Henry
Bayer
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Can't afford to organize?
Wrong
October 16, 2001
TOO OFTEN WE FORGET the connection between organizing new members and our own well-being. But ask anyone who has ever served on an AFSCME negotiating team what usually happens when the parties start talking about economic issues, and we'll quickly remember.
They'll tell you that the employer will cite figures from other employers. If it's a municipality they'll look for cities in the general vicinity or of comparable size and seek to demonstrate that their compensation levels are at least competitive with similar employers. The union for its part will look for examples that show that the employer's compensation is below the comparable averages.
The same dynamic is at work at the state level. The state of Illinois will look for examples to make a case for keeping compensation increases low, while the union will look for data that support arguments for more money. While comparable data isn't the only factor in determining success, it certainly is an important ingredient. Even if the union is strong and the members are willing to fight, if our wages are already at the top end, it's harder to gain political or public support for our cause.
That's one of the reasons that AFSCME members in Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota, and a host of other states didn't object to having a large portion of their dues money sent to Illinois in 1973. That's when then-Gov. Dan Walker signed an executive order granting collective bargaining rights to state employees. Our out-of-state union brothers and sisters understood that if state employees organized, and AFSCME became the exclusive representative for Illinois state employees and was able to raise compensation levels here, it would help them at the bargaining table in their own states.
Indeed, at the time, wages for state employees were a shadow of what they are today. In those days Illinois paid a grand total of $7 a month toward dependent health coverage. Employees had no dental insurance and eye care wasn't covered. Getting to the top of the pay scale wasn't determined by your length of service; it required a so-called "superior performance evaluation" from a supervisor to get to the last two steps of the pay plan; and there was no longevity pay.
You can guess which side of the bargaining table cited Illinois when the parties sat down to negotiate in other states. It wasn't the union.
Fortunately much has changed here in the 28 years since that bargaining order was issued, and state employees are now near the top on wages and benefits. But the tables have turned on us, thanks to our success. Today the employer cites other states to argue for smaller wage increases when we negotiate.
However, we now have an opportunity to help ourselves. Governors of two neighboring states, Kentucky and Missouri, have issued executive orders similar to the one promulgated here in Illinois more than a quarter century ago. And just as dues money from other states was used in Illinois to help us organize, dues money from Illinois and other states that are already organized will flow to the organizing efforts in Kentucky and Missouri through the national union's per capita tax.
Two AFSCME members from Illinois have already taken leaves from their state jobs to work full time in the Kentucky effort. A number of members took a few days off last month to travel there to spread the union message. I suspect that in the coming weeks, scores more will be called upon to assist in one or both places.
Those members understood that as long as Kentucky state employees must pay $400 a month just for dependent health insurance, or some state employees are paid so little they qualify for food stamps, our bargaining position across the border here in Illinois is undermined.
Sending our dues money or making the trip across the Mississippi to Missouri, or across the Ohio to Kentucky, is an important act of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in those states. But it's also much more—it's helping ourselves.
Nor do we have to cross any bridges to find other examples of places where it helps us to organize. Right here in our own backyard, lots of folks who provide public services are employed by private contractors and make much less than AFSCME members do. Their compensation levels undermine ours, so our interest in helping these workers organize ranks just as high as our interests in Kentucky and Missouri.
We make a mistake when we think that the expense of organizing, and it is a big expense, is something we can't afford. In truth, organizing is not a luxury: It's an imperative that we can't afford to neglect; it's an investment that we absolutely need to make.
To those who think we need to spend less time and money on organizing, I would say we need to spend more. Nothing else we do will do more to make our union stronger. That's why my hat is off to the members who've made the trek to Kentucky and those scores of others who've helped out in organizing drives here in Illinois. I hope more of us come to the understanding they've reached, and act on it as well.
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