State workers’ unions win agreements but attacks on students, poor still on
By
Joseph Piette
Philadelphia
Published Jul 1, 2011 7:14 PM
Just days after hundreds of state workers rallied in Philadelphia and
Harrisburg, Pa., state workers represented by the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees Council 13 and the Service Employees union came
to a tentative agreement with Pennsylvania government officials.
Pennsylvania unions fight cutbacks. Philadelphia, June 21.
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SEIU Local 668 President Kathy Jellison stated, “The proposal that the
commonwealth initially put on the table called for a 4-percent wage decrease, a
significant reduction in employee leave, rolling furloughs and huge give-backs
in health care, which would have severely hurt our members, their families and
retirees. Through hard work and determination our team was able to
significantly ratchet back the demands of the commonwealth and maintain the
status quo in many cases ... The tentative agreement includes a 10.75-percent
wage increase over four years, no significant increases to health care
contributions and no rolling furloughs.” (www.seiu668.org)
While contracts with 17 state employee unions expire June 30, the AFSCME and
SEIU settlements traditionally are used as a template for agreements with
smaller unions in Pennsylvania.
The four-year agreements were won despite give-back contracts forced on public
workers in nearby states. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie and legislators of
both parties sharply increased state and local workers’ contributions for
their health insurance and pensions, suspended cost-of-living increases to
retirees’ pension checks, raised retirement ages and decreased union
bargaining rights.
In addition to demanding a new contract without givebacks, a major demand of
the June 21 labor march and rally in Philadelphia was, “No cutbacks in
state services.” Hundreds of state workers listened to speakers in Love
Plaza before taking over the streets around Philadelphia’s City Hall.
SEIU Local 668, which represents state social workers and units for
developmentally disabled people in the Philadelphia area, organized the protest
rally.
Speakers at the rally criticized Gov. Corbett’s massive cutbacks, calling
them unnecessary, especially if taxes were fairly applied to corporations. Some
70 percent of corporations currently avoid any tax payments.
The unionists also called for enacting taxes on the gas-drilling industry.
Betsey Piette of the International Action Center asserted that the money
communities need is there but the rich are unwilling to spend those funds to
serve the working class. She called for ending the wars against Iraq,
Afghanistan and Libya and spending those funds instead on providing union jobs
in working-class communities.
Slashing funds for social needs
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett may have wanted to concentrate his efforts on
slashing funds to programs that benefit the working class, rather than directly
attacking the state workers’ unions, which are a better organized sector
of the workers.
His administration is close to finalizing a state budget agreement that may
slash as much as $471 million from the budget for the Department of Public
Welfare, including $280 million in Medicaid cuts. (Philadelphia Inquirer, June
21)
The cuts would end Medicaid coverage for 100,000 Pennsylvanians, says Sharon
Ward, executive director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. Medicaid
provides health coverage for 2.3 million low-income, elderly, and/or disabled
Pennsylvanians, 50 percent of whom are under 18 years old.
Additional cuts include about $37 million in cash grants — welfare
— to the poorest Pennsylvanians, and $38 million from programs that help
low-income people afford child care while they work, or train for work, so they
can afford to survive without welfare. It’s also proposed to cut by
nearly $400,000 the state’s food-purchase program for the food pantries
frequented by the needy.
The cuts in programs for the poor are in addition to severe cuts in education.
Higher education cutbacks include 19 percent, or a total of $130 million, for
Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University
and Lincoln University, as well as cuts of 18 percent, or about $90 million,
from the 14 universities in the State System of Higher Education.
Corbett also wants to reduce public school aid by $550 million and eliminate
$259 million in subsidies for programs such as all-day kindergarten.
The state’s budget deadline is June 30.
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