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The South Shore Area Local of the APWU produces a monthly cable show entitled "Labor Talk". The current episode regards Question 2 and the candidacy of Rand Wilson for State Auditor.

I have put the entire program on streaming video and it can be viewed from our web site at the following address: http://apwuma.org Click on Local Events and follow the links. It is a thirty minute show in streaming video and runs very well on cable and dsl. Sorry, if you have dial up it just doesn't work well. I will be putting up streaming audio in the future so that at least you can listen.

We will be posting future videos as the programs air. Hope you take the time to watch prior to November 7th.

In Union Solidarity,
Ken Fitzpatrick
Secretary Treasurer
APWU of MA

Under UMass’s proposals, health care costs for individuals would rise from $0 to a projected $508 over the next few years...“While these dollar amount may not sound enormous, many of our members live below the poverty line and are not permitted by law to work more than part-time. These increases mean the difference between just scraping by and going into deep debt,” said Jen Turner, GEO President.

On Friday, February 11th, Neighbor To Neighbor held its first meeting with State Representative Michael Kane to ask for support on our 2005 agenda. Neighbor to Neighbor members were pleased with the meeting, and felt that the Representative was responsive to many of their needs, including supporting our proposals for health care expansion and restoration of MassHealth benefits, raising the minimum wage to $8.25 an hour, and protecting welfare for the families with the greatest barriers to employment.

Please join me in making it official.

On April 7th (from 5:30 - 7:00pm) at the Community House on the Longmeadow green, I will be announcing my candidacy for the Longmeadow School
Committee.

[image:727]At a recent safety meeting with bus drivers, Springfield's head of bus transportation, John Maloney, avoided the reality of the school bus driver's dire predicament made by recent changes to the contract bid specification. Under the contract bid that went out Tuesday, a vendor that wins the bid would be under no obligation to honor the labor agreements drivers have with the current transportation providers, First Student and Durham School Services. This change significantly increases the chances of First Student and Durham School Services losing the bid and would lead to huge cuts in health care and other major benefits important to Springfield's drivers.

It's unfortunate Mr. Maloney made no mention of these facts, choosing instead to issue false reassurances that there was little to worry about because the incoming vendor will "want quality people." After Maloney spoke, Daniel Clifford, the union representative for the drivers, took an opportunity to address the audience to correct any misperceptions. "If I'm a new vendor, I'm going to do whatever it takes to win that bid. If that means cutting health care and other benefits, I'll do it. The control board has left it wide open for [the current vendors] to lose this bid." He told workers to be ready to fight, saying, "This is going to be a tough battle. There will be more actions."

Also attending the meeting was Antonette Pepe of the Springfield School Committee. She told the drivers she was sorry that she voted to remove the language from the contract but that she was powerless to do little else because the control board had the ultimate say over the contract bid. She encouraged drivers to contact their legisltors to help get Springfield more funding from the state. "It's about time we have our legislators speak up," she said.

[image:716]After the control board's meeting on Monday, I had an opportunity to ask a few questions to the chair of Springfield's control board, Alan LeBovidge, and hear what he told other reporters.

Unlike Mayor Charlie Ryan, who opened the meeting by saying the public speak-out was part of a dialogue, LeBovidge told Ray Hershel that "Today was a venting." He said that the primary mission for the meeting was to collect ideas from the public about how to save money. "We are looking for constructive solutions," he said.

When asked about the level of frustration in the room, he made an effort to sound not too dismissive, saying "I can understand their anger and frustration." He also insinuated that Springfield's citizens must share responsibility because they did not hold their public officials more accountable for digging them into a budget hole. Interestingly, when I asked him how the citizens can hold the control board accountable, he said, "They can't hold the control board accountable. That's not how it works." I guess if one good thing can be said for not being held accountable is that it allows you to make arrogant statements without worrying about any consequences.

And when Hershel inquired about the lack of presence from the other control board members, LeBovidge openly admitted that the other members never intended to show up. "We take good notes," he said.

The last interesting comment he made came when I pressed him on the matter of the cutting of benefits to workers. I asked, "Is it a top priority for the control board to try to find ways of saving money without cutting health benefits to Springfield's workers?" After dancing around the question a bit, I pressed him a little and he finally said, "It's a priority, not a top priority." You don't have to do much reading between the lines to know what that means.

Many Americans celebrated Valentines Day this week sending hearts, candy or flowers to friends and loved ones. We also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II....Among the Marines fighting on Iwo Jima, was my father Edward T. Conley, born 7/17/25 in Arlington, Massachusetts.

A panel presented by Holyoke Citizens for Open Government will discuss the problems and unnecessary expenses involved in the proposed privatization of Holyoke¹s wastewater treatment facilities by Aquarion Water Company.

The Holyoke Department of Public Works (“DPW”) has approved raising sewer rates from $1.95 to $3.55 per thousand gallons (an initial 82% rate increase). However, the rate hike needs the approval of the City Council. The DPW plans to increase sewer rates to $5.50 per thousand gallons (a 181% total increase).

The president was re-elected by the narrowest of margins. He has
not won a mandate for his proposed assaults on basic security,
basic decency and our basic values. We won't accept his effort
to privatize Social Security, cut taxes for the wealthy and
raise them for workers, slash investment in schools and health
care, roll back environmental protections, free corporations
from accountability and pack the courts with ideologues intent
on turning back the rights of women and others.

With the decisions the Finance Control Board has made up to this point, they are behaving more like an anchor than a life preserver. Ask any realtor what the most important things a community needs to maintain and improve its property tax base. At the top of that list, you will find the school system.

Peter Vickery, Governor's Councillor for Western Massachusetts, wants to hear from you about the Romney administration's latest judicial nominations.

Over the past few months, the New England Center for change has taken an increasingly hostile stance towards its workers.

The retailing giant Wal-Mart was named 'Grinch of the Year' in a national online poll held between December 6 and December 22 by Jobs with Justice.

Holyoke Citizens for Open Government (HCOG) protests the rush to judgment by the Board of Public Works last night to sign a 20-year, $160m contract with Aquarion Services Company to upgrade and run the city's wastewater treatment plant.

The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed---for lack of a better word---is good.

---Gordon Gecco, in the film "Wall Street"

Danaher's President and CEO: H. Lawrence Culp, Jr.
Total Compensation for last year: $57,533,344.00
Source: Washington Post

Average hourly wage of a worker at Danaher Tool in Springfield: $14.00

GEO, the graduate employee organization at the Univerisity of Massachusetts Amherst, UAW Local 2322, members take to the streets, caroling for a contract, bringing songs of holiday cheer and labor solidarity to administrators and the chancellor of the university. GEO is fighting for a new contract.

Pictures & mp3s and lyrics: http://geocarols.homestead.com/
More information and a video: http://www.geouaw.org

The Prescription Drug Fair Pricing Act (FPA), conceived and long promoted by the Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC), addresses a range of problems but would begin with the cost issue by establishing a system under which the state would negotiate with drug companies for lower prices and rebates through bulk purchasing (much the way the Canadian government and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs do).

"The children in the Springfield Public Schools are certainly not responsible for the cities financial problems and they will feel the pain of Governor Romney’s out-of-control board for years to come."

The New York Times did a piece on the struggle going on right now to change the shape of the AFL-CIO, America's largest labor federation with over 13 million workers. It focuses on the personalities of Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) who is spearheading the charge for radical change, and John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO.

From the article: "Eager to reverse labor's decline, Mr. Stern has called for a sweeping overhaul of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., proposing to cut its budget by more than 50 percent and to use the savings to vastly increase organizing by its member unions. And he has warned that the service employees, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O., may quit the labor federation unless it embraces far-reaching changes - changes that would have to be pushed through by the man who was his mentor, Mr. Sweeney, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O."

Registered delegates with the Union News can read a communication the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO received from Mr. Stern at http://www.pvaflcio.org/node/523.