AFSCME: Refusing to Lay Down

LAST PERSON STANDING

Last Friday, the spokesperson for all-but criminal gang occupying the 11th Floor of Albuquerque's city hall issued an edict to the members of AFSCME Local 2962. In the words of Rob "Thug Life" Perry, "the City will IMPOSE its Last Best Offer made to the Local 2962 on July 31, 2014."

In essence the negotiations are over. Not that there ever were any negotiations because in dealing with Berry/Perry, there are no negotiations. There is only their way. And as we've seen with the fire and police unions, the Perry plays only to win.  So while Berry went on the news Friday touting how the 500+ clerical members of AFSCME are getting a 3% raise, let's take a look at what they are losing. And these incidentally are the things our eyes at AFSCME tell us were the sticking points that the City refused to negotiate on:

1. A 1 year contract as desired by the City as opposed to the 3 year contract desired by AFSCME. Why bother securing a multi-year contract so that you can plan the city's budget for multiple years when you can pay your contract union buster John Martinez another several hundred thousand dollars next year?

2. Removal of the "evergreen" clause as opposed to keeping it. Why bother respecting to the terms of an agreed upon contract when it expires when the City can just call it void and do whatever it wants?

3. Denial of any binding arbitration as opposed to respecting it. Why bother risking getting called on the city's deceitful and deceptive negotiation tactics with a binding third-party?

and of the course the big deal breaker:

4. Require all union members contribute to their local union reps rather than have them compensated by the city for "union time".

But like all things Berry/Perry, there are a lot of hidden details that are conveniently omitted from their press parties. For instance:

5. Disciplinary action my now initiate when management believes such action is necessary. Who needs any due process when you got Rob Perry deciding such matters. (24.1.1.1)

6. Investigation into employee misconduct will in many cases be conducted without any disclosure to the target employee. (24.2.1)

7. Denial of any appeals where the disciplined employee may be "made whole". (25.1.5)

And of course we have the notion that under Mr. "Thug Life" Perry, the city can just arbitrarily implement such changes despite their being a collective bargaining agent for these 500 employees.  This should be interesting....

Let's see if AFSCME turns out to be the most committed labor union for their members.  Oh and if anybody has any questions, feel free to call the city's chief labor czar, John Martinez, at 505-228-1360. Since he's taken several hundred thousand dollars on behalf of the city, we're sure he's fine hearing from some of the folks he's been working over. Ooops, an "eye" slip, we me for.

Misleading and Mischaracterized Statements: Yermal Style

Recently the above memo was distributed out to Albuquerque city employees. In it Berry/Perry & Company's very own Human Resources director, Vinnie Yermal,  reacted to a public comment by a labor union president representing the local AFSCME chapter. Yermal you see was upset about some comments made by the president that revealed publicly what has been the city's method of working with labor unions: Don't Work With Them. And here, Yermal went on the attack.

Since Berry took office, he and Perry have not backed down from their efforts to remove all city paid compensation to city employees who get paid to work for their unions. This is an ideological argument that neo-conservatives can't seem to get over. Nevermind the fact that at most we're talking about a handful of employees and that in reality they bring a positive savings that out weighs their earnings. But by the city's actions of not negotiation on this issue, they have brought an impasse to union contracts with the police, fire, and AFSCME covered city employees. And from those impasse's there are lawsuits and decreased productivity. Not bright executive management style at all if you ask us. Out of protest of a few employees, Berry/Perry have harmed thousands of other employees.

While Berry/Perry's lead contract negotiator has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in his efforts to make sure all the main unions do not get new contracts, the affected employees have also seen their pay go down while their expenses go up. Now with the AFSCME president bringing attention to this matter, Yermal goes on the offensive in actually blames her for the impasse.

Oddly Yermal makes the statement that had the unions folded on this issue all employees would have seen a 1% raise each year for each of the last three years. Funny, affected city employees have seen a reduction in income and had this increase occurred it would have been a pay restoration and not a raise. Silly Yermal.

Yermal then closes the memo by saying, after his lies, that he hopes the "memo clears up and confusion and misunderstanding regarding the City's position." Right, because only in the land of Berry/Perry is it called leadership where you punish the vast majority of your employees while you give your impulse control impaired CAO a $33,000/year raise.

We at the Eye have to state the obvious, Yermal sounds way too upset for a guy that according to the city's transgression, oops we me transparency, site makes $45.94/hour.

But then again, since Yermal only gave $500 to Berry's campaign (reported on August 20th), unlike the $2500 Perry gave Berry, I guess we shouldn't be surprised he's been tasked to push back against the city's workers.

Given how APOA Vice President Willoughby can't support APD interim chief Allen Banks enough praise (even though Banks is even more anti-union than Schultz) we don't expect much from the city's finest to fight for their wages. AFD shows promise but the cards are still out.

Who knows, maybe it will be the clerical workers, the solid waster drivers, or perhaps those fiesty librarians that finally pull the plug on Berry/Perry & Company's war on their employees. We do know that they just got a huge ally with the election of Diane Gibson to city council.....we see.....

A War on the Public

WAR! Screams the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. Apparently the union believes that its members will be irreparably harmed by Mayor Berry's proposal to cut city wages by a whopping 3%.

"Please understand that we are at war, a war of survival and a right to exist, and we will not go lightly into the night," [Andrew] Padilla wrote in a recent AFSCME newsletter. "Everyone must be prepared to assist the union in this most dire of situations."

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

 Sounds a lot like a line from the movie "Independence Day." More importantly, the highly charged rhetoric is ill-advised and factually inaccurate. First and foremost, Mayor Berry is not challenging AFSCME's "right to exist." In point of fact, the union's existence isn't being challenged or threatened in the least, but rather public employees' ability to continue living as if the Great Recession didn't exist.

Three years ago, Albuquerque's unemployment rate was 3.4% according to Workforce Solutions. Now, the Albuquerque's unemployment stands at 9.2% (New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions). In three years Albuquerque has gone from what is considered to be full employment to almost 10% unemployment. So what has been happening in the public sector workforce over the last 12 months?

Government added 1,100 new jobs for an increase of 1.3 percent. The lion’s share of the growth came from federal government, which was up 700. Local and state government gained 200 jobs each. Many of the new federal government jobs have come from the decennial census. 

- New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions

Other winners during the current economic disaster are health care workers and you guessed it... teachers. Educational & Health Services added 600 jobs. Meanwhile, construction (-2,100); manufacturing (-1,500); professional & business services (-3,000); retail trade (-1,200); transportation, warehousing & utilities (-800); financial activities (-100); and miscellaneous other services (-200).

It's clear that the private sector has been hemorrhaging jobs while the public sector not only enjoys job stability but increases. Now, instead of being thankful for relative stability of their members' jobs - the organization charged with representing these lucky workers is marching to "WAR!"

Hmmm... we wonder just how well AFSCME's "war" will go over with the public when almost 1 in 10 of them are out there trying to find a job?

Like it or not, government workers do not create wealth. Government workers consume wealth created by others in the private sector. Each government job depends on the healthy existence of hundreds of private sector jobs. At a time when the private sector is shrinking, it's morally wrong and fiscally unsustainable to increase the burdens placed on a shrinking number of private sector workers and businesses.

They say it's wise to pick your battles. With 9.2% unemployment and 18 months of negative job growth, AFSCME is simply outnumbered. Mayor Berry and the City Council would do well to stand with the public that elected them and pass the mayor's proposed budget. This is a battle that AFSCME is unlikely to win in a "war" that should never be fought.