meeting info

From: Al Barber
To: General Employees
Re: Union Endorsement

Hey Folks;

Last Thursday night, general employees along with fire fighters and police officers hosted a forum where we talked with eight of the nine mayoral and city council candidates standing for election. The candidates were interviewed one at a time by city employees. Each candidate was afforded a two minute presentation and then subject to another 15 minutes of questions from general employees.

At the end of the night, general employees voted overwhelmingly to endorse Mayor John Purcell and Ward 2 Council member Rex Givens.

Previously, Mayor Purcell and Council member Givens were told that unionization meant five different unions for general employees. Because this would have been an administrative nightmare for the city, both voted against city employees having a union at that time.

Since those initial votes, both have learned that workers are organizing into only one union – the American Federation of State, County and Municipal (AFSCME). It was with this new understanding that both made strong verbal commitments in support of city employees. Both Mayor Purcell and Council member Givens stated they would support general employees having a contract comparable to police and fire.

After hearing these commitments and talking among themselves, the newly organized employees voted in solidarity with city police and firefighters and endorsed both Purcell and Givens as the best choices to make Lawton a healthier and safer community.

Now that we’ve decided who we support, we need to stand together and act on this decision. I am asking you to join other general employees in solidarity with police officers and the fire fighters by voting for Mayor Purcell and Council member Givens on December 12th, 2006.

Additionally, we would like to put a candidate sign in your yard. It is critical that general employees help on this campaign. If you can help, please respond to this email.

In Solidarity,

Al Barber

new stuff

added afscme oklahoma's website and a very informative labour site link to sidebar .
looks like the bargaining commtitee is workin hard on getting their stuff in order.
new surveys are being circulated , lets show our support and fill them out so we can get the fundamentals done up for our first contract and get the best out of our bargaining unit.

remember together we are strong and the powers that be cannot stop us from getting fair and just treatment in order to have a safer and healthier work environment.

first attempt

Hopefully i did everything right and this blog posts without problems. My email is herrbreit@gmail.com if anyone wants to be added to the list.
I have this blog set to be open to the public but the post list is secure and you must be added to post. Any comments good or bad would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.