About me a fellow Nebraskan

[Omaha Steve]

Marta and I live in Bellevue now. I once was the Chairman of the Indian Hills (Theatre) Preservation Society. I'm a union steward. I'm pro choice. I'm think hard about running for office in two to four years.

I believe it is time to use our forum. Politics won't be the driving force here. I saw Iron Man at the Cinema Center in Omaha tonight on the BIG screen. Loved it.

Tell us all about you.

OS

[residentfan]

1. Who I am

I live in Lincoln, Nebraska with my wife, Feng. I was once a union staff and was out of the Democratic Party for a good 5 years until the recent caucuses. Frankly, I think the Democrats in Nebraska should work harder to build up the enthusiasm those started.

I work for a public social service agency and work for about 64 hours a week for only 6.50 an hour. Regardless of the wages I am making more than I have since I left working for the union as I work so many hours. It's not a difficult job, although I get tired of starry eyed good doers telling me how special I am working it, especially after losing 2 months of pay working for Transfigurations (thanks Health and Human Services for screwing me out of a lot of money).

If I sound somewhat cynical, I am. After 13 years working for the union I watched the employees of that organization pee away opportunity after opportunity to better their lives. I watched upper level union management screw the staff I worked with from their own union contract, and force the staff to place an illegal clause in their contract prohibiting them to collect overtime pay. Then I watched upper union management force the employees of that union to give up their union bank account. So, I do not believe unions are as progressive of a force as they could be, and oftentimes ignore opportunities and do reactionary things that smear their image to the very people that could build the union.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Welcome to the DU & the Ne Forum

The right to work law hurts unions in Ne. too. I'm happy with my union. I work for the City of Omaha. Last year on February 22nd, the city illegally fired me in retaliation for filing an ADA complaint. I was reinstated around June 20th after my local filed a grievance. I pay $500 a year in dues. The union paid over $5,000 to our lawyer on my case alone.

I was also fired in 1980 from a non union print shop while I was trying to organize the plant. 3 & 1/2 years later after court action the Appellate Court in St. Louis upheld my reinstatement.

My case file at the NLRB: http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/Board%20Decisions/261/261-38.pdf

I know there are bad unions and or circumstances. A union is only as good as the effort the rank and file put into it should also be considered.

[residentfan]

3. Your Union

You are lucky. The union I worked for no longer takes grievances to arbitration. If you were in that local, you probably wouldn't have been able to get your job back unless you paid for a lawyer and arbitration or court costs out of your own pocket.

[residentfan]

4. NLRB for a city worker?

Did you use an NLRB arbitrators panel for your case? Certainly, if you work for the city of Omaha you didn't go to the NLRB as they would have no jurisdictional over you, a public employee. In the past (in one case) I used an NLRB panel to strike from for one of our units, but it was still a case under the jurisdiction of the State of Nebraska.

[Omaha Steve]

5. The old case with the NLRB was with the GAU Local 520 (now part of the Teamsters)

It was a private print shop. My new case with the city was to go to arbitration. The city settled with full reinstatement and back benefits 5 days before the hearing.

[residentfan]

6. Thanks for clearing that up for me... :)

[residentfan]

7. About AFSCME and Clinton

found this article on the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mc ... 99816.html

In that article, it says:


"Funding did have role to play in the failure to uncover and correct the flaws. For years, AFSCME members in Minnesota and across the country have been warning that public services are under-funded and understaffed. We complained that Minnesota had too few inspectors to examine bridges, and too few maintenance workers to keep up with necessary repairs. We pointed out the critical need for bridge repairs to Governor Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota legislature, urging them to provide more money to the Minnesota Department of Transportation."

"All too often our warnings went unheeded, just as our requests for increased federal funding for infrastructure upkeep and repairs were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress until last year."

- end of article -

Recently Hillary Clinton has been calling for a tax moratorium for gas. It won't really give a hell of a lot of monetary relief, but I'm certain that she is calling for it because of political expediency and to bring support to her campaign.

Oh, by the way, McSame is asking for the same thing.

Who asked for it first is immaterial. AFSCME has put around 4 million dollars into Clinton's campaign. You would think I would find an article by AFSCME or anyone else pointing out the contradiction of Clinton's statements and AFSCME's wishes - but I could not.

Cutting funding will probably cost jobs in the highway departments and potentially could make the roads more dangerous. However, AFSCME has a history of king making and I'm certain they do not want their candidate to fail, as it could make their position on capital hill weaker if Obama would win the presidency (or so they probably think) .

However, AFSCME is a labor union and should be concerned about their workers jobs, safety, and public safety.

But they are willing to risk it all for a few cents and a couple of votes.

Hardly seems worth it to me.

[Omaha Steve]

8. The AFSCME figure is now 6 million

Your right on about the tax cut on gas. Funny thing McEntee went AFTER McCain on that a few days ago.

http://www.afscmeblog.org/category/budget-and-taxes/

McCain is Wrong on Collapsing Bridges and the Mafia’s Good Works

May 2nd, 2008

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee today challenged John McCain on “two “crazy statements” the Senator made this week. McCain blamed the collapse of the Minnesota I-35 bridge last year on congressional earmarks and suggested that the U.S. Congress was similar to the Mafia.

In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, President McEntee points out the need to invest in public services and infrastructure instead of spending our nation’s wealth on tax cuts for the rich or the war in Iraq.

Senator McCain is happy to blame the disastrous results of Republican inaction on earmarks, but that’s not where the responsibility belongs. He is responsible, as are the other politicians who failed to provide crucial funding for infrastructure upkeep and repairs. Earmarks aren’t to blame. It’s irresponsible Republican legislators like Senator McCain.

Read the full post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mcentee/mccain-is-wrong-on-collap_b_99816.html



AFSCME has an internal fight going on over the Clinton endorsement and tactics AFSCME has used. It went public in January. I suspect President McEntee may not get re-elected at our San Fran convention. Two states went for Obama Illinois and Oregon. I too went for Obama after Edwards dropped out.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/afscme-fight-continues/

January 6, 2008, 5:42 pm
AFSCME Fight Continues

By Jim Rutenberg

As the Time magazine political blog The Page reported on Saturday, a group of American Federation of State, Civil and Municipal Employees leaders from around the country has written a letter to the union’s International chiefs protesting their production of mailings and radio ads attacking Senator Barack Obama’s health care proposals.

Their argument is that the while the International board is supporting Senator Hillary Clinton, it should not be engaged in attacking other candidates.

The AFSCME International president Gerald W. McEntee has just responded. Here is his statement:

Seven members of AFSCME’s 35 member board wrote a letter to me expressing concerns about negative campaigns. I believe that personal attacks have no place in our democracy. They degrade candidates, insult voters and reduce politics to name-calling. Negative campaigns attack a candidates character and integrity and they don’t stick to the facts.

While I am not, by law, allowed to participate in any way in the activities of AFSCME’s political action committee in this area, about this I am clear: AFSCME’s independent expenditure effort is not a negative campaign. Rather, it has contrasted differences between the candidates on the issues, and it has focused on the two frontrunners: Senators Clinton and Obama. In an Associated Press story on December 21, Senator Obama got it right when he was discussing campaign tactics and said, “If people are arguing about policy, that’s part of politics and that’s fair. AFSCME’s campaign has been fair and has stuck to the issues.

Health care is an issue where the candidates have a different approach. Obama’s plan does not cover every American. In fact, it leaves 15 million Americans without the medical care they need. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards plans do not leave anyone behind. They cover everyone. This is the difference that the AFSCME political action committee has highlighted. There are 15 million reasons to be opposed to Obama’s health care plan, and the AFSCME campaign is simply pointing them out.

While spirited debate during the primary season is healthy, I don’t think that any candidate or her or his supporters should say or do anything that would hurt the chances of the eventual nominee to win in the general election.

This is why I was troubled when the Obama campaign labeled AFSCME’s political action committee and some of the so-called 527 efforts (such as the one for Edwards in Iowa) as outside groups and special interests from Washington, DC, as if workers are somehow just like insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry.

Workers are not a special interest. We fight for the general interest. And working families and their unions will be critical to making the Democratic nominee the next president of the United States.

Its important for everyone inside our union, as well as all the Democratic candidates and their supporters, to remember that we are all on the same side with the same goal taking back the White House for America’s working families and making it the people’s house again.

Anyway I'm proud to be in a union with 1.4 million members. We are AFL-CIO. Dr. King was assassinated while trying to help illegally striking AFSCME sanitation workers in Memphis.

http://www.afscme.org/about/1029.cfm

[residentfan]

9. AFSCME

AFSCME has not been the same ever since the Indiana campaign in the 1980's. I would hardly compare it to the age of Martin Luther King, Jr. I doubt they have that kind of bravery anymore.

[Omaha Steve]

10. I'm happy with AFSCME

I guess I'll leave it at that. I've never been left high and dry.

[residentfan]

11. Will drop it too

I will respectfully drop the AFSCME controversy too.