I want to update the membership on a few topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cook County Jail\u00a0 Correctional Officers<\/strong> are having elections\u00a0on MARCH 17<\/strong> and MARCH 19<\/strong> to decide which labor union will be representing them.\u00a0 If they vote for AFSCME, they will help\u00a0keep AFSCME the largest union representing\u00a0 Cook County workers.\u00a0 That strength in numbers (3000 additional members) can pay big dividents at the bargaining table. So it is in our interests to encourage them to vote AFSCME.\u00a0 When heading to the jail for visits, don your sticker that says “VOTE AFSCME” – it should be available next to the jail sheets next week<\/em>.\u00a0 Need one? See me.<\/p>\n Speaking of bargaining<\/strong> table, most of you should have now signed a postcard that we will send to President Stroger to remind him we want a fair contract at the table.\u00a0 So far, the County has only been talking about takebacks and have\u00a0 presented no wage increase.\u00a0 This is a job action<\/strong> folks.\u00a0 The union wants complete participation.\u00a0 It’s even easier than wearing a button or sticker to court –\u00a0 and a lot easier than walking a\u00a0line while holding a picket.\u00a0 So please make sure\u00a0you sign one\u00a0and if you need one, call\u00a0union local secretary, Amy Thompson at 26th street (869-6989).<\/p>\n The 1% arbitration<\/strong> went well on February 27th.\u00a0\u00a0We were represented well by Catherine Struzsinsky of AFSCME.\u00a0 The union called two witnesses, Mike Newman and Peter Schmaltz, who\u00a0both handled the negotiations at the\u00a0table during the last contract bargaining.\u00a0 The County was represented by ASA Greg Vaci and he called one witness, Jonathon Rothstein, who was a special\u00a0labor counsel to John Stroger at the time.\u00a0 Due to time constraints, I cannot abstract the hearing here in this post.\u00a0\u00a0 But\u00a0a decison from the arbitrartor is expeceted shortly and I am\u00a0very optimistic about the outcome and\u00a0 very satisfied with the testimony heard at the arbitration.<\/p>\n Our local elections<\/strong> are coming up on May 7th, 2009.\u00a0 But first, there will be a nomination<\/strong> meeting<\/strong> at 3:30 pm on Thursday, April 2,<\/strong> 2009 at the cafeteria on the second floor of the Cook County Criminal Courts Administrations Building located at 2650 S. California.\u00a0 Come and nominate a candidate of your choosing to run for union office.\u00a0 You must be present to nominate someone.\u00a0 The constitution is available on our website as a link under the Stewards and Grievances tab and\u00a0notices were sent out by U.S. Mail to the address the local has on file.\u00a0 The notices went out\u00a0the week of 2\/16; if you didn’t get it,\u00a0 it’s probably an old address we have, \u00a0so please update your address in writing with the local.<\/p>\n And yes, it looks like A.C. Cunningham will be Ed Burnette’s successor.\u00a0 I will have more to say about Judge Cunningham, in a future posting.<\/p>\n In Solidarity,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n K.S. Galhotra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I want to update the membership on a few topics.\u00a0 The Cook County Jail\u00a0 Correctional Officers are having elections\u00a0on MARCH 17 and MARCH 19 to decide which labor union will be representing them.\u00a0 If they vote for AFSCME, they will help\u00a0keep AFSCME the largest union representing\u00a0 Cook County workers.\u00a0 That strength in numbers (3000 additional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}