Today the hardworking men and women represented by AFSCME at New College of Florida voted 100% unanimously in favor of recertifying their union with a nearly 75% turnout.
Saying “I don’t want to operate anything,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is touting the benefits of tapping private operators for new transit systems that could include a light-rail system he wants to traverse two bridges between Miami and Miami Beach.
What is the feeling you get when you show up to work one day and you are called into an unscheduled meeting in the conference room? You walk in and see management sitting across the table with expressions that indicate this meeting is not going to go well.
It is a feeling of fear for what’s about to come next, a feeling that you may have to be fighting back against something you don’t fully understand.
What would you do for $12,800? How hard would you work for it? What would it mean if you had it taken away from you?
These are all questions that Deloris Wells had to answer during the last four years because her supervisor was not completing the annual evaluation form. And without a completed form she didn’t get a wage increase, year after year.
See the full AFSCME national blog post here: bit.ly/1M3JmIw
Rotted-out floors, windows that leaked – even termite, ant and roach infestations. These were the conditions that cashier booth attendants at Florida’s PortMiami, “cruise capital of the world,” dealt with every day. That is, they did until they decided they would stand up to management to demand changes.
Eight years ago, Edgardo Marrero realized things had to change. Staff morale in Miami-Dade County’s Animal Services department was at an all-time low. The workers suffered from bad management, frequent turnover and a lack of control over their day-to-day jobs and their careers.
“The hardworking men and women of AFSCME Local 199 were not surprised by the Miami Herald’s report on the great disparity in pay among county workers, including how many employees are compensated too far below what they should be for the professionalism, hours and service they put into the job.
This holiday season, Brother Miguel Villa will have some extra cash in his bank account. For five years Villa has been working out of class, but never received proper compensation for the work he put in on the job. Villa’s department kept him working out of class for five years in violation of Local 199’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That was until he decided “enough is enough” and decided to work with his union to do something about it.
Local 199 has fought hard to keep Miami-Dade park attendants on the job, and yesterday we confirmed that no one in parks will be getting a pink slip. In fact, many employees will actually get a step increase!
Out of 129 park attendants, 92 new positions will fall within one of four new classifications, Landscape Attendant, Landscape Technician, Facility Maintenance Attendant, and Natural Areas attendant.
