Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "labor"

Police union halts labor talks with City Hall

2012-02-08T15:27:42Z

In the the wake of the City Council’s 5-4 vote Tuesday blocking the strong mayor initiative from going to the November ballot, police union leaders halted labor contract discussions with City Hall.

Mark Tyndale, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association told City Manager John Shirey in an email just hours after the final council vote that he was “suspending all discussions between the city and the SPOA negotiations team.”

After voting down the strong mayor initiative, council members approved a ballot measure to create an elected 15-member charter reform commission.

Calling the cost of a charter commission “fiscally irresponsible,” Tyndale said in the email that he “can’t help but feel this was nothing but a tactic by some of them to once again publically (sic) display their contempt for the Mayor.”

Although the SPOA had engaged with city labor representatives in a series of “off the record” discussions, Tyndale said in the email, the council’s decision to create a charter commission caused him to reevaluate his position.

“I refuse to consider further concessions that will only be used to fund the Commission,” Tyndale said.

The cost of a charter commission is largely unknown, according to the City Clerk’s office. In a staff report to council Tuesday, a portion of the cost – the cost of putting the question to the voters of rather to create a commission – was estimated at more than $127,000.

Assistant City Attorney Matt Ruyak said Tuesday that the additional costs of staffing and maintaining a commission – beyond the cost of the election alone – were unknown at this early stage.

Tyndale asked Shirey and City Finance Director Leyne Milstein for a written estimate of the costs to the city for an elected charter review commission.

Neither Tyndale nor Shirey were available for comment at press time for this story. The Sacramento Press will give updates on the situation as they become available.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter with The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Labor council starts 2012 campaign endorsement process early

2011-10-07T01:12:41Z

In an unusual move, the Sacramento Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO began its endorsement process for upcoming Sacramento City Council races four months earlier than in previous election cycles – this time, eight months ahead of the June 2012 elections.

“The redistricting process stirred up a lot of interest in people, especially about who is running the city,” said Bill Camp, labor council executive secretary. “If people are interested, that makes this the best time to endorse (candidates).”

As part of the labor group’s stated goal of “promoting a voice for workers through active participation in the political process,” the labor council endorses candidates for office in every election year, according to labor council office manager Georgie de la Huerta.

The labor council represents 107,000 union members from 90 unions, de la Huerta said.

The labor council’s decision to start the process early is not common in Sacramento politics – particularly since the filing period for candidacy doesn’t open until Feb. 1.

Rich Schmiedt, president of Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522, said his organization has not yet started its campaign endorsement process.

“We don’t see any benefit to starting as early as October,” Schmiedt said. “It’s too early for us – we don’t even know who all the candidates are at this point.”

Schmiedt said that Local 522 will begin discussing a timeline for considering candidates in late November.

For Camp and the labor council, however, people who are “serious” about running for a city council seat will not wait until the filing period to make their intentions known, Camp said.

“If you’re taking a lot of time fooling around about making a decision to run, then you’re not serious,” Camp said. “If you’re not serious, then (we) don’t want to interview you. We only want to talk to (candidates) who need and want support.”

The endorsement process begins with a 13-page candidate questionnaire sent to all incumbents and potential candidates that the labor council becomes aware of, according to Camp.

“We make it as public as possible,” Camp said. “We’ve done the best we can to reach out to everyone who has surfaced, but we can’t find people that hide.”

Labor council staff confirmed Thursday that, so far, invitations to participate in the endorsement interview process were sent out to City Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty and Bonnie Pannell – the incumbents for Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8, which are the four council seats open in 2012.

Questionnaires have also been sent to Kim Mack, a candidate for District 2, and Allen Warren, a potential candidate for District 2 who has not yet made a formal announcement of candidacy.

Once candidates submit a completed questionnaire, the labor council schedules an interview between the potential candidate and the labor council’s committee on political education.

The 20-member committee sits as a panel to interview one candidate at a time. With four City Council seats open in the 2012 election, Camp said interviewing potential candidates for four seats will be an all-day event for the reviewing committee.

After all interviews are finished, the committee sends recommendations for endorsements to labor council union delegates for consideration.

The number of delegates each union sends to Sacramento is determined by the size of the union membership. De la Huerta said the delegate group averages between 60 and 80 members.

For any candidate to receive labor council endorsement, a favorable vote of two thirds of the delegates at the meeting is required, de la Huerta said.

McCarty confirmed Thursday that he is running for re-election in 2012, and he will be participating in the labor council interview and endorsement process.

McCarty received labor council endorsement in previous races, however, there’s no guarantee that the group will support him again this year.

“In past elections, I have received their endorsement,” McCarty Said. “But also in a past election, I did not receive their endorsement.”

McCarty said that, although it’s still early in the game, he has several campaign endorsements – including State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, several District 6 neighborhood association presidents and several current City Council members.

Pannell, the current District 8 representative, said Thursday that she has received the labor council questionnaire and she also plans to participate in the endorsement interviews.

Pannell said she already has other endorsements for her 2012 re-election campaign, but will wait to announce them at a fundraiser she’s hosting in November.

Calls for comment from other incumbents and potential candidates were not returned by press time.

De la Heurta said that none of the candidate questionnaires the labor council sent out have been returned yet.

The labor council will conduct candidate interviews Oct. 17 in Sacramento. Union delegates will meet Oct. 18 to make their endorsement selections.

Endorsements will be announced at the labor council’s Annual Salute to Labor dinner Oct. 27. Camp said approximately 600 to 700 people are expected to attend the private event.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Why Do We Say The Council Stole UC Davis Med Center?

2011-08-30T02:56:24Z

A few basics should be mentioned first.

It does not matter where UCD Med is as far as balancing populations. Also, look on a map and you will see that UCD and the Medical buildings running down Stockton Blvd. have an impact on several neighborhoods not only Oak Park or Elmhurst.

UCD has been in District 5 since the start of redistricting. Oak Park has also always been in District 5. So, for 40 years UCD and Oak Park enjoyed the same representative on the City Council. There are benefits that come with being a Council member representing such a large economic and community asset and with the relationships that are formed. Otherwise, it would not have been prized so highly by the players.

The nominal reason for taking UCD out of District 5 and giving it to District 6 is that the Council member from D6 can protect the interests of those most affected—namely the Elmhurst neighborhood. (Basically, it borders the northern campus and has little buffer to noise, etc.). The result of the theft has been to separate another neighborhood, up-and-coming Oak Park, and its representative from the process they so highly seem to value, for the more affluent, already there, Elmhurst.

You might think this was driven by an outcry from the people living in Elmhurst and the Council was simply responding to a well articulated need. Not so fast. The Elmhurst Neighborhood Association was consulted after the 2.0 map was drawn and were not even involved in the redistricting process to protect their interests. They didn't go to the Council member and beg for the new lines. The new lines were drawn and they were asked to support the deal. Elmhurst merely saw what they considered a good chance to get some of their issues taken care of. They admit their view is narrow and that others are affected but, what the heck, they got an easy win.

This is the situation; UCD was stolen from D5, not to protect Elmhurst as they had no real part in the process. No, it was taken from D5, behind the scenes, not fully discussed in public before hand, and voted on by the Sixer Club--the members who trade votes in a block--Sheedy, Cohn, Fong, McCarty, Fong, and Pannell. It was taken because they could. They could take it from a non-club member and give it to a club member.

They thought they would do this with little public outcry. They simply are too engrossed in their vote trades to know that the nerves are raw in our struggling community. They exposed that nerve and in doing so, exposed themselves to sunshine. We know what they did.

It stretches the mind to believe that not one of the Sixers was moved by the historical attendance of more than 500 residents and emotional testimony of 100 residents, to change their vote. Yet, not one of the Sixers changed their vote to protect the interests of Oak Park but chose to protect a neighborhood that had not requested their help.

On the other hand, Oak Park represented by the Oak Park Neighborhood Association (full disclosure, I am the proud president of OPNA), was involved from the beginning of the process with the submission of one of the 37 maps. We discussed redistricting at several of our general meetings attended by about 75 people each night, and we held committee meetings. Several of our members testified before the Redistricting Committee and then the City Council. We worked with our Council member, Jay Schenirer and his representative to be certain our needs were considered. In other words, we did what we were supposed to do and played by the rules they gave us

Fast forward to the springing of the Cohn/Sheedy map on the Council. Without adequate time for open analysis and discussion, the Sixer Club moved quickly away from the four submitted maps and chose to work with this map. Shave some here, add some there and you find the almost magically, out-of-the-hat map by Cohn with the Orwellian name--Neighborhoods Together 2.0.

Because Oak Park is vulnerable, it was not considered necessary to keep it together or to include our Council member in the discussions. There is no Brown Act in play if they talk in public, but alas, that was not to be. The real deals were done in darkness.

Let's get to the theft. Right before the August 23 City Council meeting, while standing in the Chamber lobby, I was told, by a prominent and powerful Labor leader, that "the compromise" had been reached and it was a done deal. He told me the exact details of the deal and that I should sign on. I was appalled and skeptical.

Inside the Chambers, even the Sixers assured us that all minds were open and that we-the-people would be heard. I don't know about you, but I don't think open minds is the right phrase for listening to "we the people" when the deal is already done. I call that a charade, a farce and theft when it results in lines which move an unpopulated asset from a non-club member into a district represented by a major Sixer Club member. The deal was indeed done.

It is beyond my volunteer pay-grade to know if the Labor folks drew the lines, merely supported them or influenced them or just thought that screwing the process, the residents of Oak Park, Distinct 5 and ultimately Sacramento, was a good idea. Labor is often considered part of the Progressive movement and protective of the working and middle classes. Seems like we either change the meaning of progressive or it does not apply to Labor or the Sixer Club. How have they protected the most vulnerable in our city by stripping our representative of this asset?

What's the big deal? The big deal is that residents in District 5 have a representative with even less power than before. It is as-if the representative of the most challenged and integrated areas in Sacramento, Oak Park, is not going to get support from the Sixers or Labor.

Could it be payback for Mr. Schenirer's winning an election without the usual support of so many players? Or is it a message to Curtis Park that an alliance with Oak Park will see a reduction in their influence and next time vote for the chosen candidate? Or is it simply telling Oak Park residents to stay in their place? Or perhaps the Mayor is the real target and the rest of us be damned? Above my volunteer pay-grade.

The good news is that it isn’t absolutely over; we can still be heard. OPNA is leading a Unity March on Thursday, Sept. 1, leaving 34th Street and 3rd Avenue at 6 PM. We will also be at City Council meetings to voice our outrage at this brutal, ugly, and unnecessary theft. Please join your fellow citizens to remind the Sixer Club that this is our City; not theirs.

Disclosure: I am the President of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association.

Szalay prepares to say good-bye to top county spot

2011-06-30T00:58:46Z

As Steve Szalay prepared to hand over the reins to the top spot in county government, he talked about his experiences as interim county executive and sent a message to his successor: “Don’t screw it up.”

Szalay came on board with the county in December of 2009 when County Executive Terry Schutten retired. It was a temporary assignment that would bring Szalay out of retirement just long enough to put the county back on track while the Board of Supervisors recruited a permanent county executive.

With more than 40 years’ experience in California government, including work in the administration of four counties and as executive director for the California State Association of Counties, Szalay was ready for new challenges.

“(Sacramento County) was in bad shape, and it needed to be ‘repositioned,’ ” Szalay said. “We’re not ‘recovering,’ we’re positioning in a different direction. This is what I enjoy most. I’m happiest when there are problems to solve.”

He wanted problems to solve, and he got them.

For starters, the county budget was in need of a serious overhaul.

Sacramento County has a budget of $3.5 billion, Szalay said, and the general fund makes up $2 billion of that amount.

When the county supervisors approved the 2009/2010 budget, it was balanced with $80.2 million of one-time resources and internal borrowing – which damaged the county’s credit rating.

“When I walked in the door, they’d had a budget in place for five months, and they already knew they were about $15 million out of balance,” Szalay said. “The consistent one-time fund use took (the county’s) credit rating from A-minus to triple B-plus.”

The previous year, the budget gap was smaller ($123.7 million), but the board used more one-time resources that year ($103 million) to plug the hole.

“They were in denial about the recession and getting further and further behind,” Szalay said.

In addition to a runaway budget problem, the county was working with labor contracts that created havoc with the balance sheet.

Szalay said Schutten and the board entered into five-year labor contracts in 2005/2006, when times were good – contracts that included cost-of-living increases and equity increases for every bargaining unit for every year.

“While revenues where going down, expenses were going up,” Szalay said. “What wizard decided that was a wonderful thing? I don’t know what they were smokin’ when they came up with the idea.”

Despite the continual downturn in the economy since 2006, the labor contracts stayed in place.

The first order of business as “ICE” (the acronym-turned-nickname was effective almost immediately, Szalay said) was to set up a plan focused on four key areas of improvement: budget/fiscal, labor, debt and efficiency.

“You want current revenue to pay for current services,” Szalay explained, “and then you want a small contingency to take care of unexpected things that happen in the year, and you want managers on top of things to make adjustments quickly when it’s needed.”

To solve fiscal challenges, Szalay said he worked with management and the board to make “reasonable and necessary” cuts and to reduce the amount of one-time funds used to fill budget shortfalls.

Through those efforts, county supervisors cut more than 1,000 positions, streamlined some services and reduced the budget gap by almost $130 million over two years.

“We’re now within $19 million of having current revenue pay for current services,” Szalay said. “That’s huge.”

Next, he worked to negotiate labor contracts that didn’t undermine the budget.

What the county ended up with were new labor contracts that had no increase the first year, no increase the second year, and the third year, “we’ll talk,” Szalay said.

The new contracts also included lower-tier retirement for new employees and stopping heath care stipends previously given to retirees.

“All 26 unions agreed to the terms,” Szalay said. “That was a real accomplishment.”

Of everything he has worked on as interim county executive, though, the work that really ignited a fire in Szalay was what he calls “new efficiencies.”

“This is the fun stuff,” Szalay said. “This is where you get things done.”

The “new efficiencies” are composed in a list of 56 projects that Szalay and county management worked on for the past 21 months to save money, increase revenue and enhance services throughout the county.

Some projects changed policy to direct new revenue into the general reserve fund every year and not pull from the fund to fill budget gaps.

Other projects created new contracts with private nonprofit and corporate entities to take over services previously operated by county staff.

“This county has one service delivery policy: Hire a bunch of civil service workers and put ’em to work,” Szalay said. “What we need is a mix. We should (also) have some contracts with the private sector, some contracts with (the) nonprofit sector, some joint services with the city.”

Reorganization projects were also part of Szalay’s plans.

Szalay took the “three-legged stool model” of county services that includes municipal services, countywide services, and internal support operations, and looked for ways to combine operations or reorganize to eliminate redundancy.

Szalay estimated that the changes will save the county between $10 million and $13 million each year in operating costs.

When asked if he feels he’s accomplished what he set out to do for the county, Szalay was emphatic.

“Yes. Definitely.” he said. “We’ve adopted two budgets, gone through negotiations of labor contracts, worked on 56 efficiency plans and started working on marijuana permitting,” Szalay said.

“The time is good for a hand-off,” he added.

As Szalay returns to retired life, he said he and his wife, Diane Cummins, a special advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown, will spend time relaxing with family in the days to come, and they are planning a month-long trip to Italy in September.

After that, Szalay said, he will probably do some independent consulting work or focus on projects for the county on a contract basis.

The new county executive, Brad Hudson, is expected to take over on Aug. 14, and Szalay said he has every confidence in Hudson’s abilities.

Hudson’s background is in economic development, Szalay pointed out, so when the county experiences new growth – “and it will,” Szalay assured – Hudson will have plenty of opportunity to “show his stuff.”

“I’ve had the pleasure of being able to make some changes at the top of this organization, and there’s an excellent management team that I’m turning over to the new guy,” Szalay said.

Does he think Hudson can keep things going in the right direction?

“He’d better,” Szalay said. “He knows that, for the next few years, fiscal stability has to be the No. 1 goal.”

Szalay said he’ll have two days to brief Hudson about the position before stepping down, and he’ll have one last comment before handing over the keys to the office:

“Now, don’t screw it up! I’ll be watching you!”

Union Busting: Opinion

2011-03-02T22:05:39Z

As the Wisconsin protests have continued and spread to Indiana and Ohio, with solidarity rallies held in Sacramento and elsewhere, the strategy of Republican Governors becomes clear: cripple public unions. If there was ever any doubt about this goal, it was dispelled by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s conversation with a newspaper editor (impersonating billionaire conservative campaign contributor David Koch) in which Walker discusses their anti-union strategy. This conservative effort has important implications for the Sacramento area.

Not coincidentally, the effort follows a long decline of unions. In 1945, according to the Department of Labor, unions represented 34% of private employees, 10% of workers in the public sector. This is now reversed: 7% of private, 36% of public workers – the overall number of union workers declining from one in every three in 1945 to one in every eight today. Crippling public employee unions, in the guise of balancing state government budgets, could well put the finishing touches on unions.

How is this important to Sacramento? Our area is currently more unionized than the rest of California, far more than the nation as a whole. According to data compiled by Hirsch and Macpherson (2011) from the Current Population Survey, 26% of Sacramento area (Sacramento, Arden, Arcade and Roseville) workers are covered by collective bargaining, compared to 19% across California and 13% nationwide. And of the 828,000 workers in the Sacramento area, 196,000 are public employees, three-fifths of whom are union members. An attack on public unions is an attack on a group of workers that comprises a vital segment of the local economy.

Shouldn’t public employees have the right to organize and bargain just as do those in the private sector? President Roosevelt in 1937 argued that public workers have the right to fair pay and working conditions, but nonetheless being “public servants” should not collectively bargain or strike. Some today contend that public unions have undue political influence over their employers, public policymakers. But that argument is now irrelevant after several court decisions, not least Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) which enables anyone, anywhere – unions, business, BP, the Koch brothers, Carlyle Group, Americans for Prosperity, Carl Rove, etc. – to influence political activity without disclosing contributions to the taxpaying public.

The cause of unions’ decline? Multiple factors, not just as some experts allege, the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act or Ronald Reagan’s firing of federal air traffic controllers in 1981. Many conservatives argue that unions have lost their public support. The fallacy of this argument was revealed in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll showing that Americans support bargaining rights for public employees by nearly 2 to 1. Moreover, 61 percent of respondents to this poll feel that salaries and benefits of public employees are either "about right" or "too low" for their work.

Current media accounts tie unions and bargaining rights to excesses in public pensions and benefits. Truth is, the most outrageous of these pension excesses have been perpetuated by elected officials and management, not public workers. The very most egregious - like, for instance, the city of Bell scandal or the City Council of Citrus Heights voting itself retirement benefits as the economy declined and the city's liabilities were increasing or the local Congressman whose retirement benefits from his State's Attorney General position were coincidentally increased by over $10,000 annually - are the result of poor legislation or management decisions, officials violating their public trust.

In any case, over the past three decades unions have lost many rights to organize, employers finding ways to ignore the 1935 Wagner Act. The result: flat median hourly wages (the bottom one-fifth declining) while, astonishingly, worker output per hour nearly doubled and (equally astonishingly) executive salaries rose by five times. At the same time, big employers found ways, through “reorganizations” (aka bankruptcies) to unload their health, severance and pension obligations to workers. With flat or lost wages and disappearing “fringes,” workers traded their union cards for credit cards.

The results of these events are evident in current federal and state reports. Of every 30 American adults:

one is in prison, jail, on parole or probation
two are “officially” unemployed
two have quit “looking” for employment or can’t find full-time employment
two are under-employed, working at near-minimum wage, mostly without benefits
two work two or more jobs just to get by

Thus, nearly one out of every three American adults has lost out on the “American Dream.” Incredible numbers for “the most-wealthy nation on earth.”

Sacramentans certainly know this pain – struggling housing and construction, anchor public services problematic what with the State budget crisis, this area one of California’s leading communities in unemployment and foreclosures. According to Realty/Trac, one of every 151 homes in greater Sacramento received a foreclosure filing in January. Local real estate prices driven down by absentee owners buying lucrative short sales and foreclosures. Just coincidentally, Harper’s March edition features “Homeless in Sacramento.”

More numbers: one percent of Americans account for 25% of the nation’s income, the worst wealth inequality in modern history. (Fifty years ago, the top 1% accounted for 10%.) Of every five homeowners, one is now “under water” (a mortgage greater than the home’s value) and 100,000 homes are foreclosed every month. Or: one in every four (yes, an incredible ¼ of) U.S. children live in poverty. And, despite healthcare reform, many Americans will continue to lack health insurance, joining long queues at the nearest ER for urgent health care, nevermind needed preventive care.

While today’s unions, including those in Sacramento and California, as well as Wisconsin, have and are willing to negotiate and compromise, Governor Walker refuses, arguing that they must give up collective bargaining rights. (Ironically, it was Wisconsin a half-century ago where non-federal public employees first got the right to organize and collectively bargain.) New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie divisively plays “divide and conquer,” by pitting a property tax reduction for seniors against the public unions. The news media typically portray the current protests as “public unions versus taxpayers.” Aren’t public employees, many of whom are teachers (public safety workers seem exempt from the discussion), also taxpayers?

What’s next? Privatizing social security and other safety-net programs? Class warfare? Perhaps that’s not an accurate description of this scenario. What is clear, however, is who is getting the short end of the stick - in Sacramento as well as across the country. Loss of unions would exacerbate Sacramento's and America's on-going redistribution of wealth from poor to rich. As Mohandas Gandhi said, “The earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”

Chuck McIntyre
Sacramento economist, writer, and small-business owner.

Capitol Vigil For Wisconsin Workers and Human Rights

2011-02-23T11:08:13Z

The sun was still shining on the State Capitol at 5:30 p.m. Monday, at the start of the Sacramento Central Labor Council's Candlelight Vigil for Wisconsin Workers. The crowd grew to an estimated 2,000 people, in solidarity with labor and human rights movements in Wisconsin and beyond.

The supply of signs for "We Stand With Wisconsin Workers" and flameless vigil candles didn't meet the demand. There were handmade signs, such as: "Labor Rights. Human Rights. Women's Rights. We Are One" and "Serf's Unite."

"We Are One," "It's About Freedom" and other signs from dozens of labor organizations, represented nurses, state workers, educators, fire fighters, law enforcement and skilled trade unions.

The opening invocation called for justice and for all people to have their basic needs met. It expressed gratitude for "so many who stood up to engage evil: the evil of corporate greed and malice; the evil of government union busting; the evil of protecting the rich at the expense of the poor."

The first speaker was Art Pulaski of the California Labor Federation. "The protests that we see in Wisconsin today are much bigger than one legislative bill or one state. It isn't just about Wisconsin. It isn't just about public sector workers. It isn't even just about union members.

"This is about an assault on the working class values of America. This is a fight for democracy. This is a fight that all working Americans cannot afford to lose."

The speeches and songs in solidarity continued. The best sound quality was in the center front. The crowd that spilled toward the back and onto the grassy sides had some difficulty hearing the speakers.

A man in a luxurious overcoat worthy of a corporate robber baron, passed through the crowd quickly and commented, "They should have gone non-union for the sound system."

The enthusiasm of the people was not deterred by the cold temperature or the cold-blooded attitude that non-union labor is superior to union labor.

Bill Camp, Executive Secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, gave a shout out to several legislators that he said were "in the house." Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom Tweeted in: "Standing in solidarity w my brothers & sisters across this country."

One of the speakers challenged the legislators who have expressed support, to commit for the long term and write legislation in support of the Wisconsin workers.

The message, loud and clear from the feeble sound speakers and the strong show of solidarity, matched the invocation at the start of the vigil:

"As we applaud those in Egypt, Iran, Tunisia and Libya, who cried out against government oppression - oppression that seeks to deny their rights - let us also applaud those in Wisconsin and through out this land who seek to do the same."

More actions are planned for the week. MoveOn.org announced a call for "emergency rallies in front of every statehouse Saturday, Feb. 26 at noon, to stand together to save the American Dream."

USuncut is a group based on UKuncut to organize those "ready to help make corporate tax dodgers pay their fair share" also planning events for Feb. 26

Channel 1000 video: Solidarity for Wisconsin workers: candlelight vigil

New union courts nearly 700 city workers

2011-02-18T02:21:49Z

The leader of a new effort to unionize city employees took issue with Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s recent decision to raise three managers’ salaries and lower the salary of a fourth manager.

Dee Contreras, the former labor relations director for the city, is spearheading a campaign to unionize 677 city workers, including top managers and administrative staff. She retired in December but is once again involved in local labor issues – this time on the other side.

Contreras said in an interview with The Sacramento Press on Wednesday that she will serve as the staffer for the emerging group, which is known as the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association.

“I will be working for them and representing them in their struggle,” Contreras said. “I don’t know whether the city will fight this or not.”

Contreras, who used to work for city management, criticized Vina’s decisions during the public comment section of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

City spokesman Maurice Chaney confirmed in a Thursday e-mail to The Sacramento Press that Vina recently made salary changes for four top managers – three raises and one decrease in pay.

Contreras claimed at the council meeting that Vina’s salary changes “raise the spectre of an unfair labor practice charge.”

She said that changes to employees’ salaries should not be made while a union organizing effort is in process.

“In general, an employee cannot give or take away from the employees while you’re in an organizing mode,” she said Wednesday.

But Vina disagrees. In response to Contreras’ claims about unfairness with the salary changes, Chaney, speaking on behalf of Vina, wrote, “Those comments are unfounded.”

The city is facing an estimated $35 million - $40 million budget gap for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Chaney commented on Vina’s raises for Finance Director Leyne Milstein, Human Resources Director Geri Hamby, Community Development Director Max Fernandez and a salary decrease for Utilities Director Marty Hanneman.

Hamby’s salary was raised from $151,402 to $162,000. Fernandez’ salary jumped from $164,445 to $172,667.

“Two of the three salary changes (Community Development director and the HR director) were envisioned as the next planned step of last fiscal year's consolidation process, which occurred last July and resulted in a cost savings of more than $4 million,” Chaney wrote. “Salary adjustments specific to these positions were considered because of the associated increases in departmental duties that resulted with these mergers.”

Chaney also provided Vina’s rationale for raising Milstein’s salary from $131,270 to $150,304.

“The finance director has played a crucial role during the last four years in assisting with a budget deficit that has affected all city employees,” Chaney said. “As we enter another year in dealing with yet another deficit, Leyne Milstein's expertise, institutional knowledge of our city budget and fiscal experience was critical to retain as we navigate through this budget process. Therefore, a pay adjustment was made.”

Chaney further commented on Vina’s reasoning for lowering Hanneman’s salary from $186,101 to $167,491.

“The Utilities director, who transitioned from an assistant city manager to a department head, retained his previous position salary,” Chaney said. “After an across-the-board examination of city director’s compensation, a salary adjustment was made to parity salaries of other department heads.”

But Contreras, who aims to represent a group that includes managers, disputes Vina’s view of Hanneman’s salary decrease. Vina is reducing Hanneman’s salary to a rate that is below the salaries of other department heads, Contreras claimed.

Contreras sent a Feb. 4 letter to Vina about her organizing a campaign, which can be read here.

The number of people Contreras is attempting to organize represents a large slice of the city’s 5,001 employees, according to statistics provided by Chaney.

If the organizing effort runs quickly, the union may be formed in three or four months, Contreras said.

“The city has not taken care of its unrepresented (non-union) employees,” Contreras said.

Contreras retired from a special projects position with the city’s Labor Relations division in December. The Labor Relations Department became a division of the Human Resources Department when the city consolidated departments last year to save money. Before the consolidation, Contreras was the director of the Labor Relations Department.

While she represented the city as Labor Relations director, Contreras noted that she has worked for unions in the past, including the Service Employees International Union.

The people Contreras wants to organize include high-profile managers, such as assistant city managers and the city attorney. Other job descriptions for people being recruited include the titles of investigator, administrative analyst and staff aide. Read a list of the jobs that Contreras wants to include in the union here.

Contreras said she is now working to organize the campaign because city employees approached her to help them unionize.

“After numerous discussions and approaches, I agreed to assist them,” Contreras said.

City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy commented on Contreras’ new role as a city labor organizer. “Dee is very effective,” Sheedy said. “She no longer works for the city, but she understands the city.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson releases more information on strong mayor plan

2010-06-02T03:36:46Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has released a new chart on his “strong mayor” proposal, which includes plans for changes to the city budget and the veto powers of the mayor’s office. But local labor leader Bill Camp is saying the chart should not be considered a draft of Johnson's proposal.

Johnson is referring to the new chart as a draft proposal, while Camp said it contains "ideas that we ought to talk about." In the lawsuit over the first strong mayor proposal, Camp was the plaintiff.

The City Council will weigh in on Johnson’s new plan June 15. Johnson’s office hopes the City Council will vote in mid-July to place the new proposal on the November ballot.

Read Johnson’s new chart on the proposal here.

Camp said in a phone interview Tuesday that people have told him they have seen a 10-to 12-page draft of the proposal. He claimed that the draft is being kept from the general public.

“Why are they hiding the 10-to 12-page document people have told me exists?” Camp said.

But Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek said there is no current draft circulating in addition to the chart and outline available online. The proposal's language will be based on the new chart, he said.

There was, however, an old draft of the proposal dated from three or four months ago, McPeek said. The old draft will not be used to write the proposal, he said.

At his Tuesday morning press conference, Johnson addressed a question on why the new chart is not in the form of a written report. If the proposal is placed on the November ballot, Johnson said, then City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office will need to be involved in the drafting of the plan’s language. For that reason, the draft has not yet been written in the form of a report, he said.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert's office has not received a written draft report of Johnson's proposal, according to city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

The new chart — which has been released to the general public — said the city’s budget would be proposed by the mayor 90 days in advance of July 1. This marks a change from the city’s existing charter, or constitution, which says the budget must be released 60 days ahead of July 1 by the city manager.

Johnson’s plan would also enable the mayor to veto budget decisions and ordinances approved by the City Council.

Some types of ordinances, including those that state law mandates, cannot be vetoed by the mayor, according to the chart.

The proposal envisions that the city’s chief executive would be the mayor, instead of the city manager. There would still be a city manager, but he or she would be hired by the mayor. The mayor would also hire department heads, according to the proposal.

An ethics program and term limits could be implemented as part of the new plan. The new form of government would last eight to 10 years, the proposal said. Voters could decide to keep the government system in effect after that period of time.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Center to Host Exhibition and Lecture on Sacramento Communist Trial

2009-11-13T16:51:43Z

Sacramento, CA – On Friday, December 4, 2009, the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) will unveil a new photographic exhibition, Red Menace! The Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935. The exhibition documents Communist farm labor organizers on trial in Sacramento for attempting to “overthrow the government.” The evening will include an address about the trial by Dr. Kathryn Olmstead, a professor in the History Department at the University of California, Davis. The exhibition reception with light refreshments begins at 6:00 p.m., while the lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. at CSH (551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd, Sacramento). Tickets are $10.00 a person and must be purchased in advance at CSH or by calling (916) 264-7072.

The evening event will also include three behind the scenes tours of the CSH vault or storage area. The storage area is normally closed to the public, however CSH staff will give a guided tour to event ticket holders on a first-come-first served basis. Those wishing to take the tour should indicate this when purchasing tickets.

In 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, seventeen farm labor organizers appeared in a Sacramento courtroom accused of Criminal Syndicalism – the attempt to overthrow the government by violent means. Red Menace! The Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935 depicts the proceedings through Sacramento Bee images, original police arrest photographs, courtroom documents, and Communist literature. The trial captivated Americans from Sacramento to Washington D.C. as it exposed a perceived threat to the American way of life.

Dr. Olmstead is an expert on 20th century U.S. cultural and political history and the author of, Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 by Oxford University Press. She has written two previous books on secrecy in the U.S. government. Her lecture that evening is entitled, “Blood and Sunshine: Farm workers, Unions, and the Great Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935.” Dr. Olmstead will sign copies of her book, Real Enemies, which will be available for purchase that evening.

For more information please visit www.centerforsacramentohistory.org, or call (916) 264-7072.

CSH’s mission is to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento’s regional history. Since 1953, it has served the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and enabling access to the documentary and material culture of the region. CSH is administered by the City of Sacramento and is jointly funded by the City and County of Sacramento.

Accounts of unrest in Honduras

2009-07-16T07:32:54Z

Hours before Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcefully exiled to Costa Rica on June 27, he met with seven delegates from Sacramento.

The seven were: Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council (SCLC); Bud McKinney, a sheet mill worker; Chris Bender, a union representative; Greg Larkins, president of IBW Local 340 and a political organizer for the SCLC; Arturo Aleman, a consultant, Kate Allen, a graduate student at UCLA and summer intern for the SCLC and Dion Archuleta, a canner at Campbell Soup in South Sacramento.

The following is an account of their experiences in Honduras over a three-day period in which an alleged coup d’état took place.

Background

The SCLC helped to deliver medical supplies and facilitate medical outreach to Honduran communities with limited accessibility. Because of their aid to Honduras, an invitation was extended to 12 members of the SCLC to observe ballot procedures, which would take place in Honduras on June 28. Five of them were unable to attend, according to Bud McKinney.

Bill Camp’s brother, Tom Camp, a doctor in Alabama, helped with relief efforts in Honduras after the wrath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. He encouraged Bill Camp to visit Honduras with him and served as a connection to a native doctor, Dr. Luther Harry Castillo. Dr. Luther Castillo's passion to help the underprivileged was the driving force that inspired Bill Camp to build a clinic.

In partnership with several members of various unions, Camp was able to gather the resources to build the clinic in Honduras with the California Honduras Institute for Medical Education and Support (CHIMES) over the course of two years.

In 2005, as a result of these efforts, Bill Camp began building a clinic in Ciriboya, a remote village on the northern coast of Honduras.

McKinney found out about the organization while working on a health proposition with Camp at the SCLC in 2005. He was interested in the mission of the clinic and joined Camp in clearing out the initial site and communicating with local elders about having them contribute labor to its construction.

A hospital was opened in late 2007. "The hospital and the [eleven] doctors that it employs provide health care to about 20,000-25,000 people in the area," McKinney said.

Camp made it clear that it is the only hospital in Honduras operated by Garifuna people, the indigenous population.

In 2007, a chance run-in with Patti Garamendi provided Camp with the opportunity to invite Lt. Gov. John Garamendi to Honduras with less than a week's notice. They scheduled a visit, and shortly before Garamendi arrived, it occurred to Bill Camp, "Oh lord, the Lieutenant Governor is coming to Honduras and I don't even know if the roads are open!"

Garamendi was able to attend the dedication ceremony for the completion of the clinic and meet Dr. Castillo, a primary force in building the hospital. "John's real contribution was going and having all the public attention," Camp said. The dedication ceremony attracted press attention both in Honduras and in the United States. He added that Garamendi "had put [the hospital] on the map."

A second-floor addition later the next following year was cause for another dedication. This time, President Zelaya attended and committed to compensating salaries for any three of the 11 doctors. "When they get the checks, they just split them eleven ways," Camp said.

Leaving for Honduras: Day 1

On June 21, the SCLC received a letter signed by Patricia Rodas Baca, the Honduran foreign minister, inviting members of the SCLC by name to participate in a fully funded trip to observe balloting procedures around the country for the survey that was to take place on June 28.

Other than the U.S. ambassador, the seven from Sacramento were the only observers to fly in from the United States. There were about 80 international delegates in total, according to Bill Camp.

The delegates arrived in Honduras on June 27 and were directed to a press conference with President Zelaya and his cabinet members soon after their arrival.

At the time of the press conference, President Zelaya had dealt with battling the Honduran Congress and the Supreme Court over the legality of holding a non-binding survey. Camp said it was essentially, "An effort to hear from the public. Do you think we should have a vote in November about the question, yes or no?, Do you want to have a constitutional convention?"

The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the survey illegal the week it was to occur and threatened arrest of anyone wanting to change the constitution.

At the press conference, Chris Bender said, "they handed out the portions of the constitution and the law that they felt made this legal."

These excerpts were handed out on paper, including Title XII, which is the portion of the constitution in question in regards to the legitimacy of the survey.

Aleman explained the process that Zelaya envisioned would pan out in regards to a future referendum. He said Zelaya intended to hold a survey of the people with the survey scheduled to take place on June 28 to gauge whether they wanted to have a vote in November, on election day, to decide if they then wanted a constitutional congress. From this decision, a constitutional convention may or may not have convened after the installation of the new administration in 2010.

"It had no effect of law," said McKinney said about the survey. The survey was fundamentally a public opinion poll, and the immediate consequence of the vote would have no legal effect on the constitution or the law.

"We were to observe how the election was being conducted, so if the media wanted to have an outside view of how this was handled– was it appropriate, were people being coerced, threatened or intimidated– we would be able to speak as outsiders in terms of our perspective," Camp said, commenting on how the Honduran Department of Foreign Relations outlined the duties of the delegates.

"The only thing we went down there to do was ensure that the vote was free and fair," McKinney said.

Outside of the press conference, McKinney was conversing with locals. "I talked to people outside of (the) Presidential Palace,” he said. “There were a lot of volunteers milling around."

These volunteers were delivering ballot boxes to about 15,000 precincts all over Honduras, after a group of unarmed citizens seized them from the military. The ballot boxes were dispersed the week before, and McKinney had witnessed the last of them being transported.

After the press conference, all of the international delegates gathered for a dinner with Zelaya and his cabinet members. Each place setting had a microphone, allowing observers to question Zelaya.

One question posed to Zelaya was if the referendum was about extending his presidency. McKinney, paraphrasing Zelaya, said he responded, "No. On Jan. 27, my term is up. I will hand over my sash to the duly elected president of Honduras."

Over the course of the press conference and dinner, the seven spent about five hours in the presence of Zelaya.

"There was no expectation that he would be kidnapped," Camp said.

A Turn of Events: Day 2

The next morning, on Sunday, June 28, Camp and Bender were to report to the airport to fly out to a village and observe voting procedures.

While waiting, the two received word from Dr. Castillo, "Take off your hat, take off your vest, take off your badge; put them in your satchel. I’m coming to pick you up to take you back to the hotel -- there's been a coup."

For the duration of the trip, the majority of the group members remained in their hotel, two miles away from the Presidential Palace.

“The streets were calm, there was no troop presence, there was no real unrest where we were at,” explained Larkins, political organizer for the SCLC.

At 8 p.m. Sunday, Dr. Castillo picked up three of the group members, Allen, Camp and Archuleta, and took them to the Presidential Palace, where protests were taking place.

Allen described the scene after a thunderstorm had set in. "[The protesters] were under these tarps in the middle of the street and there was a truck with a bullhorn and they were chanting along to Zelaya's name right in front of the gates of the Presidential Palace, and behind the gates were all these guards in riot gear."

According to Allen, there were about 200 protesters at the time of her visit, and the three were able to engage in conversation talk with some of the protesters. Allen turned her attention to Camp., "Suddenly they're going 'Sí se puede!' (Yes, it can be done!) and Bill is leading them in a chant of 'Sí se puede' in front of the gates of the Presidential Palace," Allen said.

"Our job is to encourage the heart," said Camp.

Anti-Zelaya protesters took to the streets as well, however, Allen said, "We couldn't stay long because there was going to be a curfew at 9 p.m., instituting martial law."

Returning with a Cause: Day 3

On Monday night, June 29, the seven arrived safely back in California.

"Immediately when we got back, we started calling all the union people we knew and said, ‘you gotta get a hold of the National Security Council and the Secretary of State's office,’ " Camp said.

McKinney received word that Honduran labor unions were gathering support to take protesters to the street, despite the military’s attempts to machine-gun tires of buses. “The AFL-CIO is in full support of labor’s participation in the retaking of democracy in Honduras,” he commented.

"When workers are being destroyed in Honduras...that really is an injury to all of us," Camp said.

Upon their arrival, Camp received an e-mail from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with an urgent message. 29 people had been listed as targets for detention by the interim government. Dr. Castillo is on this list, but has evaded capture so far, according to McKinney.

In addition to others, Patricia Rodas Baca was detained and later released.

Camp said he believes they "got them released because we got the National Security Council and the Secretary of State's office saying, 'You can't hurt this individual,' and somehow that went down through the chain of command."

An Update on Current Efforts

McKinney has been in contact with doctors at the hospital in Ciriboya. "Everything seems to be normal at the hospital,” he said. “The doctors are a little apprehensive that if the coup goes very long they will cut funding."

He also said that the Cuban government is pulling out Cuban doctors out of from Honduran clinics, and fears the same may happen with the doctors in Ciriboya.

McKinney is also in communication with Dr. Castillo, who staged a protest against the military’s shooting of civilians with First Lady Xiomara Castro Zelaya on July 7.

"The question is how do we get the head of the labor council in Minneapolis, or Rochester, or St. Louis to understand that this is their fight as well as the Honduran workers?" Camp asked.

As of July 13, Telesur, McKinney's main source of television coverage of the events in Honduras, has been expelled from coverage by the interim government.

Furthermore, the military seized ballots from a rural city that had held the vote through the coup, according to an anonymous source of McKinney’s.

McKinney reflected on his trip: "I didn't go to support the referendum or Manuel Zelaya. I had pretty mixed feelings," he said. "I went down there to observe democracy. I went there to make sure the people had a fair vote in both directions."

McKinney explained that he did not want to see the referendum forced on the people, and he did not want to see people "stuff ballot boxes" either.

"It was in a sense an unbelievable experience, but it was also a calm experience in the thrust of the chaos," Larkins said.

The group plans on making another trip back to Honduras Aug. 6 and hopes peace comes to the nation by then.

LINKS:
Project CHIMES
AFL-CIO position, press release
Honduran Constitution, spanish

Confused Demonstartors

2009-05-02T03:55:32Z

Sacramento, CA
Friday, May 1, 2009

Several Sacramento Police officers formed a blockade at the front entrance of the Five Fifty Five building on Capitol Mall today as demonstrators gathered to let their voice be heard by Bank of America officials. The downtown branch of Bank of America is located on the ground floor of the Five Fifty Five building. Bank personnel guarded the back ally entrance to be sure that those entering were there for bank business and not part of the demonstration. At this location the demonstrators were voicing their opinion of alleged misuse of bailout funds handed to the banks, and calling for the CEO of BofA to step down. When we attempted to question bank officials, we were met across the board with “no comment”.

Demonstrators dispersed peacefully and continued marching down Capitol Mall under police escort to the sidewalk in front of the Capital on the West side. We took this opportunity to talk with demonstrators. As we inquired as to the purpose of their demonstration, there seemed to be a bit of confusion; it seamed each demonstrator we talked with had a different mission for being there. We did finally discover that the main purpose of the protest was for laborers’ rights and that these protest were taking place in several locations throughout California.

We caught up with Albert Rojas (pictured in white t-shirt) at the demonstration. Rojas shared with us how he felt the misuse of bail-out funds impacted all tax payers. He stressed how it was his opinion and event organizers that immigrants should be a working, tax paying part of the American Society rather than tapping into the welfare system. Rojas is a student majoring in business. He stated that he purposed to fund his schooling rather than taking out student loans that he may not be able to repay. We asked Rojas about the inflatable characters they staged on the sidewalk; he stated that “they are symbolic to give a face to the mentality behind some of the bankers.”

While there did appear to be some confusion in the mission and purpose of their demonstration, it was clear that each person had definant opinions and missions. Each came to exercise their freedom of speech and right to be heard. Not only did they get that opportunity, their rights were literally protected as officers stood by to keep the peace.

New health care union grows in Sacramento

2009-04-12T14:36:51Z

April 12, 2009
New health care union grows in Sacramento
By Seth Sandronsky

Employees at nursing homes in Sacramento, Woodland and Pacifica, operated by North American Health Care, Inc., left the Service Employees International Union to join the new National Union of Healthcare Workers on March 17.

“The new union tells us the truth about our contract negotiations with the employer,” said Ulette Bloomer, a cook and union steward on the night shift at Valley Skilled Nursing Home, by Sacramento’s UCD Medical Center. “SEIU was not honest about that and kept giving us the runaround.”

The former SEIU employees, 350 in all, are the first-ever members of NUHW. They will remain covered by the current collective bargaining agreement with North American Health Care, Inc. Meanwhile, the NUHW’s elected bargaining team will negotiate a new agreement with the for-profit employer.

To choose NUHW, the previously SEIU-represented employees signed petitions in a majority sign-up, a National Labor Relations Board-approved process. Shirley Campbell of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service, a neutral third party, validated the signatures of the employees who have joined the new health care union.

NUHW formed on January 28, a day after SEIU placed its United Healthcare Workers-West local of 150,000 Northern California members into a trusteeship, a legal move to seize financial and political control of the affiliate. SEIU President Andy Stern, not the rank-and-file, propelled the maneuver. The trusteeship merged three California affiliates of caregivers into a single local statewide under Stern’s appointed leaders.

Because of the trusteeship, all UHW’s elected leaders, beginning with Sal Rosselli, its former president, were removed. Rosselli, in a drawn-out conflict with Stern over health-care reform and union growth in California, was accused of misusing members’ money. He disputes the charges of financial mismanagement.

Rosselli is the current president of NUHW. Other UHW officials such as John Borsos from Sacramento, also ousted in the SEIU trusteeship, join Rosselli in leading NUHW.

“NUHW is a splinter group led by the disgraced and ousted former leaders of UHW,” said Michelle Ringuette, SEIU spokeswoman. SEIU, with 2 million members, is the biggest union in the Change to Win partnership. CTW’s six million members in seven unions departed the AFL-CIO in 2005.

Over 95,000 SEIU workers in and out of health care statewide have petitioned the NLRB to join NUHW, according to Sadie Crabtree, spokeswoman for the fledgling union. The most recent SEIU-represented petitioners range from health care workers to childcare, public safety and sanitation employees in Monterey County (Salinas), she said.

Seth Sandronsky lives and writes in Sacramento ssandronsky@yahoo.com

City Enters Debate Over Federal Labor Bill

2009-04-08T02:43:25Z

By Kathleen Haley

A controversial federal bill that would change the way employees join unions won the support of three Sacramento City Council members Tuesday.

Sacramento’s law and legislation committee -- made up of four city council members -- backed the federal bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act.

The legislation would give employees “more freedom,” said Councilman Steve Cohn, a member of the committee.

Sacramento “should be on board supporting it,” Cohn said.

The EFCA would revamp current procedures for joining labor unions. Supporters argue that the bill bolsters employee protections in disputes and gives employees the ability to unionize through a method of signing cards.

Opponents, meanwhile, argue that the bill would hurt businesses.

Opponents and supporters are debating the role of secret ballots in the bill: business groups say secret ballots could no longer be used in union elections if the EFCA passes, while unions say that secret ballot would continue to be one of two systems for unionizing.

The law and legislation committee decided in a 3-1 vote to recommend that the entire City Council officially support the federal legislation in a city resolution.

Councilman Robbie Waters opposed the committee’s recommendation, saying that the bill is outside of the purview of the Sacramento City Council and should be considered a federal issue.

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to address the federal bill at its April 21 meeting.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy chairs the city’s law and legislation committee. Council members Steve Cohn, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters are members of the committee.