Sisters and Brothers,
These are truly remarkable times that we are living in: an African American man from the South Side gets inaugurated as the 44th president of these United States; a North Side son of Serbian immigrants who climbed the political ladder gets impeached after being arrested by the Government for trying to sell a Senate seat that he fills with a former attorney general; a young hispanic woman who grew up in the shadows of the 26th St. courthouse becomes the State’s Attorney of Cook County; a global economy sinks into a recession not seen since the Great Depression; hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs due to the economy; and just as many have lose their homes to foreclosure. So with all this going on, what are we supposed to do?
As our nation’s leader so eloquently said during his inaugural speech:
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
And as president of this local, I can tell you that it is our duty and responsibility to take responsibility. It’s our turn to take a turn. It’s time to ask ourselves not, “What are they doing?” but “What are we doing?” In the months ahead, our local is going to face difficult budget related economic issues that are plaguing many other governmental units throughout the nation. In addition, the President of the County Board gets to reappoint the Public Defender this April to another six year term – or appoint another individual whom we do not know. Rumor, innuendo and speculation plague our worksites with respect to this issue.
In order to allay some of these rumors, the Executive Board met on January 26, 2009 with Edwin Burnette and were assured by him that he is very intrested in being reappointed as the Public Defender of Cook County and he hopes that is what the President of the County Board chooses to do. Mr. Burnette also maintains that he will not withdraw his lawsuit against them which is currently on an expedited briefing schedule before the First District Appellate Court. At issue, as you will recall, is the interpretation of the Public Defender statute and whether final authority over the budget appropriated and passed by the County Board rests with the Public Defender or rather with the President of the County Board. A decision is anticipated this spring. As always, the Board is closely watching both issues: leadership of the office and the interpretation of the statute.
In contract negotiations this week, the county trotted out Mercer Consulting and had them hit the enter button 40 times paging through their PowerPoint presentation to the AFSCME bargaining committee on the county’s health care plans. Basically, they showed us how we have pretty good healthcare benefits and pay less than many others. They didn’t need to tell us that we have good insurance. But that all led to them giving us a proposal which essentially amounts to a cut in pay. You see, they just came in and asked us to pay more for our insurance without even bothering to present us with a wage proposal. You will remember that the county budget bill must be passed by the end of February and to be sure, there is still plenty of disagreement about how much money the county has and how much it still needs to borrow. What is actually in the budget, of course, is anybody’s guess since it’s full of errors. So what can we do about this? We know that to get the county to move on anything, we have to get out there and take part in job actions. That is the tried and true way that we get heard during contract bargaining. Our responsibility and duty is to participate in the job actions because as we demonstrated on election day, “we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”
So two things are coming up that we need to take part in since it is our responsibility and duty as good union members. First, the Chicago Federation of Labor , AFSCME and AFL-CIO of Illinois are sponsoring a Rally on February 17, Tuesday at 5:30 pm at Plumbers’ Hall. The rally is in support of EFCA – the Employee Free Choice Act. Because while we have card check on the State level in Illinois in the public sector, no such mechanism exists in private sector. Passing the EFCA ensures the rebuilding of the middle-class. Without EFCA, people are being fired merely for trying to organize workers at their worksites. All I can tell you that it is well documented that the standard of living and pay for assistant public defenders in Cook County has steadily increased since the union came in over 20 years ago. Our responsibility and duty to other Americans is to show up for this rally and help others get the right to bargain as we have – for a better life.
The second thing we need to do is participate in Solidarity day, Wednesday, February 18, 2009. The union will have a button for all of its members to wear to show the County that we are standing together to get a fair contract. More information will be forthcoming but please get 2/18/09 on your calender for Solidarity day.
I want to mention that although she was not present at our annual holiday party, Arlene Floren, from the Civil Division was named AFSCME LOCAL 3315’s Steward of the Year. And the shy and humble Kim Mines (26th) didn’t want to interrupt the party to be recognized for her efforts as Chair of the Annual Holiday Party. In many ways, the party is like putting on a wedding for 350 guests. It’s a big production and requires a lot of time, organization and patience- all qualities that Kim has in abundance. Thanks again to Kim for an excellent job and congratulations again to Arlene.
Lastly, I want to thank Emily Eisner, who recently retired from our office, for reviewing and discussing the Vermont v. Brillon case with the Executive Board. The Board considered very seriously whether we, as a union local, should file an amicus brief before the Supreme court. In the end, we decided not to.
In Solidarity,
K.S. Galhotra
Local 3315 President.
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