Organizing Spotlight: Mississippi Workers Wield MASE in Right-to-Work Territory

The governor of Mississippi has a problem. He's facing an estimated $628 million budget gap next year. That's the difference between projected revenues for the state and the cost of providing services. He's promised not to raise taxes, so what can he do?

Shortly after his inauguration in January, he came after the job security of 11,000 state employees. Now, together with other measures to balance the budget, he's threatening to fire as many as it takes - some say 1,700. All that stands in his way is the state legislature and the union that holds sway with many of its representatives: the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees/CWA Local 3570.

"What this governor is trying to do is a classic example of why we need to restore collective bargaining rights in this country," said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. "The success MASE-CWA has had - fighting for public workers in a right-to-work (for less) state with no bargaining rights - is no less than incredible."

"Right-to-work" has nothing to do with a right to a job or employment. The deceptively named "right-to-work" laws in 28 states ban workers - who by a majority vote decide to form a union - and employers from negotiating union security clauses. By law in those states unions must represent all workers - members and nonmembers - in contract negotiations and other workplace issues. Yet not all pay their fair share.
Right-to-Work is particularly onerous for Mississippi state workers because the state further denies public workers the right to bargain collectively.

"It takes a spirit of self-sacrifice to join MASE-CWA, a willingness to pay dues and work for the good of all," said Local 3570 President Brenda Scott. "Our members have demonstrated that willingness time and again. When we go to the state capital to speak up for our rights, we stand together, strong, as one."

Fertile Ground
During the 1980s, with the help of CWA, state workers in Mississippi began to organize for a collective voice in dealing with a state Personnel Board recently formed by the legislature. Together, those two bodies set all guidelines for state employment, including work rules and wages.

Established in 1989, MASE-CWA worked through the board and the legislature, fighting to maintain then-recent gains of 100-percent employer-paid health insurance, a one-year probation period for new employees, a grievance procedure for those who become permanent, and retirement eligibility after 25 years. Local 3570 was also successful in raising wages, improving work conditions and building additional job security for all state workers.

The local faced its first major challenge in the 1990s, when then-Governor Kirk Fordice attempted to privatize the Child Support Division of Human Services and reduce the number of offices throughout the state from 82, one in each county, to 32. It would have cost 600 state jobs.

"We fought it," said Earnest Simpson, a child support supervisor and MASE-CWA activist. "Our position was that people would not be able to get the services they needed."

The local convinced legislators to amend their bill to prohibit privatization of any state service without legislative approval. As a result, only two counties were designated for a pilot program.

"This organization is vital to our state employees," Scott said. "It's the only bully pulpit we have."

In 2003, voters elected as governor Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Now the local is in the fight of its life.

Gubernatorial Power Grab
Shortly after taking office, Barbour attempted to remove Personnel Board protection for 11 state agencies that fall under his direct control. Each has 1,000 or more employees scattered throughout the state. They include the Departments of Corrections, Public Safety, and Health and Human Services. Corrections and HHS are hotbeds of MASE organizing and membership.

The governor introduced a bill to change the health plan offered throughout state government to a "choice" plan. Workers could choose to keep their employer-paid health insurance and see a rise in their deductible from $450 to $1,000 or they could choose to pay a premium and have a smaller deductible. "That would have meant a pay cut," Scott said.

But, working with several AFL-CIO central labor bodies, Catholic Charities and community groups, the local flooded legislators with e-mails and visits. In January, about 400 Local 3570 members took personal leave to attend a lobby day in Jackson, the state capital. The local conducted lobby days every month through May and nixed the governor's plan.

"We were able to keep our Personnel Board protections in 10 of the 11 agencies and part of the Department of Corrections," Scott said, though 185 workers at state prisons the legislature failed to protect lost their jobs.

Among leaders in the mobilization was Robert Reeves, president of the Local 3570 unit at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution. Of a potential 600, the unit has 200 dues-paying members, and the organizing never stops.

Reeves gets workers involved through a website with unit news and a lobbying tutorial, as well as links to the websites of MASE, CWA, the AFL-CIO and major newspapers including the Sun Herald and Clarion Ledger. Letters to the editors played a major role in turning legislative and community sentiment away from the governor's plan. SMCI was spared from job cuts.

The Mississippi House also tried to pass a measure permitting a reduction in force that would have frozen hiring, eliminated positions through attrition and respected workers' seniority if a further RIF was necessary. Even that was not good enough for Barbour.

He came back with a budget bill seeking full control to eliminate jobs at will throughout state agencies. The Clarion Ledger, in Jackson, calculated that even 1,700 layoffs, about 10 percent of workers whose salaries come through the general fund, would save the state only $66.3 million - nowhere near enough to balance the budget.

Clarion Ledger reporter John Fuquay quoted Budget Committee Chair Jack Gordon (D-Okolona) as saying, "With the budget gap we've got, we're talking about Draconian cuts. Cuts that will be hard." Gordon did not speculate on the exact number.

Local 3570 continued to lobby legislators for a tax increase and other measures to bridge the budget shortfall during a special session in late November. The governor will submit his final budget for a vote after the legislature begins its regular session on Jan. 4.

Scott said local activists were meeting with members across the state to prepare them for a major lobby day in Jackson on Jan. 27 and would continue to work with print and television media to build community support.

The state Senate remained opposed to a tax increase as the CWA News went to press. House members were more sympathetic to the workers' plight, but Gordon said an alternative must be found to avoid job cuts.

Strength Through Adversity
Mississippi state workers have seen what mobilization can do. Strongly supported by CWA's Public, Health Care and Education Workers Sector and Vice President Brooks Sunkett, Local 3570 continues to organize and now has 3,100 members. The current governor's attacks on workers' job security has only fueled their desire for representation.

"Being in a right-to-work state, it's difficult to organize," Reeves said. President of his unit only since January, he signed up 60 new members in the past month. Scott, who paid a visit to Corrections on Nov. 30, signed another 10, all new hires.

"The courage and commitment of these workers is amazing," Scott said. "Against all odds in a state that denies public workers collective bargaining rights and allows workers to not join the union, they have stood up and built a union and made a difference. We know that we - all of us in MASE-CWA - will make a difference in January."