SEIU 888 Events and News
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, September 23: Oxford Membership Meeting. Begins at 4 pm at the Highschool.
Friday, September 25: SEIU 888 Executive Board Meeting at the Charlestown Office. Begins at 1 pm.
Friday, September 25: Benefit for Tony Bell and Family. 6 pm - Midnight at the Waterfront Tavern, Main Street in Holyoke. Dinner, Dancing and Raffles. Entertainment with D.J. Lewis. Tickets $20 per person
Sunday, October 4: SEIU 888 Cape Cod Cook Out.
SEIU 888 members from across the Cape will be attending the Annual Cook Out at the Flax Pond Reservation in South Yarmouth.
11 am – 3 pm.
RSVP to Joan Pritchard 617.241.3356 or RSVP online at 888’s Events Calendar by clicking here.
Please visit SEIU 888’s event calendar to keep updated on Union events by clicking here. If your chapter has an event coming up and would like it listed on the calendar, please contact Paul DeMarco at SEIU 888 Communications by clicking here.
A just-released study found that low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage. Researchers found that 68 percent of workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week -- averaging a 15% loss of pay. One in five workers had complained about working conditions or had tried to form a union in the previous year -- and 43 percent of them said they had experienced some form of illegal retaliation, like firing, suspension, increased workload or cuts in pay. You can read the NY Times article here. The full study is available here.
A recent economic analysis supports surcharges on very high-income taxpayers as a way of financing health care reform. The analysis found that the proposed tax surcharge would slow growth in income -- but the affected taxpayers’ incomes would continue to grow faster than the incomes of the remaining 99% of Americans. "What is essentially being asked is for the top 1% of incomes and above to delay a pay raise" for a matter of months. You can read the analysis here.
National Health Care Reform: President Obama addressed the nation on Wednesday night on the need for Health Care Reform. SEIU has endorsed the President’s plan because America’s healthcare system is broken and unless we fix it, our members will continue to see our premiums increase faster than our wages. Right now we are closer than ever before in making health insurance reform a reality. But affordability is the key to real reform. Reform will be meaningless if working people can’t afford to purchase coverage or can’t afford to get the care they need once they are covered. The best way to guarantee costs decrease and that patients have choices is through a robust public health insurance option that makes the private insurance industry compete.
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Hundreds of SEIU 888 members across Massachusetts turned out for health care events in the past week at the John Kerry and Stephen Lynch Town Hall meetings and the Boston Health Care rally on Labor Day.
SEIU has a Health Care Action webpage where you can contact your representatives in Congress toll-free to tell them how you feel about Health Care Reform. You can visit the page by clicking here.
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SEIU 888 Executive Board member Fred Simmons is running for Haverhill City Council. Fred has been a leader in his chapter for over 14 years and as a custodian in the Haverhill Schools, Fred understands first hand the needs of working families in Haverhill and he has the fresh ideas and perspective needed to improve his community. If you would like to help Fred’s campaign, or if you are an 888 member who currently holds or is running for political office, please click here to contact SEIU Political Director Eldin Villafane.
In addition to rejoining the SEIU State Council, our Union has formally rejoined the Greater Boston Labor Council and we will soon be rejoining the North Shore Central Labor Council, Merrimack Valley Central Labor Council and the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO. Building strong relationships with our brothers and sisters in other unions is essential to building power for our members at the bargaining table and beyond.
East Bridgewater DPW Employees signed their contract with the Town on Tuesday. The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2008 and expires on June 30, 2011. Highlights include increases of over 5% total for the three years, an increase in bereavement leave, and a one-time $250 bonus for an increase in employee contribution to the health insurance. Bargaining team and board members are Ron Randall (Chapter Chair), Jim Smith, Roy Luciano and Jay Doherty.
In August, Webster Housing Authority employees settled a three year contract with 1% every year in addition to the Labor and Industries rate increases, a new $300 annual clothing allowance and additional compensation for holiday on-call pay.
The Union won an arbitration of a UMass Lowell member who was laid off. The arbitrator ordered reinstatement with back pay and found that the University must follow the negotiated language for determining who is laid off. This case is the first layoff arbitration our members at UMass Lowell have had since the language was bargained in 1990. The case will now be precedent for any future lay offs. The Union currently has three other UMass Lowell cases pending.
All three of our Union’s Winchester units (Clerical, Custodians and DPW employees) are preparing to enter into negotiations with the Town for contracts that expired June 30, 2009.
The leadership from Blue Hills Cafeteria Workers were invited by management to participate in the interviewing and hiring of a new Food Service Director. The members are excited about the new Director they helped select and looking forward to a productive school year.
Springfield members are meeting with management for the first time on September 11th to begin negotiations for their first contract. The Union is also preparing for a hearing on a prohibited practice charge against the city before the Division of Labor Relations (DLR) on October 6th. Last spring, the DLR Hearing Officer found probable cause that the City had violated Massachusetts law by changing personnel policies in response to the Union’s organizing campaign.
Over the summer, the Holyoke Soldiers Home began calling workers back to work in the middle of their already approved vacations. Working with their former Chief Steward, Angel Alvarez, now serving as their Regional Rep, Union members at the Soldiers Home members have forced management into impact bargaining over the changes to the vacation policy.
After telling members that they weren’t entitled to the changes in vacation and bumping rights (among other issues) negotiated in their most recent contract, on the excuse that the funding for the contract had not yet passed the legislature, the State Lottery Commission attorney’s have reversed course and formally recognized that the Lottery is indeed bound by the new contract negotiated by our Union.
The Lawrence Administrative & Supervisors Chapter elected new officers. Congratulations to:
Yesenia Gil – Chapter Chair
Dan McCarthy - Steward
Arthur McCabe – Steward
Martha Velez - Negotiating Committee
Mike LaChance - Negotiating Committee
Patty Cook - Negotiating Committee
Mike Morley - Negotiating Committee
Susan Fink - Negotiating Committee
Susan Kerr - Negotiating Committee