|
Working Together Works (& It’s All That Works) |
|
|
Labor Day Special
By Julie Butcher
Budget woes threaten governments at every level. The tax-paying public seems willing to accept modest tax increases but only if they believe that government is doing everything it can to be efficient and cut costs. Workers know best how to do the work best, so it behooves union members to be at the table working to help figure it all out, being part of the solution that, after all, saves jobs along with vital services.
 The California state budget’s a mess, with no real solution in sight. This has multiple affects here in LA, because state money flows into the county and services the state provides are needed at the local level.
However, locally the labor movement has been able to help. For instance, the City of South Gate recently passed a 1% sales tax increase that will help preserve services for residents, with a lot of help from union members who live and work there and went door to door to talk with their neighbors about why it was needed. City officials and the union representing their employees worked together – and won with 74% of the voters saying yes.
Working together works—and it’s the only thing that works.
Government works best when it functions as intended—accountable to the public. Unions representing public services workers have often been seen by the public as a problem, but public service workers know best how to do the best possible job, and sitting down with management they can often help politicians despite themselves figure out how to do the best thing in the best way for the best dollar.
We’ve seen this dramatically here in Los Angeles, over and over. Unions representing city workers eventually convinced Mayor Riordan that his plans to privatize the city workforce were not the best thing for the City. Though city unions did not endorse him he proved be both tough and fair. As an outgrowth of this fight, the joint labor-management process developed between SEIU and management has been incredibly productive. City unions worked with city officials to oppose Valley secession and keep our City whole and won that fight as well.
In the past year or so six unions representing 22,000 LA city workers joined together in the Coalition of LA City Unions. Mayor Villaraigosa invited the Coalition to enter into a process of working together rather than in opposition to reach a contract that rewarded city workers for their past sacrifices and helped retain the best workers. It also keeps the mutual gains process alive throughout the five year contract to continue improving services and finding efficiencies. As in South Gate, many city workers also live in the city and are often leaders in their communities—the soccer coaches, church deacons and block captains.
This year, when the Mayor submitted a budget to the City Council that included layoffs, the Coalition and the CAO’s office went directly to work looking for alternate solutions—both sides working together and recognizing that every city worker represents a city service. Working together worked again: layoffs were averted and services preserved. Yet another LA Mayor proved tough but fair.
No one in public service does it for the money. People do it because they believe in it. That’s as true of management as front line workers. Big organizations whether public or private can often get in their own way. Public service unions can serve the public best by using the power of their voice to ensure that we deliver the highest quality services. Thereby the public’s trust in government can be restored, and solutions to budget problems will become easier—finding efficiencies in service delivery and earning the public’s trust to the extent that they’ll approve prudent revenue increases.
Barack Obama received the Democratic nomination for President today. As I write this, it is clear that part of his appeal is the hope of setting aside partisan differences to solve the serious problems we face. He knows from experience that working together works. Unions support him because they expect him to take on the toughest issues first: helping to restore balance to an economy that has been tilting more and more toward the “haves” and making more and more “have-nots” by making it easier for working people to join unions—“the best anti-poverty program that America’s ever had,” as SEIU’s Andy Stern has said.
A big contributor to the rise of Barack Obama has been a new generation of idealistic youth who seem to be largely color-blind and not interested in the partisan bickering of the older folks now in the halls of power. These youths don’t have to be told that working together works, they take it as a given, knowing what the future of our country requires, they might just save the planet while they’re at it. (Julie Butcher is the Regional Director for LA/OC Cities, SEIU 721.) ◘
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 70
Pub: August 29, 2008
|
