Pro/con: After Wisconsin, are Public unions still relevant? Yes | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota

Public-sector union members find themselves in a position not many of them ever expected. That is, discussing whether their unions should be allowed to exist. After the tragedy of Wisconsin, the right-wingers are swooping in to attempt to spread their gospel of eliminating our unions in many states, including Minnesota.

Let’s look back on how we came to be and our continuing value in today’s society.

I served 28 years as president of AFSCME Local 66, the biggest AFSCME local in Minnesota; we represent 2,500 local-government employees, which is down from more than 3,000 a few years ago. Our local was formed in 1919 by city of Duluth workers who were fed up with nepotism and unfairness at work. They worked together to come to agreements with their employers to improve working conditions for more than 50 years before collective bargaining was granted to public employees in Minnesota in 1971. While they had no legal standing to negotiate contracts, their collective actions, including sit-down strikes in the 1960s right here in Duluth, helped ensure their demands received attention and action.

Today, public-sector unions continue to be about bringing democracy to the workplace. For fire and police unions, it means having a collective voice to work for improved safety and adequate staffing. For teachers, it means trying to maintain or reduce class sizes so our youth can be properly taught. Other public unions work hard to come to agreements that help ensure services are delivered to the public effectively and with a work force that is focused on doing its job and not distracted by bad working conditions or incompetent managers.

My experiences suggested that, overall in our area, decent managers supervise decent employees. However, there were exceptions. In those exceptions is where the value of public-sector unions becomes clear, both to workers and employers and to the general public. Our unions ensure that employees who are experiencing difficulties are disciplined according to management’s own agreed-to rules. Also, when managers are incompetent or bullies, then our unions can step in to challenge employers to respond to obvious liability issues.

The public is better-served when employees and employers understand a working agreement between them ensures better services for everyone.

Right-wingers don’t like public-sector unions because we are the backstop for the middle class. They want to get rid of unions altogether and are starting with us. While private-sector unions’ numbers have decreased, public-sector unions have increased.

We also are involved in broader social movements the right fringe opposes. We bring democracy to our workplaces and then work for broader democratic involvement in our society as a whole. So when they propose voter ID and other voting restrictions, or when they propose limiting the right to marriage, we say restrictions to anyone’s rights are the beginnings of restrictions on the rights of all of us. We understand workers’ rights and civil rights and human rights are all interrelated. We have been treated like second-class citizens in the past and have no plans to revisit those times.

That is why the right-wingers want to get rid of us. We are too big, we are too involved and we are too outspoken. We will not go quietly. As a current song says, “We will die with our arms unbound.” Bring on the fight.

Alan Netland is president of the Northeast Area Labor Council, which represents 40,000 union members in the seven-county Arrowhead region of Minnesota.

Were public-sector unions made weaker by Wisconsin? Are they more important than ever? Are they antiquated drains on limited public resources?

via Pro/con: After Wisconsin, are Public unions still relevant? Yes | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.

Quinn signs budget, no deal on pension reform | abc7chicago.com

June 30, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a nearly $34 billion dollar state budget for the new fiscal year which starts on Sunday.

After the signing, he said he plans to have “meeting after meeting” with lawmakers with the hope of reaching a deal on pension reform.

They could not come to an agreement before the end of the spring session.

Quinn said public pensions will account for $5.2 billion of the budget.

It cuts education spending by $200 million dollars.

The governor did make one major change to the budget, vetoing funding for prisons that he wants to close.

Instead he wants to redirect that money to the Department of Children and Family Services, which had its budget cut by $50 million.

“Are we going to keep outdated, half full facilities which were fully funded by the legislators in this budget? That’s what they chose,” Quinn said. “Or are we going to invest and make sure we protect vulnerable children who are in danger of being neglected and hurt?”

Lawmakers would have to approve reallocating that money.

via Quinn signs budget, no deal on pension reform | abc7chicago.com.

Quinn talks public pension reform as he signs state budget – chicagotribune.com

  Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new state spending plan Saturday, using the opportunity to try to pressure lawmakers into reforming public pensions, warning that retirement funding is rapidly squeezing out dollars that otherwise could be available for schools, health care and social services.

As he acted on the $33.7 billion budget, the Democratic governor followed through on a vow to close prisons and facilities for the developmentally disabled. He recommended shifting the bulk of $57 million lawmakers used to keep prisons open to help offset cuts to the state’s child-welfare agency, which was first reported at chicagotribune.com Friday.

“I think the highest priority for me right now looking at the budget … is the Department of Children and Family Services needs more resources. A cut of $50 million by the General Assembly is far too much. We are under court consent decrees with the federal court. We have obligations to these children who are depending on us,” Quinn said.

The governor noted that while the overall operating budget is comparable to what the state spent five years ago, the amount earmarked for pensions has roughly tripled during that time, from about $1.7 billion to nearly $5.3 billion.

“We just simply cannot afford this. The squeeze is on our money, our allocations for education, for human services, for health care, for public safety. Less and less of the percentage of our budget will go to those important causes if we don’t reform our pension system,” Quinn said.

Since the General Assembly adjourned its spring session at the end of May, Quinn has met with top lawmakers in an attempt to strike a deal on public employee pension reforms.

But as was the case during the session, the talks have become bogged down by efforts from Quinn and leading Democrats, including House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago, to have suburban and downstate school districts pick up the employer share of costs of teacher pensions now paid by the state.

Although city property taxpayers pay the bulk of Chicago Public Schools teacher pensions, Republicans fear the move to tap suburban and downstate schools could lead to higher property taxes. GOP lawmakers want a full examination of money that Chicago schools get from the state to be part of the discussion.

Quinn said he was “going to be disappointed” if lawmakers take the attitude that pension reforms should wait until after the Nov. 6 election of a new legislature. Unionized teachers and public workers are a powerful political constituency, and that could put reforms on hold until after Election Day.

Quinn said the budget cuts discretionary spending by $1.4 billion from the previous year, while addressing $1.3 billion in overdue bills out of a backlog that has approached $9 billion. Despite lawmakers’ decision to fully fund facilities the governor had recommended for closure, Quinn cut the $57 million they set aside.

Shifting the money to DCFS will require the approval of lawmakers when they return to Springfield after the election. But Quinn said he’s prepared to plead his case.

The $50 million cut to DCFS was on top of a $35.3 million reduction Quinn proposed. Agency officials said they would have to cut programs and lay off 375 workers. Critics feared layoffs would mean caseloads for investigators would soar.

The Tribune reported that the caseloads for DCFS investigators are often double what they should be under a 1991 federal consent decree that set monthly limits on new cases for investigators. The agency also is failing to inspect more than half of the state’s day care facilities on an annual basis as required by law, the Tribune has reported.

Slated for closure are the Tamms supermaximum prison in far southern Illinois, the Dwight Correctional Center for women in central Illinois and juvenile justice centers in Joliet and Murphysboro. Three centers that help inmates transition to life outside of prison will also close, including one on the West Side.

Quinn did propose one revenue idea Saturday: selling Tamms to the federal government. But he acknowledged it would be a lengthy process, noting ongoing efforts to sell the vacant Thomson prison in northwest Illinois.

The governor also wants to restore education funding. Legislators had proposed cutting secondary school funding by more than 3 percent, or $210 million, for the upcoming school year.

In addition to the corrections closures, Quinn said his office will move forward with closing or consolidating 50 other facilities, including the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. Savings from those closures will be used to transition residents from the state-run facilities to community-care settings.

via Quinn talks public pension reform as he signs state budget – chicagotribune.com.