Archer Reneges on Wages--Now Offers City Workers Nothing!

 

Rally for All City Workers!

Wednesday, September 26, 4 pm to 6 pm

City-County Building, Jefferson Entrance

Be There!

 

Fair Contract Now!

Invest in City Workers & City Services! Stop Privatizing!

Archer: Where’s the Casino Money?

 

On Sept 18 Mayor Archer withdrew his wage offer, and is now offering us no raises at all in our 2001-04 contract! AFSCME officials cancelled negotiations until further notice, threatening management with an Unfair Labor Practice charge. This is a new low in our contract negotiations. All city workers must unite and answer this challenge. Come to the rally and demand a good contract now!

 

More of Archer’s BS

 

Archer says that due to a reduction in projected tax revenues the city is facing a $30 - $40 million shortfall this year. Archer also cites the “aftermath of the national events” as another reason for withdrawing his last wage offer. That offer itself was an insult--a 1.5% raise the first year, with a possible 2% bonus in each of the next two years. But the bonuses would not be folded into our hourly rates, and the mayor could have refused to pay them at all if he said he couldn’t afford it.

 

The Effects of September 11

 

For the next period all political events, including our contracts, will be affected by the tragic deaths which occurred on Sept. 11. Many ordinary citizens suffered from the attacks, or are making sacrifices to help the victims’ families. Meanwhile the top layers of our society are blatantly exploiting and manipulating people’s sorrow, sympathies and fears. Employers are trying to use the tragedy to their own advantage.

 

Corporations are using the tragedy as an excuse for massive layoffs. The airlines have already secured $5 billion from the government, plus another $10 in loan guarantees. But the tens of thousands of workers the airlines laid off got nothing! The share of revenues going to the military-industrial complex will skyrocket. Congress has already voted to take $40 billion from Social Security.

 

The news media’s promotion of war is whipping up anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism, and the cops and courts will use it to increase all “racial profiling.” TV images of black and white unity try to divert us from the fact that we must struggle to even maintain affirmative action. They hope these images will erase the memory of the U.S. government boycotting the UN Conference on Racism only a few weeks ago. Meanwhile there is still plenty of “affirmative action” when it comes to war--blacks, Latinos and poor white youth are given disproportionate access to the infantry, with the “opportunity” to die or kill other youth from poor countries.

 

All employers, including the city, hope workers will rally round the flag while they screw us out of our wages, benefits and jobs. We must insist that we be treated with respect and not like gullible fools. A crisis created by US foreign policy, no matter how tragic, is no reason for us to settle for yet another bad contract.

 

It Is Necessary to Fight, and Fight Now

 

Archer may prefer that the next mayor deal with us. He may hope that by refusing to bargain now the next mayor will be able get away with that 1.5% BS. To hell with that! We got saddled with concession contracts while the corporations made record profits for the last nine years. We were told that when the casinos were running we’d get a good contract. Every week the casinos pour millions into the city’s coffers, and we want the good contract we deserve now!

 

Neither Archer or Hill or Kilpatrick will give us a damn thing unless we fight for it. City workers need to show strength and determination now. If the contract is still not ratified when the next mayor takes office, we must be first on his agenda. And he must know that we will not be jerked around. The only way to win respect from the new administration is to fight the lame-duck Archer today. If we make things hot enough, Archer’s corporate backers will tell him to settle the contract.

 

AFSCME Council 25 officials say that they will hold a rally on Oct. 18. If they hold it, Local 207 will go all out to build it, but we can’t wait that long. We must influence the mayor’s next move before then. Come to the rally, and demand a fair contract now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory in U of M Affirmative Action Cases is Imperative

Get on the Local 207 Bus For Cincinnati October 23!

Join the Mass Petition Campaign! Join the New Civil Rights Movement!

 

Local 207 members can rightly be proud that our union is in the forefront of the battle for affirmative action, integration and equality. A strong revitalized union movement linked with a rebuilt Civil Rights Movement is crucial to our everyday lives, and the lives of our children. Local 207 is sending a bus to Cincinnati on Tuesday October 23 to join the national rally for affirmative action. Applications for a seat on the bus will be available from your steward. We need people to circulate the petition for affirmative action in their work places, churches, neighborhoods and schools. Copies of the petition are available from your steward or the union office (965-1601). To download copies or sign online go to www.bamn.com.

 

We Must Win These Cases

 

On Tuesday, October 23, in Cincinnati, Ohio, arguments will be heard in the federal Sixth Circuit Court appeal of the two University of Michigan affirmative action cases. These cases are our generation's Brown v. Board of Education. At stake is all we have achieved in the way of integration in higher education since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

 

You must have YOUR VOICE heard in Cincinnati on October 23. Every workplace, college, university, high school, every city and every town must have its voice heard by the judges who will decide this historic case. They must know that the people of this country will not go back to segregation in higher education. A national mass petition campaign is under way to bring your voice to the federal judges who will decide whether or not to ban affirmative action.

 

We need every supporter of integration, equality and affirmative action to circulate this petition. We need thousands of petitions from every state to make clear to the court that people are standing up across the country. Thousand have already signed it. Detroit high school students collected over a thousand signatures in a few hours at the Labor Day Parade. This petition is our central method of registering broad social support for integration in higher education and for the maintenance of affirmative action programs.

 

Everyone's voice must be heard in that courtroom on October 23.

There will be a mass rally at the federal court building in Cincinnati on the day of the hearing. Having many thousands of people standing up for integration, justice and equality is essential. Already students from dozens of campuses across the country, from Boston to Berkeley to Atlanta, are preparing to be come. The Reverend Jesse Jackson will speak at the rally. National organizations including labor unions and civil rights groups are mobilizing their members for this historic fight.

 

 

It is imperative that we win these cases at the Appeals Court level. A defeat on October 23 will mean ALL colleges and universities throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan would be IMMEDIATELY BANNED from using affirmative action. Affirmative action plans are the only effective desegregation programs for higher education. Integration and equality in education is a precondition for democracy and justice. These two University of Michigan cases are very likely to go to the US Supreme Court and determine the legality of affirmative action in higher education across the country.

 

Lessons of the California Victory

 

We CAN WIN this critical fight. The new civil rights movement that has emerged in response to the attack on affirmative action has changed the national political climate on this question.

 

On May 16, 2001 the new civil rights and student movement in California forced the University of California regents unanimously to reverse the ban on affirmative action in the UC system, thereby defeating the attack that initiated the national assault on affirmative action of the last six years. The 7,000 college and high school youth that mobilized at UC Berkeley on March 8 of this year played a decisive role in compelling the UC regents' to reverse the ban.

 

The recent surprise decision by the Bush administration to intervene in favor of affirmative action in Adarand, the federal case about to come before the US Supreme Court, is a remarkable testament to the change in climate brought about by the new civil rights struggles.

 

How Do We Win?

 

We must make the federal courts accountable to the people. We must make clear to them that resegregating higher education will not be accepted--that the marginalization of black, Latina/o and Native American people to inferior education will no longer be tolerated. We can convince them to rule for justice and integration by using the same persistent methods of mass organizing and mass struggle that secured the historic victory in California. The mass petition campaign must be stepped-up. We must mobilize thousands for October 23.

 

The tide is turning in our favor, but the question is very far from settled. To keep affirmative action YOU must ACT. YOU are needed to circulate the petition YOU are needed to mobilize people for the rally in Cincinnati on October 23. Now is the time to stand up and be counted.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the petition language:

 

Petition to Support the University of Michigan Affirmative Action Cases

 

 The outcome of the two Supreme Court-bound University of Michigan cases will determine whether our society moves forward towards greater equality or backwards to resegregation and greater inequality. Affirmative action plans are desegregation programs for higher education. They are the only successful method for integrating all of this nation’s universities.

 

WE THE UNDERSIGNED:

 

  • Support the right of the University of Michigan and every university to maintain and utilize affirmative action programs;

  • Stand on the two fundamental premises of Brown vs. Board of Education, first that separate can never be equal and second, that integration is necessary for democracy, justice and progress;

 

• Pledge to open the doors of higher education to all.