin. After all, my own relationship with the unions in Delaware has been a bit iffy since I took office as governor two years ago.
Within two months of becoming governor, as I faced a budget shortfall of 25 percent of my state’s entire budget, I proposed an 8 percent pay cut for state workers, which was reduced by our Legislature to 2.5 percent and restored a year later.
Several times during that first legislative session, more than 1,000 union members came to the state Legislature to protest against me and my proposals. The impeachment signs were hard to miss.
My own background before politics is hardly labor-oriented. I have an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a bastion of the free market. I spent time in banking, management consulting and working with the investment community as a senior executive in the telecommunications industry.
I’m also sympathetic to the need in Wisconsin and other states to secure pension and health benefits concessions from public workers.
We’re in the same position in Delaware. What taxpayers fund for these benefits is certainly not sustainable.
But with that background, I also believe the call to get rid of unions goes too far.
Perhaps that’s because, as governor, I’ve spent so much time visiting our state agencies and watching our people work. I often spend time there explaining my own unpopular proposals — including those to cut their pay and benefits.
Their work is often grueling, dirty and unappreciated by many. They bathe vulnerable patients in state hospitals. They plow streets in the middle of the night, when the rest of us are asleep. They keep our streets safe by dealing with the worst of our society. They help kids learn — even when those kids haven’t eaten since they last left school, haven’t bathed in a week or have come to school from a shelter.
That’s the reality for many of our state employees.
It’s true that my job as governor would be easier without having to deal with public-sector unions. Some of them file frivolous grievances. Some union members have unrealistic expectations about wage increases when so many of their neighbors throughout the state don’t have jobs, wages or benefits. I’m sometimes frustrated by that attitude.
But my job as governor is not to make my own job easier. It’s to make sure that the quality of life for my constituents will be better tomorrow than it is today. That’s why we focus every day on putting more people to work and improving our schools.
On balance, it’s better for our state when unions have the right to speak out and to have a place at the table — when they represent those whose voices may not be heard.
Those discussions might be painful. But it would be worse if they didn’t take place at all.
Jack Markell is governor of Delaware.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
WI and OH Revitalizing Labor
Wisconsin and Ohio are revitalizing the Labor movement. We are learning a tough lesson in those states, a lesson that leads back to our roots. We have learned we can not depend exclusively on the political system. Given that corporate media is no longer even coy about slanting their coverage to the bosses, and that the Supreme Court has allowed the bosses to spend an unlimited amount on elections, the political system will fail us more often in the future.
The solution is playing out in the streets of Madison: Relational organizing and direct action.
If enough union members stick together (solidarity) then legal and political obstacles become less daunting. For example, in Madison teachers all decided to take personal days to protest last week. Superintendents decided to deny those personal days. In turn, teachers all got sick at once and called in. The end result: Schools in Madison closed for the week and no teachers were disciplined. The number of protesters last week ranged between 60,000 and 80,000 every day.
Final lesson: We shall all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.
The solution is playing out in the streets of Madison: Relational organizing and direct action.
If enough union members stick together (solidarity) then legal and political obstacles become less daunting. For example, in Madison teachers all decided to take personal days to protest last week. Superintendents decided to deny those personal days. In turn, teachers all got sick at once and called in. The end result: Schools in Madison closed for the week and no teachers were disciplined. The number of protesters last week ranged between 60,000 and 80,000 every day.
Final lesson: We shall all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
DSEA Testifies before Joint Finance Committee
DSEA President, Diane Donohue gave testimony today before the Joint Finance Committee. Her testimony, as it was presented is copied below:
Good Afternoon, Chairman Williams and Vice-Chairman McDowell, and members of the committee:
I am Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware State Education Association.
I start today the same way I did last year by thanking you for your service on the Joint Finance Committee. In these challenging times, JFC is about hard decisions, headaches, and few accolades…all things with which educators can identify.
I’m not going to make it easier on you. I am asking for step increases for all educators as well as Skills and Knowledge Clusters and National Board Certification stipends.
The education community has made great effort the last few decades in realizing a united mission around the education of children that involves all school employees: Teachers and para-professionals, yes, are on the frontline. However, school support professionals such as secretaries, custodians, and food service workers not only provide the support for a functioning school environment, but also educate and nurture children in their interactions and service.
I believe separating teachers and para-professionals from other educators for step increases takes us in a divisive direction that the education community cannot afford. It is a move that is more costly than the $900,000 difference in adding in the other employees. All of our educators need a step increase for FY 2012.
Regarding Skills and Knowledge Clusters and the stipend for National Board Certification, I feel like this is a missing piece to the wonderful initiatives underway in Race To The Top. Race To The Top provides a hopeful path forward in innovative education and has put a lot of positive national attention on Delaware as well as $117 million into our schools. However, I fear that a deep look at our compensation system shows that we are not rewarding educators for improving their skills the way RTTT suggests. We have the vehicles to do so in both of these programs, but we have not funded them for several years now. I ask again that you once more fund both Clusters and National Board Certification and thus provide alternative compensation, one of the goals of RTTT. Both compensation programs together would be around $1 million.
I will not address benefits for members in any detail today because I wish to honor the work currently underway. DSEA along with other public employee unions are in discussions with the Administration examining the pension plan, post-retirement health care, and health care for active members. I only ask that you refresh your memories and look at the salary schedules for teachers, para-professionals, secretaries, custodians, and food service. Then, ask yourself if it is too much for those folks to at least have good health care and a decent pension.
Yet, I hear lawmakers when they say, “Diane, what do I tell my next door neighbor who has been unemployed for four months?”
I would say this:
If I reduce compensation or benefits for your child’s teacher, it will not put you back to work tomorrow; it will not ease your fear tonight when you lay awake wondering how you will pay the mortgage; it will not answer your question of how you learn new skills over age 50 to find employment. However, if I compensate your child’s teacher fairly and fund education adequately, it may keep your son and daughter from facing those same haunting challenges 10 years from now.
Education is an investment in the future; and because education is a service, not an industry, when you increase or maintain investment, it is not in machinery or raw materials, it is in people. Invest in our educators and they will produce returns for generations.
Thank you very much!
Good Afternoon, Chairman Williams and Vice-Chairman McDowell, and members of the committee:
I am Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware State Education Association.
I start today the same way I did last year by thanking you for your service on the Joint Finance Committee. In these challenging times, JFC is about hard decisions, headaches, and few accolades…all things with which educators can identify.
I’m not going to make it easier on you. I am asking for step increases for all educators as well as Skills and Knowledge Clusters and National Board Certification stipends.
The education community has made great effort the last few decades in realizing a united mission around the education of children that involves all school employees: Teachers and para-professionals, yes, are on the frontline. However, school support professionals such as secretaries, custodians, and food service workers not only provide the support for a functioning school environment, but also educate and nurture children in their interactions and service.
I believe separating teachers and para-professionals from other educators for step increases takes us in a divisive direction that the education community cannot afford. It is a move that is more costly than the $900,000 difference in adding in the other employees. All of our educators need a step increase for FY 2012.
Regarding Skills and Knowledge Clusters and the stipend for National Board Certification, I feel like this is a missing piece to the wonderful initiatives underway in Race To The Top. Race To The Top provides a hopeful path forward in innovative education and has put a lot of positive national attention on Delaware as well as $117 million into our schools. However, I fear that a deep look at our compensation system shows that we are not rewarding educators for improving their skills the way RTTT suggests. We have the vehicles to do so in both of these programs, but we have not funded them for several years now. I ask again that you once more fund both Clusters and National Board Certification and thus provide alternative compensation, one of the goals of RTTT. Both compensation programs together would be around $1 million.
I will not address benefits for members in any detail today because I wish to honor the work currently underway. DSEA along with other public employee unions are in discussions with the Administration examining the pension plan, post-retirement health care, and health care for active members. I only ask that you refresh your memories and look at the salary schedules for teachers, para-professionals, secretaries, custodians, and food service. Then, ask yourself if it is too much for those folks to at least have good health care and a decent pension.
Yet, I hear lawmakers when they say, “Diane, what do I tell my next door neighbor who has been unemployed for four months?”
I would say this:
If I reduce compensation or benefits for your child’s teacher, it will not put you back to work tomorrow; it will not ease your fear tonight when you lay awake wondering how you will pay the mortgage; it will not answer your question of how you learn new skills over age 50 to find employment. However, if I compensate your child’s teacher fairly and fund education adequately, it may keep your son and daughter from facing those same haunting challenges 10 years from now.
Education is an investment in the future; and because education is a service, not an industry, when you increase or maintain investment, it is not in machinery or raw materials, it is in people. Invest in our educators and they will produce returns for generations.
Thank you very much!
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