NEWSLETTERKIT

2013SPRING-SUMMER EDITION

Central Region 5

A Publication in the CSEA Region 5 Leadership Education Series

To increase the creation of union newsletters in our Region, I have taskedCommunications Specialist Mark Kotzin with publishing this Newsletter Kit.

It is my hope that, even if you just use the “cut and paste” method, you will use theinformation and graphic resources within to put together even a quick “one-pager”that you can get out to your members on a semi-regular basis.

What we’ve learned over the years is that our members value more frequentcommunications, and they’re not as concerned about the style it’s presented in.Even if you throw something together that’s quick to distribute to the membership,it’s better than not putting anything out at all.

Otherwise, people tend to fill in a lack of information with rumors and stories.

So please, union officers, use this Newsletter Kit to help increase your regularcommunications with your membership. Our union will be stronger, and ourmembers more informed, as the result.

Of course, if you wish, Mark is always available through the Region Office toprovide additional training and resources to assist you in putting together yourunion newsletter. Call him at (315) 433-0050.

This Newsletter Kit will also be available online in pdf format for downloading at:www.cseany.org/r5

I hope this proves useful to you, and please send both me and Mark a copy of yournewsletter!

In Solidarity,

Colleen Wheaton, PresidentCSEA Central Region 5

About this kit…

A Message from CSEA Region 5 President Colleen Wheaton Spring 2013

We are all in this togetherI’m not going to sugar coatthe dire situation we faceright now as an organizedgroup of mostly publicworkers. It’s pretty bad outthere, and most everyoneknows it. Problem is, noteveryone is rising up with usto make a change for thebetter. Without that, our

situation becomes even more serious.

Fact is, not only are unions under attack across the nation,but we, as government workers, are being targeted in so manydifferent ways, it’s not easy to keep track.

We are being attacked publicly by the conservative rightwing. We are blamed for a host of the country’s ills bypolitical pundits, talking heads and talk show hosts.

And Corporate America, trying to preserve their lucrativetax breaks and incentives, as well as beef up their businessby taking over our jobs, is financing huge campaigns to attackus, discredit us, and get politicians elected who will try andbust the unions and privatize our services.

As for the politicians? Many are falling for the rhetoric andare hard at work trying to dismantle government services.

In New York State, we’ve got a Governor who is on theattack, laying off our Canal workers, closing state facilitiesleft and right, dismantling our youth detention system,consolidating state operations, privatizing our disabilitiesservices operations, and more. As one CSEA official recentlycharacterized it, it’s “death by attrition.”

And his ridiculous tax cap initiative has our localgovernments privatizing their public nursing homes, and ourschool districts cutting programs and laying off workers.Meanwhile, we still get the brunt of the public blame, forhaving pensions, wages and benefits that are considered “toogenerous.”

I’m sick of it. We should stop falling for the crap that they’respewing and all the blame that they are pushing on us. It’stime to stand up, fight back, and stop letting others define us.

We are ALL in this together. None of us got into the businessof providing public services because we thought we wouldget rich. Instead, we saw jobs that provided good, decent,Middle Class wages -- wages that would allow us to raiseour families, educate our children, and contribute to our localcommunities. These are not the political appointee jobs thatthe Governor’s buddies get, which pay triple digit salariesfor very little work. Instead, our average member earnsaround $40,000 a year. Certainly not poverty level, but notjobs that anyone’s getting rich from, either.

We also saw decent pensions that would allow us to retirewith some retirement security. Again, I don’t know whothinks our pensions are “gold-plated” like they claim, whenthe average member retires with a pension of about $14,000a year.

And how dare the big corporations try to portray us as greedy,when their CEOs are walking away with compensationpackages worth hundreds of times what the average workersearn? How dare they say that our modest pensions are toohigh when the tax breaks and loopholes they abuse allowthem to get out of paying their fair share of taxes, which justshifts the burden more onto our property tax payers?

We are not the enemy of the public, and we must stopallowing them to portray us that way. Instead, we provideneeded services that enhance the quality of life for all NewYorkers, and people need to stop taking our services forgranted.

And it’s not just about public employees. It’s about unionworkers in the private sector too. If people want to maintainMiddle Class jobs and stop the “race to the bottom,” we muststand together, each and every one of us, and stand up forunions, jobs, and the American Dream… Before it disappearsfor good.

In Solidarity,

Many people don’t understand the differencebetween a CSEA dues-paying member and anagency fee payor. In fact, many peoplerepresented by the union mistakenly believe theyare full-fledged members of CSEA, when in factthey are not. Let’s examine the difference.

As a union, CSEA has a duty to represent anyworker holding a title in our bargaining unit. Dueto state law, everyone protected by the union mustpay for their representation, either by payingunion dues, or an equivalent amount called an“agency fee.” The agency fee law makes it so thatthe union doesn’t have people ‘freeloading’ offof other members; getting the benefits of ourexcellent representation, without having to payfor it. It’s only fair.

So just by getting a job in a CSEA-representedtitle, you’re automatically an agency fee payor,represented by CSEA, but that DOES NOTautomatically make you a dues-paying member.In order to become a full member of this union,with all the rights and privileges associated withmembership (more about those in a moment), youactually have to sign a dues authorization ormembership card and submit it to CSEA. Onceyou do that, you’re in – you’ve become an officialdues-paying union member – and it doesn’t costa penny more!

What signing that card does mean for you isthat you open yourself up to more rights andbenefits than you had before. Chiefly, and mostimportant to the majority of workers we talk to,is the right to vote on your union contract, andto vote for your union officers. You can evenrun for union office yourself, once you’re adues-paying member. Agency fee payorsCANNOT participate in these opportunities. Weoften ask agency fee payors, why would youallow yourself to pay the same as dues, but nothave a voice in your contract and how your unionis run? You’re paying for it anyway; you mightas well take advantage of our full uniondemocracy.

By becoming a full dues-paying member, youalso gain access to all of CSEA’s member-onlybenefits. These are benefits offered outside of therealm of the union contract, only for unionmembers. Many are offered through ouraffiliations with AFSCME and the AFL-CIO, andalso due to our immense buying power as a laborunion with nearly 300,000 members statewide.Such benefits include: all of our optional groupinsurance plans (often with the convenience ofpayroll deduction); the AFSCME AdvantageMasterCard; loan programs; discount shoppingprograms; a subscription to CSEA’s monthlynewspaper; and more. You can find out moreabout our members-only benefits by visitingCSEA’s website at www.cseany.org.

How do you know if you’re NOT a dues-paying CSEA member? Unfortunately, it’s not soeasy to tell. One good clue is that you don’treceive the CSEA monthly newspaper, The WorkForce. Also, your paycheck may have a code nextto your union deduction that designates “Agency”instead of “Dues” or something similar. Manytimes, people don’t find out their true status untilit’s time for a union vote, and their name does notappear on an official membership list. By then,it’s usually to late to sign up to participate in thatelection. If you’re not sure, you can alwayscontact CSEA’s Membership Department at800-342-4146, ext. 1331.

So maybe you’ve never been approached tosign a membership card before. Maybe you saidyou’d get around to it, and just haven’t found thetime. Maybe you were a member, but went on aleave for more than six months and allowed yourmembership to lapse. Whatever the reason, it’snever too late to sign up. To get an officialmembership application, ask your nearest Unit orLocal Officer, call CSEA at 800-559-7975, ordownload one from www.cseany.org. The rest isup to you.

Union Member vs. Agency Fee Payor: What’s the difference?

CSEA members often have great expectations of theirunion representatives, but many don’t realize that their unionrepresentatives have equal expectations of them.

As a member-run union, YOU are CSEA, not just yourelected officers and our professional union staff. In order tofunction effectively, we need you to do what you can tobe a good union member. Unfortunately, most membershave never gotten a good explanation of what that means, sohere, in no particular order, is what you should do (pleasedo as many as you can) to be a good union member:

· Learn how our union is structured and who to contactwith concerns or workplace issues. You need to know whoto call if you need disciplinary protection or if your rightsare being violated. Keep this information posted in yourworksite.

· Read your union contract. You can’t know your rights arebeing violated if you don’t know what they are.

· Read our union newspaper. We try to include news fromall over that’s relevant to all our members.

· Visit www.cseany.org – We regularly update the union’sweb site with important information. Register with a memberaccount, and you have access to member-only areas withvaluable information.

· Read your union mail. We try not to send mail that isn’timportant, so please take the time to read whatever we sendyou.

· Attend your union meetings if you can. We know it’s oftenhard to make time for union meetings, but if you can’t, youshould provide your leadership alternate contact information.At minimum, take it upon yourself to find a union officer orsomeone who did attend a meeting and find out what occurred.

· Volunteer if you can. Since 99 % of our unionrepresentatives are volunteers who step up to help theirfellow workers, we are always looking for shop stewards,grievance representatives, committee members and futureofficers and leaders. If you can give some of your time,CSEA will provide the training to give you the tools to dothe job right.

· Vote on your contract. To give our union power, we mustshow our strength when it comes to voting on our contract.A weak turnout for a contract ratification vote signals a weakor apathetic membership, and can hamper our efforts to buildour power and get better contracts in the future. You shouldalso be aware of what’s going on during the negotiationsprocess, and be supportive of your Negotiating Team as theywork to get you a fair contract.

· Vote for your union officers. Our union democracy is onlystrong when our members vote for their leadership at everylevel. These are the individuals who give you a voice at thestatewide level and who work with our staff to get the workof the union done. We need to elect qualified members toproperly represent us.

· Join the CSEA/AFSCME P.E.O.P.L.E. Program.PEOPLE is our union’s federal lobbying arm that helps usfund the important national political battles that impactCSEA members and their workplaces. From fighting forincreased funding for public facilities, to stopping the

What YOUR Union Expects of YOUprivatizing of Social Security, we can only do this if we allchip in a few dollars a paycheck to give us a say on thenational political scene.

· Hold your union representatives accountable. Our unionis only as strong as its weakest link, and in the rare casewhere representatives are not performing to the best of theirability, the union needs to know, so problems can be avoided.If you are dissatisfied with your union representation, adviseyour union leaders or staff so that we can work together tomake a better union.

· Hold your elected public officials accountable. We mustkeep an eye on candidates for public office who support ourissues as union members, and who support the work we doas public workers, and exercise our privilege to vote in everyelection. When union members band together to vote for oragainst a candidate, it shows that we collectively have powerthat we don’t have as individuals.

· Run for union office if you want to help make a difference.If no one steps up to fill our leadership positions, we end upwith people who do it because no one else will. That’s noway to run a union, and we’re all about giving our leadersthe tools and education to help be effective.

· Take advantage of the many union trainings CSEA offersto give you the knowledge and skills to help properlyadvocate for your co-workers.

· Ask new employees to join the union. If new workers cometo the workplace, they don’t know that they’re not unionmembers, and may never join unless asked. Give theminformation about who their union representatives are, tryto set up a CSEA orientation for them, and give them amembership card to join.

· Advocate for your fellow co-workers by reportingworkplace issues. Your union representatives can’t handleyour concerns or workplace problems if we aren’t aware ofthem. We cannot function effectively if everyone looks theother way or adopts an “I’ll let someone else do it for me”attitude. If you are aware of a workplace issue or safetyconcern, you have a responsibility to pass it along the unionchain of command to make sure it can be addressed.

· Be willing to stand up for someone else’s cause. MostCSEA members only get involved when they themselves arethe ones being impacted. In order for the great power wegain from “Solidarity” to be effective, we must all be willingto step into the fight, even if we are not personally impacted.That also means you shouldn’t cross picket lines of otherunions, and you should avoid supporting known anti-unionemployers.

· Buy American! If everyone who complained about the lossof good-paying American jobs overseas would restricthimself or herself to buying American-made products andservices, there would be a lot fewer job losses to complainabout.

· Mentor your younger co-workers in union activity. If youget involved with the union, share your successes with yourco-workers and get them involved, so that we can build ourfuture leadership and a sense of relevance for the union.

· For info about what’s going onwith CSEA across Central NewYork…

· For messages from our RegionPresident…

· For a list of my union staff andhow to contact them…

· For more information about myunion membership benefits…

· To find out how you can get moreinvolved in your union…

· To connect to CSEA throughFacebook & Twitter…

· For info about our union trainingsand workshops…

· To see what’s coming up on ourCSEA calendar…

· To read what CSEA is saying tothe media…

· And to learn more usefulinformation! Just surf on over...

Visit our CSEARegion 5 WebPage!

www.cseany.org/r5Also online at:

facebook.com/csearegion5

twitter.com/csea_region5

What YOU Can Expect FromYOUR Union

As a CSEA member, you have certain rights that youcan expect from your union membership. Here is anoverview of some of those rights:

You have the right to join our union (or not). Whenyou first come to work for a CSEA-representedorganization, you should be informed of that right andinvited to join the union by signing a dues authorization(membership) card. Due to the State’s Agency Fee law,you pay the same rate regardless, but signing that cardgives you the ability to participate in union elections andgain valuable member-only benefits. If no one ever askedyou to join the union, you can certainly take it uponyourself to ask your union leadership for a card to sign, orgo online to www.cseany.org to download a membershipapplication.

You have the right to be fairly represented. If yourcontract is violated, or you feel that your legal rights arebeing infringed upon, you have the responsibility to reportthat to your union leadership, often your certifiedgrievance representative or shop steward, to initiate aninvestigation. Your union officers then have theresponsibility to follow up in a timely manner to ensurethe appropriate legal response (if there is one). If you feelthat your leadership is not satisfactorily handling yourconcerns, you do have the right to go up the CSEA chainof command to seek satisfaction.

You have the right to be treated with honesty andrespect. These are part of the values that make up ourCSEA mission statement, and what we strive for everyday.

You have the right to inclusiveness. Every group andevery idea is welcomed and we strive for full participationfrom the membership, no matter where you work.

You have the right to certain legal representation.If you are being disciplined or interrogated in relation toa disciplinary action, you have the right to have a unionrepresentative accompany you into any such hearing orinvestigation. If your disciplinary case is accepted forLegal Assistance by CSEA’s Legal Department, you havethe right to a union attorney to represent you free of charge.You do not have rights to union representation for criminalcases.

You have the right to speak out, without fear ofretribution. You have legal protections offered by Federallabor law when speaking out about workplace concerns orissues. If you fear retribution, make sure yourrepresentatives are aware, so that the appropriate legalprotections can be implemented.

You have the right to open communications. Ourunion only works effectively if our leadershipcommunicates with our membership and vice versa. Ourleaders have an obligation to make sure you know how weoperate and what’s going on, so that you can be informedand participate when necessary.

You have the right to accountability and fiscalresponsibility. Our union will be accountable for ouractions and decisions, and we will conduct our businessin a fiscally sound manner.

Colleen Wheaton, President

Developed and published by Communications Specialist Mark Kotzinwith assistance from the CSEA Communications Department