As you may have heard by now Oregon AFSCME Council 75 after much member polling has decided to endorse Barack Obama.  There will be a leaflet canvas on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 10 am.  Please contact Janice from the Portland AFSCME office at (503)739-3009 if you are interested.  Meet at 40 S Central Avenue in Medford at 10 am for a couple of hours.  Be sure to wear your AFSCME green, and call Daniel at 474-4480 if you would like an AFSCME for Obama button.

General Meeting

Thursday, May 1^st 6:00PM

Barack Obama in Medford, Oregon

Join Barack Obama at a Stand for Change Town Hall in Medford on Saturday, March 22.

Stand for Change Town Hall meeting with Barack Obama

Kids Unlimited
821 N. Riverside Avenue
Medford, OR 97501

Saturday, March 22, 2008
Doors open: 7:30 a.m.

The event is free and open to the public. However, seating is limited and tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. RSVP using the form on the Obama web site.  CLICK HERE TO LINK TO TICKET ORDER FORM. 

For security reasons, do not bring bags and limit personal items. No signs or banners are permitted.

Oregon AFSCME Council 75 has voted to endorse Barack Obama!  This occurred through polls of Oregon AFSCME Council 75 represented employees and a vote by the Oregon AFSCME Council 75 Executive Board (which consists only of only represented staff like yourself).  As some of you know this runs in opposition to AFSCME Internationals endorsement.  That is a good thing as it is member driven, and reflects the diversity here in Oregon.  We encourage people to support Obama!  Whether you support him or not we hope you are involved in the political process as this is critical to the services we provide and the funding we receive.

If you do attend the rally please wear something AFSCME related, or something green to show AFSCME supports Obama.  If do not have something and would like to get an item or shirt to show your AFSCME pride please contact Daniel Burdis at 474-4480 or 944-2644.

Hello,

thank you for taking the time to check out our website and to give us input on these issues.  We are looking for input on three fronts:  Labor Management Committee, our upcoming negotiations, and  I would also appreciate it if you would take the time to give your vote on our presidential primary endorsement.   Our union can function as a real democracy only if we have active participation from our members.  The board's job is to represent you, so we need to know what is important to you, and what issues you would like us to work on.  The budget is very tight, as we all know, so we will be focusing on issues that are not necessarily financial in nature.  We are looking for ideas that will improve your experience at work: make it more rewarding, more fun, more safe, more fair.  Ideas that will improve the services that we deliver to children and familes.  Ideas that will fix unclear language in the contract.  Any ideas.  On the menu to the left, click on the line "Message Board."  Post your comments in the appropriate forum, either LMC or negotiations.  If you're not sure, no big deal, we can figure it out.  You can also start your own topic.  This is your website. 

Many of you know that I serve on the executive board and the political action committee for Council 75, which represents all AFSCME members in Oregon.  Our international union executive committee, which represents all AFSCME workers in the U.S., decided to endorse Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.  What this means is that all AFSCME political work done in the primary would be going towards Senator Clinton.  Our Council is debating whether or not to break ranks with the international and either make an endorsement for Senator Obama, or to make no endorsement at all.  We will be making that decision at our meeting on the weekend of March 15th.  I will have a vote in that decision, a vote representing all of you.  I would like your input into that decision, so please click on the voting link on the left, and register your vote.  There are categories for both the Republican primary and the Democratic one, both of which are to be held on May 20th.  Please vote in only one category. 

In order to access these features, you will need to register.  Only bargaining unit members are eligible to sign in.  After you fill out the registration request, it might take a day or to for either me or Daniel to process the request and get you active.  I will try to check it every day.  If you have a problem with it, please e-mail me at my work address. 

Thank you for your time and effort,

Doug

Well a new year is upon us and soon negotiations will begin.  While the federal budget curretly appears bleak, the contract is important as it defines many of our working conditions.  If you want to serve on the negotiating team, provide assistance in negotiations, make suggestions for contract changes, or just let us know about something that is not working quite right please contact us.  You can let one of your volunteer Executive Board members, your Representative, or a steward know.

In the mean time we always have our joint Labor Management Committee to address rumors, concerns, issues, or suggestions.  So please feel free to contact Doug, Elsa, Daniel, Shawn, or Sheryl.

You can also contact your federal representatives in the federal government to tell them to fully fund Head Start!  As you probably know, Congress and the President keep imposeing mandates without funding them.  Please put in your zip code above and click the "Contact Your Representatives!" link above to contact them.  They will never fully fund Head Start unless citizens like you tell them to.

Shortly we will be posting polls at this website, and working on other means to help the membership communicate their needs for bargaining.  Let us know if there is something else you think would be helpful.  Thanks for all your hard work, Head Start is only successful if each employee is successful, and cares about children and their community!