You may have heard or read about the Supreme Court’s decision in the Janus case. Janus is one more case in a long line of cases this Court has issued that are anti-union and anti-employee.
Under Janus, agency fees (fees for union services paid by non-members) are no longer considered to be lawful. If you are currently a member, this decision does not affect you. Janus is just a strategic attack on unions like us which is intended to weaken our power and weaken our ability to get better wages and benefits.
Anti-labor groups have waged this battle against unions for years, and just hours after the Supreme Court Decision was issued,
the Mackinac Center, a
right wing policy group that advocates for privatization of public services, sent out an email urging public employees, public school teachers, police and firefighters to drop their unions. The Mackinac Center is planning to spend $10 million in its efforts to get public employees to drop their unions. If this decision was about “first amendment rights” as they claimed, why so fast and furious with the email? Why spend so much money “educating” you about your rights?
The answer is simple: this was not about your first amendment rights at all. This is about privatizing your jobs and all other public services for the benefit of the 1%. This is about hurting you and your families and the financial security you’ve attained by being part of Local 1994. This is about stopping us from fighting for economic justice and strengthening the middle class.
Their work was highly destructive when they passed Act 10 in Wisconsin. They managed to erode pension, pay and benefits for Wisconsin’s teachers, so badly that teachers are now earning 12 percent less than they were prior to the passage of Act 10.
Right now, we have some of the best pay and benefits in the region, and our contracts are the standard by which other numerous communities measure their pay and benefits. Add to our contracts a grievance procedure and committees that give us a voice in the workplace, and it’s clear that being a MCGEO member is a sound investment.
There probably will be much discussion about the Janus decision, but this much is clear – our ability to improve your wages and benefits depends on our strong membership. It’s pretty simple – when we have full membership, we are more powerful and able to get more at the bargaining table.
We have a lot of tough fights ahead of us, but we can take them on and WIN – if we stay united. Think of the successes we have had in just the last year:
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We were able to secure a new contract at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission that included a 3.5% increment increase, a 1.5% COLA and held out against management’s desire to increase health care costs for employees. |
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A wage re-opener at the Housing Opportunities Commission resulted in a 1.95% general wage adjustment and 3.5% increment. |
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Community Service Aides within the Street Outreach Network of the Department of Health and Human Services recouped their promised shift differential. Local 1994 was able to secure a settlement with the Department that will see these employees receive a prorated amount of $728 for every year that the employee has worked for the program up until 2016. Some of the affected employees will receive nearly 10 years of back pay awarded to them. |
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At the Department of Corrections, we were able to establish a work/life committee to address workplace complaints, established multi-lingual pay for nurses and also added a DOCR nurse to the retirement plan. |
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Mechanics in the Montgomery County Department of General Services secured reclassifications that will raise wages and improve job titles for many of the mechanics. |
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Library employees at PGCMLS won reclassifications that will raise wages for hundreds of members by nearly a million dollars per year. |
What we do is important. Because of you and your coworkers, we have had the resources to improve your work and family lives. You’ve made a great choice to support Local 1994 in the past, and we know you will keep making that great choice in the future. YOU are the union. Together, we can keep fighting and winning and making our work life better for all of us.
