Executive Director’s Report - Anthony J. Caso

Revenue Shortfall Forces Deep Cuts to Essential Services

The past few months have been difficult times for our members and the taxpayers that rely on our services.

In Massachusetts, AFSCME has spent a significant amount of time and resources fighting off Republican Governor Mitt Romney's assault on public employees and essential public services.

Romney campaigned on the promise that he could cut the state's $3 billion deficit without raising taxes or cutting core services. But it soon became obvious that he couldn't keep the promise and would have to choose to either increase revenue or make huge cuts to the services he promised to protect.

Not surprisingly, Romney went after the core services, delivering painful cuts in local aid, human services, public safety, education, elderly prescription drug coverage, and many other critical areas. Romney tried to mask the severity of the fiscal crisis with a "smoke and mirrors" budget that was rife with phony reforms, unproven costs savings and gimmicks. However, it didn't take long for even business funded organizations like the Massachusetts Taxpayers' Foundation to figure out that the governor's numbers didn't add up and it soon became clear that without an increase in revenue, more cuts would be needed.

But even after his numbers were exposed as fraud, Romney persisted with his deceptive campaign tactics. In April and May, he used Republican Party funds to run a radio campaign that asked the public to urge their legislators to reject tax increases and adopt his "reform" budget.

Romney's shameless deceit prompted Council 93 to respond with its own statewide radio blitz that urged Romney to get off the campaign trail and give the people “honest numbers and balanced solutions that may include taxes.” I'm proud to say that AFSCME was the only labor union to directly respond to the Romney radio campaign.

Romney's budget was followed by spending plans from the House and Senate, released in April and May respectively. These plans also contained deep cuts but, much to the credit of the Democratic lawmakers that crafted the plans, the budgets contained honest numbers that exposed Romney's budget as a fraud and correctly framed the fiscal crisis as a revenue problem - not a spending problem. The House and Senate budgets also rejected a series of offensive anti-union proposals by Romney that would have stripped thousands of state workers of their collective bargaining rights, ended seniority, and abolished the civil service system. Legislators also derailed - at least temporarily - Romney's attempt to abandon the mentally ill and mentally retarded by closing badly needed residential treatment facilities for these vulnerable citizens.

But unfortunately, due in large part to the effect that Romney's phony, anti-tax rhetoric has had on the public, House and Senate members refused to make tax increases part of the discussion. As a result, our cities and towns are now bracing for deep cuts in local aid and many state-funded human services programs will be gutted.

It's been clear for some time now that the only way to prevent such devastating cuts is to embrace a balanced solution that includes a combination of spending cuts, meaningful reforms and increased revenues. But time is running out. If new revenues are not introduced soon, some of the cuts will have an irreversible impact.

However, our legislators are clearly apprehensive about raising taxes, even though most recognize the need. The deep-pocketed Republican Party has used its resources to effectively get a large segment of the population to believe its phony message and legislators are feeling the heat.

AFSCME members need to fight back. We need to counter the Republican message by letting our State Senators and Representatives know that they have our support to save essential services by raising taxes. Our legislators need to know that that there is a large and growing segment of the public that does not buy into the Romney charade. And, most importantly, they need to know that if they stand behind us, we will stand behind them at election time.

Our brothers and sisters in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are also struggling with their own battles.

In Maine, budget woes continue and contract negotiations for 1,200 state corrections and mental health workers are at a standstill. Our Maine office reports that state negotiators want to freeze pay step increases and do not want any new increases included in the contract.

In addition to the contract negotiations, Maine is also awaiting action on some prohibitive practice complaints that were filed in response to the state's refusal to fund step pay increases and the failure to negotiate the terms and conditions of paid time off.

On a more upbeat note, our Maine staff reports that things are looking positive for a "fair share" provision. AFSCME is pushing for converting current non-member employees immediately, while the state is advocating for making only new hires subject to the fair share provision.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, stalled contract negotiations could force 150 Sullivan County nursing home employees into a picket line. The current contract for AFSCME Local 3438 expires in June but there's been no significant progress made. County negotiators canceled the most recent mediation session at the last minute leaving just one more session before the contract expires.

AFSCME is fighting an attempt by the county to raise employee health insurance premium contributions from 15 percent to 25 percent. We're also pushing for appropriate wage increases and a new pay step system. Under the current pay-step system, some employees with more than 20 years of service have not reached the maximum step. However, county management employees somehow make it to the maximum within a few years.

Our New Hampshire office is also seeking to put a stop to the use of expensive contract employees in the nursing homes. Contract employees cost far more than full-time employees and serve to weaken the union.

Our members, who include direct care and food service workers, are considering informational picketing to call more attention to the issues and the need for a contract. Stay tuned.

Our Vermont office scored a big victory for workers throughout their state when they were part of the effort that defeated a bid by Republican Governor James Douglas to eliminate the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration (VOSHA).

In an effort to save money, the governor had proposed giving the federal government the responsibility of ensuring that employers were in compliance with health and safety regulations. Since the federal government is already woefully in need of more health and safety inspectors, the move would have drastically decreased the amount of inspections performed in Vermont and would have undoubtedly led to more accidents in the workplace.

Faced with pressure from labor unions and other concerned parties, Vermont legislators came up with funding for VOSHA. Governor Douglas now reportedly supports the funding especially since it was learned that state would lose about $250,000 in fine revenue generated annually by VOSHA if the office was eliminated.

The Vermont office won another important fight in legislature at the 11th hour. Union lobbying led to passage of a bill that protects municipal workers from lawsuits. The legislation prevents municipal employees from being sued personally for damages if they were involved in an accident while on the job. Under the law passed by the legislature, damages are limited to the amount a city or town is required to pay thereby protecting the personal assets of the public employee.

Passage of the law was among the final action taken by the legislature before it recessed until next January.

As always, we'll keep you, our members, updated on these and other important issues. In the interim, I offer my best wishes to all members of the AFSCME family for a happy and healthy summer.