Fighting Back: Public Workers Battle to Win, Maintain Bargaining Rights

It may come as a surprise to you that in many states public workers are not allowed to have collective bargaining. They can form a union but they cannot bargain a contract — the state forbids it. CWA's public workers in New Jersey and New Mexico have fought for and won legislation that requires the state to give public workers the same collective bargaining rights that private sector employees have.

Others, in states like Mississippi and Texas (see separate story), have to lobby elected officials and reach out to the public to win job protections and better wages and benefits.

Even in a state like New Jersey, where CWA's 50,000 public workers and others have long had a collective bargaining law, bargaining rights are subject to actions by lawmakers. With union contract talks currently underway with Gov. Jon Corzine, leaders of the state senate and assembly have been pressing for concessionary changes in worker pensions and other benefits as part of major property tax reform bill.

Thousands of members of CWA, along with AFT, AFSCME members and others held a massive protest at the statehouse in Trenton on Dec. 11. District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton strongly denounced the bill, blasted the legislature, and challenged Gov. Corzine to veto the legislation if it passed.

This bill tramples on the collective bargaining process and makes radical changes to the negotiated pension, health and vacation benefits of hundreds of thousands of state and local government workers," Shelton said.  He praised Corzine for stating that worker issues should be handled at the bargaining table rather than through legislation.
 
Local stewards have been educating and mobilizing members for months as the political battle loomed. "I've been telling my co-workers our collective bargaining rights are more important than just about anything. This is our life, this is our future, and they're talking about cutting pensions," said Reggie Jones, a Local 1037 steward at the New Jersey Division of Family and Youth Services. "Pension cuts might not affect all of us personally, but what they are proposing could have a huge impact on the next generation of state workers."

New Mexico Turnabout

CWA members In New Mexico know first hand that bargaining rights can always be taken away. State workers lost their union representation when a Republican governor in 1999 allowed the state's collective bargaining law to sunset. But in 2004, Gov. Bill Richardson (D), elected with the help of CWA locals, signed a new collective bargaining law that also allows state employees to organize through card check.

Determined to take advantage of the brighter political climate to build a more powerful state worker union, workers formed inside committees across the various state agencies. The campaign website, www.sea-cwa.org, reflects a vibrant union with committees for legislative and political action, community coalition building, member mobilization, communications, bargaining support and further organizing. Card check victories in 2004 alone brought the State Employees Alliance-CWA some 2,300 members, and the workers have now negotiated two contracts improving wages, benefits and working conditions.

Robin Gould, president of SEA-CWA Local 7076, said the local is continually reaching out to strengthen the union. Local activists are currently working with employees of the Departments of Game and Fisheries, and Energy and Minerals to sign up about 200 new members at each agency. They're also working to bring representation to 75 certified nurse practitioners and business operations specialists, currently unrepresented titles at the Department of Health.

Now representing about 70 percent of state workers, Gould said of SEA-CWA, "We're a majority membership union. That makes all the difference in bargaining." In the early '90s, when she was president of the predecessor local, only about 20 percent of employees were members.

The local is already conducting membership surveys for 2008 bargaining and embracing the Stewards' Army concept to lead get-out-the-vote and bargaining mobilization activities for that fall.

"Our governor is expected to announce in January that he is running for president," Gould said, "but you know we will be out there working hard to support a new friend of working families in the governor's race and for state legislature."

Mississippi Mobilization

In a state with no collective bargaining law, MASE-CWA Local 3570 has signed up 11,000 workers into the union. The Mississippi Alliance of State Employees (MASE) can't sit down with management and negotiate a contract, so they take their issues to the elected officials. Annual lobby days are legend, with upwards of 500 state employees, most on their own time, each year turning out for a rally at the statehouse and visit their state senators and representatives, asking them to fund a wage increase based on a "wage alignment" study showing what comparable workers earn in surrounding states. Despite no contract, the members clearly see the value in the union.

On Lobby Day 2006, last February, MASE-CWA members were able to leverage the goodwill generated by the sacrifices of members who lived in hardship conditions, separated from their families, to provide relief services to Hurricane Katrina victims along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"This is the first year since 1990 in which the legislature funded 100 percent of the alignment," said Local 3570 President Brenda Scott. She said the average wage increase, depending upon job title, was $2,060.

Some MASE-CWA members now have collective bargaining rights. Local 3570 helped 1,200 Jackson city employees win representation and a collective bargaining law in June and is currently bargaining on their behalf. The city workers learned the value of participation in the political process when they worked with CWA Locals 3570 and 3511 in 2005 to elect a mayor and city council that would support a bargaining law. Scott said that while wage increases have not yet been discussed at the bargaining table, the city workers can be assured they will have a grievance procedure, rights and benefits that will not be subject to whims of politicians.