AFSCME Sues County for Breaking Contract Promise to Correctional Employees

As previously reported, Boss Abele tried to go on a privatization binge in his 2015 budget.  When he didn't get his way, he had a tantrum and fired his head of the Department of Administration.

Unfortunately, Abele did get at least one thing through, which was defunding 91 positions that were meant to provide medical and psychiatric services to inmates at the Milwaukee County Jail and at the House of Correction.  This stems from a court order for Milwaukee County to temporarily hire a private firm to manage these services because Boss Abele and his buddy Sheriff David Clarke willfully failed to hire the necessary staff.

The court order also made it clear that the county workers would not be displaced and that their spots would be filled by the private company employees only when they became open when a county worker quit or retired.

By not funding these positions, Abele thought he would get around that order.

The union won't allow Abele to go back on his word.  Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 48, issued the following press release on Wednesday:

Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of Milwaukee District Council 48, AFSCME, announced today that the Union is filing suit against Milwaukee County and Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc.

Armor, a Florida corporation, has provided medical and mental health services for inmates at the Jail and House of Correction using a mixture of its own employees and County employees since 2013. McCamish made the announcement after the County adopted a budget that deletes funding for approximately 91 County health care jobs at the Jail and House of Correction.

In 2013, a State judge ordered the County to sign a contract with Armor to provide health services for inmates at the Jail and House of Correction. The contract, signed by the County and Armor with the court’s approval, promised that County employees would continue to be employed at the Jail and House and Correction but would work under Armor’s supervision. As part of the contract, Armor would provide its own personnel, but no County employees would be displaced to make room for additional Armor employees. Only as County employees quit or retired would Armor be able replace them with its own employees.

“Chris Abele has left a trail of broken promises in his wake as County Executive. We are asking a Court to clarify that the County must keep its contractual promises to the health care workers employed by the County Jail and House of Correction and to let them continue to work until they retire or quit.

“That is what the County promised in 2013 and that is what should happen. The 2015 budget may have not funded these positions, but the contract between Armor and the County says that the workers can’t be fired to make room for Armor employees. If the County thinks its budget permits it to violate the rights of members of the Union who were promised under the contract that they would not be displaced, the Union is going to fight the County in the courts to protect its members,” McCamish said.

McCamish said that if any members of District Council 48 who work at the Jail or the House of Correction receive layoff or termination letters, they should immediately contact the Union or its attorney, Mark Sweet, who will represent the Union in its suit against Armor and the County.

It should be noted that Abele's and Clarke's refusal to do their job and having the private company manage these services have already dinged the taxpayers for an extra million dollars. Now, it's probably going to cost taxpayers even more money to first defend the indefensible actions taken by Abele and then to make those 91 workers whole again.

On top of all that, Armor doesn't have a very good record in providing proper care and has been sued multiple times.

Despite his claims to the contrary, it is increasingly obvious that Boss Abele is neither a fiscal conservative nor a good representative of the people.  Of the plutocracy, yes, of the people, no.

Scott Walker to Join AFSCME?!

What the what?

Oh, don't worry. This particular John Doe can't be Scott Walker. The membership is for Local 645, my local, which represents Milwaukee County professionals, meaning he would need to have a college degree and that isn't about to happen any time soon.

Chris Abele: Retirees Should Be Robbed And Not Heard

For decades, Milwaukee County, like many other places around the country, had a pension buyback program which allowed workers who had worked in part time or seasonal jobs, which are not counted towards a pension, to buy back time that allowed those years to be calculated in their pension figures.

In 2007, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wanting to feed off of the residual anger regarding Tom Ament's pension scandal, did an investigation into this and found that 357 of the thousands of county workers took advantage of the county's buyback program.  They further found that sometimes this allowed the worker to get a bigger pension, retire early and get other benefits, such as free health care.

The county made a referral to the IRS due to concerns that some of the buybacks might have been afoul of the law, which would jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the county's pension fund.  The IRS has yet to respond.

In April of this year, Chris Abele, the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County, decided that it was suddenly an emergency and that he had to take action, with or without legal advice.

So Abele sent out letters to 208 retired and current county employees, informing them that he was going to go after their pensions or delay their retirements.  However, he also told them that they were going to have to wait months until he decided exactly what he wanted to do to them, but when he decided whatever it was, they couldn't do a thing about it:

"I'm going to aggressively try to recover whatever I can," Abele said in an interview. He said he sympathizes with workers who might be affected because they followed advice from the county retirement office in how they paid for purchased pension credit for long-ago stints of county employment.

It should be noted that the timing of when he made his decisions is about the time he comes out with his 2015 proposed budget. In other words, he is planning to help balance his austerity-driven budget on the backs of the retirees and soon to be retirees. After all, the less money they pay out in pensions, the more that will be left to be pillaged as he continues his agenda of dismantling county government.

Needless to say, the unions were upset and angry about this sudden attack on the retirees, who had left the county after a lifetime of service and with an contract that they were to receive very specific benefits as laid out by the county. AFSCME District Council 48, which represents Milwaukee County employees, issued a scathing statement about Abele's anti-retiree stance:

Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 48, said today that the Union is investigating the possibility of legal action against Milwaukee County and the County Pension Board if the County tries to take back pension benefits previously received by the Union’s members.

McCamish made the announcement after County Executive Chris Abele had authorized the County to try to seize benefits previously paid out because of purported “errors” the County made in calculating pension benefits for former County workers.

McCamish said that the Union’s members relied on the County’s advice and calculations and that the County’s actions appear to be punishment of Union members for the mess that the County’s administrators and advisors created.

“Whenever the County or its managers screw up, the workers get hurt even though they are totally blameless. The Union will not stand by and let its members suffer because of the mistakes made by the County, the Pension Board and their so-called professional advisors,” McCamish said.

The Union already has heard from members who have been told they could completely lose their pension and others who face significant benefit reductions. “This is shocking and terrifying news that could dramatically alter lives. People could lose their homes. And the news comes out of the blue in a vague and threatening letter from the county. It’s unconscionably cold and clueless,” McCamish said.

McCamish said that members of District Council 48 who received a letter from the County threatening to take away pension benefits should immediately contact the Union, which has retained Attorney Mark Sweet to investigate the possibility of a legal action against the County and the Pension Board.

“This is a vivid illustration of a politician tragically out of touch with the day-to-day struggles of people who don’t fit into his tax bracket. The only time he acts with real vigor is to try to take something away from people who already have very little,” McCamish said.

This stance was backed up by the union's labor lawyer, David Sweet:

AFSCME attorney Mark Sweet said the county can't back out of promises it made to employees going back decades. The attempt by the county to recoup pension payments is morally and legally wrong, Sweet said.

In what has become the norm for Abele, who prides himself on accountability, he blames the unions for the anxiety, stress and panic that he caused.  The panic and anger had nothing to do with Abele's decision to go after the retirees, endangering their ability to support themselves, maintain their homes or afford little things like food and medication. It was obviously all the unions fault:

Abele spokesman Brendan Conway said union comments were creating "an unnecessary panic."

"Employees and the public deserve clear, responsible and transparent answers," Conway said. The county's retirement office is working to establish how much retirees have to give back — or how much longer some active workers may have to wait to retire — a process that could take several months.

Ah, so the people "deserve clear, responsible and transparent answers," but don't expect the county to give those answers until they know how much they need to fill Abele's budget holes, caused by things like Abele setting the courthouse on fire.

The unions weren't going to settle for the mush-mouthed inanities that Abele was trying to push on them.  They wanted answers.

So on Thursday, some of the retirees who received Abele's threatening letters went to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to meet with Abele to get those answers.  However, Abele did not want to meet with them or give them the answers they deserve.  Instead, he sent out a PR aide, Rayna Andrews, to give them the round around:

Even though Ms. Andrews had explained that Abele was much too busy to meet with the retirees, they had seen him peeking into the room several times.

It should also be noted that Ms. Andrews also tried to convince the retirees that they needed to resolve their issues on a case by case basis instead of as a group.  She did not have an answer for them when they pointed out that they had already tried this.

The group waited for over three hours for Abele to give them a few minutes, but he never showed them even that much courtesy.

At the end of the day, the retirees headed to Bay View, where Abele was supposed to appear at the grand opening of a dog park.  Abele decided to bail out of his commitment because he is so averse to being held accountable.

With Abele again dodging the retirees and his responsibilities, the group did what any good union workers would do...they educated the public to what was happening:

It's not only the retirees that are asking for answers from Abele and his staff.  County Board Supervisors want answers as well:

Milwaukee County Supervisors David Cullen and Willie Johnson, Jr., have asked the Human Resources Director to appear before the Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee on Thursday, May 15 at 9 a.m. to explain the pension/buyback issue.

“This is a serious situation and there are many unanswered questions,” said Cullen, co-chairman of the County Board’s Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee. “There is $11 million at stake and the public deserves an explanation. The Committee wants to help taxpayers understand how this situation occurred. ”

Johnson co-chairman of the committee, said: “Inasmuch as it has been reported in the press that $11 million has been paid after the County Board passed a resolution stopping improper pension buy-backs in 2007, I believe there should be an accounting of what happened from the Director of Employee Benefits.”

One thing that concerns me that I have not seen anywhere is what would happen to the money that the workers spent on getting their buybacks.  No one has even suggested that the county should offer this money back - with interest.  That is thievery.

It is time and beyond for Chris Abele to grow up and start acting like an adult.  He needs to take ownership of his screw ups and find ways to resolve them without hurting the taxpayers and the current and past workers.

As Attorney Sweet said, what Abele is attempting to do is illegal and morally wrong.  Abele is not able to take back what has been given, especially when it was the county that was in error.

The workers took their deals in good faith.  If it was found that 10 or more years later that the deal that the county offered was in violation of their own rules, they simply have to eat the cost.  They cannot go back retroactively and take something that they had given out by mistake.

Furthermore, to tell retirees that he was going to take away their savings and reduce their pensions, but he won't say how for months is simply a cruel and callous thing to do.  These people had worked their whole lives for the county and to be treated this way is inexcusable.

Abele needs to owe them an apology for his boorish, bullying behavior.  Then he owes the taxpayers an apology for his ineptness and his needlessly exposing the county to yet another massive multi-million dollar lawsuit.

Take Action to Fix the BHD Crisis

While Chris Abele is slapping himself for getting the state to go along with the auctioning off of Milwaukee's mentally ill, there are still people who care and want to do what's best for them.

As such, there will be two meetings on Wednesday to discuss how the profit taking from our mental health system really means:

Please note that this is being put on by both AFSCME and the nurses' union, which kind of flies in the face of the corporate media's reporting that the nurses support it too.

AFSCME Files Lawsuit Over Personal Data Theft

The City of Milwaukee contracted with Froedtert Health to manage a wellness program for city employees.  Dynacare Laboratories is a subsidiary of Froedtert.

On October 22nd, an employee of Dynacare had a flash drive with the personal information of 6,000 employees and 3,000 spouses or domestic partners on it.  The employee left the flash drive in her purse which she left in her car.  Her care was stolen.  When the stolen car was found, the purse and it's contents were not recovered.

To make matters worse, Dynacare did not inform the city of the theft until November 15, three and a half weeks after the incident.

The employees have had their safety compromised and their finances put at needless risk. The city and Dynacare has spent the past month pointing their fingers at each other, leaving the workers in the lurch for providing for their own security.

Thus, AFSCME has stepped up and has taken action on behalf of their members:

AFSCME District Council 48 filed a lawsuit today against Froedtert Health over the theft of a flash drive containing the personal information of City of Milwaukee employees on October 22.

District Council 48 filed the suit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on behalf of its members who are City of Milwaukee employees. The City had contracted with a Froedtert Health subsidiary to provide a wellness program for City employees and then gave Dynacare Laboratories, another Froedtert Health subsidiary, data containing personal information of City employees.

On October 22, a flash drive with the personal information was stolen from a Dynacare employee’s car. District Council 48’s lawsuit seeks monetary damages for its members whose personal information was compromised and who have been injured by Froedtert Health’s failures to safeguard the confidentiality of the data on the flash drive.

Boyd McCamish, the Executive Director of District Council 48, said that the Union’s members were justifiably upset and angry over Froedtert Health’s failure to protect the Union members’ private personal information and over the possible loss of benefits provided to them under the City’s wellness program.

McCamish added that Froedtert Health must be held responsible for its failure to protect the private and personal information of City employees. McCamish said that Froedtert Health must immediately inform credit reporting agencies as required by State law to protect the Union members from the possibility their personal information may be abused because of Froedtert Health’s failure to keep the information confidential.

In a separate action, District Council 48 intends today to file a Notice of Injury and Claim For Damages against the City of Milwaukee, amplifying the Union’s demand for an explanation regarding the City’s involvement in the release of members’ personal information.

It's things like this which makes me shake my head when people claim that unions are obsolete and are no longer needed.

Holiday Eve Election Notice Makes Mockery of Certification Vote

The following is a statement by Boyd McCamish, the executive director of AFSCME District Council 48:

On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday that will close their workplaces, the Walker administration abruptly announced late Tuesday that it is starting the clock on union certification elections for support staff in the Milwaukee Public School District.

“Gov. Walker and his Employment Relations Commission are taking a page right out of the playbook of communist China, making a complete mockery of the idea of fair elections,” said Boyd McCamish, executive director of the AFSCME District Council 48, which represents roughly 600 MPS employees.

“They are starting the election on a Friday when nobody is at work, essentially taking away the first five or six days in which we could possibly prepare for an election that will be over in a matter of days,” McCamish said.

McCamish said the new law forcing such elections – which has been found unconstitutional in a state circuit – already sets the threshold for success higher than that required of elected officials. Instead of simply winning a majority of those who vote, a union has to win a majority of all eligible voters to earn certification.

“This is a far higher standard than Walker has ever met on his career politician treadmill of constantly running for office. Of course, this governor seems to have no trouble with double standards,” McCamish said.

“By timing the election to start when employees are not even in their workplaces, they’re doing all they can to disrupt the certification process. Every union is going to have to decide on its own how to deal with the unreasonable requirements and moving-target timelines imposed by this administration. But our union is not going to waste our members’ resources participating in this mockery of democracy,” McCamish said.

This is NOT what democracy looks like.  But it does go to show that old Mr. Unintimidated is still scared to death of the unions and for good cause.  Because the only answer to organized greed is organized labor.

Abele's War On Workers

It's no deep, dark secret that Chris Abele, the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County, has no respect for workers.  This was made plainly clear when he sided against the workers at Palermo's Pizza despite the illegal labor actions and the extremely unsafe working conditions.  It was further evidenced when he fought against workers at a hotel being built on the county grounds get paid more than poverty wages.

But it is the county workers whom he despises more than any other.  And his current attack on county workers is enough to bring a tear of pride and joy to Scott Walker's eye.

Currently, he is making county workers pay 25% into their health care premium.  That is twice the level of what Scott Walker is doing to state workers.  In fact, it is the highest level being paid by any governmental entity and by almost all private sector workers in the nation.

But that isn't enough for Abele. He wants workers to pay even more:

Milwaukee County employees and retirees would pay nearly $6 million more toward health benefits, driving their share of health care costs to almost 29%, under County Executive Chris Abele's proposed 2014 budget.

The change helps to moderate the yearly rise in employee health costs for taxpayers and passes them along to employees, as county budgets over the past two years have done, according to a County Board staff analysis released Monday.

Abele has defended the move, saying he was passing along market-driven increases in health costs to employees and making progress on driving down the county's structural deficit — the built-in imbalance between costs and money to pay for them.

"The county executive's budget is focused on what's fair to Milwaukee County" taxpayers and employees, Abele spokesman Brendan Conway said.

The net impact of the health care and other benefit cost increases after taking into account a proposed pay increase of 2% will be a pay cut of $1,463 to $3,695 for county workers next year, according to the report.

The boost in employee health costs, through higher premiums, deductibles and copayments, would outstrip the proposed raises for employees by up to 7%, the analysis said.

"Proposed changes to pay and benefits could reduce, on average, employee compensation by approximately 3% to more than 7% in 2014," the report said.

[...]

Part of the health care increase to employees proposed by Abele includes abolishing a county stipend of up to $1,800 for a health care flexible savings account.

That's a big hit, said Boyd McCamish, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union once represented the bulk of the county's 4,400 workers, before the 2011 state law that took away most public employee collective bargaining.

McCamish called the benefit cost increases to workers "mean-spirited." He also faulted Abele's administration for cutting a poor deal with the county's health insurance administrator.

Abele's budget also calls for consideration of ending the county health insurance program and instead providing a stipend for employees to use in purchasing their own coverage through the insurance exchanges starting next year under the federal Affordable Care Act.

The funny thing is that there is really no way of telling what the cost of healthcare is going to be next year. Many states are reporting a drop of 10% in their health care costs because of the Affordable Care Act.

The other thing to remember is that there is good cause to be suspicious of Abele's numbers anyway. Heck, I would suspect that even his allegations of a deficit to be as fabricated as his personality. It's been known to happen that the county executive would pull number out of thin air to justify their punitive and petty actions against workers.

If Abele was really concerned about saving money on healthcare benefits, he would have done as was recommended to him a few years ago and setting up a buyers' bloc by cooperating with the nineteen municipalities in Milwaukee County and with surrounding communities in order to get much lower rates.  But then again, Abele's agenda really has nothing to do with helping the taxpayers, much less the workers.

I would also need to point out that, just as we have learned from Act 10, taking money out of circulation isn't going to help the regional economy one iota.  AFSCME District Council 48 (to which I am a member) saw this coming and issued a press release last week, which the local media somehow conveniently missed. I reproduce it here:

County Executive's Budget Proposal On Employee Health Insurance Continues To Undermine Local Economy

Threatening to short-circuit potential savings that could come from implementation of the Affordable Care Act, County Executive Abele's attempt to again balance his budget on the backs of county works is a stark reminder of his misguided financial stewardship of the county's treasury.

Citing market driven increases, Abele's budget undercuts take home pay for Milwaukee County employees by shifting another $6.6 Million in additional health care costs to county employees.  This comes on top of the $8 million plus extracted from workers' paychecks last year.

"The county executive is taking a page from Scott Walker's playbook.  He apparently hasn't noticed that Walker's policies have put Wisconsin at the back of the pack in job growth", said Monica Hogans, a CNA at the county's Behavioral Health Division and a member of AFSCME Local 170.

"Hourly workers put most of what we make right back into the local economy.  Constantly shrinking our paychecks is not only unfair, it's economic suicide for the community," Hogans said.

Abele has stated that he is open to allowing county employees to access the health care exchanges of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 if the quality of care is as good as or better than the care received under the current program and if it is less expensive.

"Instead of actually exploring what savings might be realized through the ACA, Abele's first instinct is to punish workers and ask questions later. It's shortsighted and it hurts our local economy," said Lynette Clarke, a BHD legal social worker and Local 645 member.

AFSCME is calling on the County Executive to freeze all proposed health care increases for six months until the impact of the ACA is better understood. Currently, the vast majority of analysis shows that the law will provide price relief for health care for all Americans.

It's not only with the health care that Abele wants to put the screws to the workers. He also wants to go after their pensions by making them pay more towards it:

Employees also will pay, on average, an extra $587 toward pensions, as their portion rises from 4.4% to 5.1% of salaries to cover half the overall pension cost.

And to add insult to injury, Abele would also like to take a third crack at taking away the pension altogether and replacing it with a Wall Street/Big Banking-friendly 401K. He claims that this would save money, but the educated people know this to be a falsehood:

Worries about retirement security abound. Families fear that they won’t have enough to support an adequate retirement income as home values and financial markets plummet. Dwindling profit margins have employers looking to cut costs.

And governments are concerned about delivering on the promises that they have made to their citizens and to their employees as tax revenues shrink amid a weakening economy. In this environment, some have proposed replacing traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions with 401(k)-type defined contribution (DC) retirement savings plans in an effort to save money.

But decision-makers would be wise to look before they leap. To deliver the same level of retirement benefits, a DB plan can do the job at almost half the cost of a DC plan. Hence, DB plans should remain an integral part of retirement income security in an increasingly uncertain world because they offer employers and employees the best bang for the buck.

I would also point out that this appears to be as phony as the rest of the Abelemath.

The pension fund has gained the same levels it had before the start of the Bush/Cheney Great Recession. The only reason that the county has to pay as much as they do into the pension fund now is due to the shaky pension obligation bonds, which Abele had pushed for Scott Walker and the County Board into taking out.

I would also like Abele to explain why there needs to be more money into a fund that is paying out to less people. Where are all those extra millions of dollars meant to go since they're not going to the workers?

But as with all things Abele, there is more.  There is always more.

It is not just the workers' take home pay or their pensions that Abele is attacking.

He is also attacking their rights as workers, even trying to manipulate the civil service code to do so.

After Scott Walker dropped his Act 10 bomb on the state, AFSCME realized what a mess it was going to create.  In order to maintain consistency, fairness and efficiency, the union worked with Abele and the County Board to have County Ordinance Chapter 17 put in place, which for all general purposes, codified the parts of the union contract.

This law covers all the basic things like seniority; layoff rights; vacations; sick time; personal time; bumping rights; overtime policies; etc.

The Board passed the resolution and Abele willingly signed it into law.

But now Abele wants to renege on this.  He wants to repeal the law so that he can take away vacation time, personal time and minor holidays.  In its place, he wants to install a punitive PTO system which would greatly reduce these time-honored benefits.

Abele also wants this law - again, which he signed into being - so that he can lay off who he wants, when he wants for whatever he reason he wants.  He also wants to manipulate it so that laid off workers cannot move into vacant positions or bump other workers.

In other words, Abele wants Milwaukee County to become a right to work county, as least as far as county workers are concerned.

So why does Abele want to be so draconian to the workers?

His official reason involves spouting out some sketchy numbers and making dubious claims of massive deficits.  But he's been proven a liar more often than not when it comes to his claims.

The real reason he is attacking the workers, especially the unionized ones, is one that I've cited numerous times here and elsewhere, which is really a quote from Thomas Donahue:  "The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor."

And one thing history has taught us, including the lessons of the Bay View Massacre, is that the people will always be more powerful than the plutocracy, as long as we all stand together.

ADDENDUM: The really stupefying thing is that after Abele attacks workers like this, he is dumbfounded why staff turnover is at such high levels and why it's so difficult to hire new people.  Honest.  The man is that clueless.

Solidarity Sing Along - Milwaukee Style

As advertised, AFSCME District Council hosted a fundraiser for the Solidarity Sing Along on Saturday.  The purpose of the fundraiser was to assist with legal costs, open record requests and other necessities for the people that would participate in the Solidarity Sing Along in or around the Capitol Building, who are being made political prisoners by presidential wannabe Scott Walker and his henchmen.

The turnout was good and we netted more than $4,500 to help with the fight against their political persecution, the most raised by a single event for the Sing Along.

Here are some pictures that I took of the day's event:

There is no mistake where the union stands.

The official SSA t-shirt

Lane Hall of the OLB and Trenchant "I solemnly swear I am
up to no good" Tracey

Get yer SSA t-shirts and bumper stickers!

Intermission between singalongs

DC 48 Executive Director Boyd McCamish
speaks to the crowd.

Rep. Evan Goyke prepares to speak to the group.

The ever fabulous Kelly Albrecht

Sing Along!

Unintimidated: The Book
Coming October 31st

Rep. LaTonya Johnson and some union thug.

Marty Beil tells us how to be a union thug.

It's Milwaukee! Gotta have the brats!

But we also have a taste of Madison with Ian's Pizza

Those dreaded union bosses: Biel, McCamish and
Phil Neuenfeldt of the AFL-CIO

#unintimidated

Fundraiser for Solidarity Sing Along - Milwaukee AFSCME Style

It is with immense pride and pleasure that I get to inform the gentle reader that AFSCME District Council 48 - the one in Milwaukee and to which I am a proud member in good standing - is hosting a fund raiser for the Solidarity Sing Along on September 28th.

From the Facebook event page:

Since the uprising of the capitol occupation during ACT10, folks have been coming together during the noon lunch hour at the state capitol to let democracy sing. Governor Walker doesn't believe in the 1st or 4th amendment right. Since July 24th the capitol police have been arresting participates and observers of the sing-along. On August 21st the arrests escalated, the capitol police aggressively arrested two activists.

This has gone on for long enough and we want to do our part and raise funds for the 1st amendment defense fund for all the arrestees. We are asking for a minimum contribution of $10 per person (food & drink included).  All the proceeds will go towards the 1st amendment defenses fund, to contribute online via PayPal check out
http://solidaritysingalong.org/  (we are asking those that do contribute via PayPal please leave a comment or contribute $10.48 for this event) We want to make sure we have an accurate count of those who contribute online.

Join us on September 28th at the AFSCME union hall
located at 3427 W. Saint Paul Ave 1pm - 4pm

We hope to see you there, for more information and to contribute please contact Nicole at ncoll-san@wiafscme.org or (414) 344-6868

Here is video footage of the arrests on August 21st, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVSiwtPnoH8

I heard from Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of AFSCME DC 48, that there will be participants of SSA present to tell us their stories and grace us with their singing.  I am really looking forward to it!

Sometimes, like this, I can't be any more proud of wearing of the AFSCME green.

I hope to see you there!