ONE-YEAR EXTENSION RATIFIED
Union votes to accept contract 1300-251
Vote SUMMARY
1,556 members voted in this ratification.
1,300 voted yes.
251 voted no.
5 votes were void- no clear “Yes” or “No” on the ballot.
AFSCME District Council 33 has approximately 9,000 members. Our bargaining unit (members impacted by this contract) makes up about 7,500 of those members.
Only one in five members participated in this vote.
We want to hear from you. Without judgment, without accusation, we want to know what motivated you to vote, or to stay home. The Rabble Rousers’ goal is to get members involved in Union affairs, and we want to know what we, as labor activists and future candidates for Local 696 office, need to do to get your involvement in our union.
AFSCME District Council 33 determines our future: Our pay, our benefits, our safety. It is not some nebulous organization working behind closed doors. District Council 33 is us. Our power is its power, and if we choose not to use it, we’ll just keep seeing the same contract deals over and over again.
DC33 END OF YEAR PARTY
This week, DC33 announced a holiday party on Friday, December 20th. Tickets are free for members. Members may bring a plus one for $25. RSVP by calling 215-895-3303/04 and be sure to pick up your tickets before December 19th We hope to see you there!
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Ticket Pickup at 3001 walnut st on the 9th floor or cafeteria |
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Saturday, December 14th |
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM* |
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Monday, December 16th |
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM |
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Tuesday, December 17th |
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM* |
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Wednesday, December 18th |
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM |
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Thursday, December 19th |
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM |
I don’t care about the extension.
By: Ada Ginger
The actual terms are inoffensive. A .6% larger raise than the city offered; some overdue reclassifications which were already under discussion; a one-time bonus worth less after taxes than a month’s rent for most of us; and some plans for non-binding “discussions” and “recommendations” or to “identify dates beginning in January… to begin negotiating” the next contract. The greatest damage done by ratifying this one-year extension to DC33’s has nothing to do with the text of the agreement. If it were only about the next year, this might be reasonable. The greatest harm to come from accepting these terms isn’t to any of our pocketbooks; it’s to the union itself.
Our union was once a militant force, building political power for Black Philadelphia and making unprecedented gains for some of the city’s poorest workers. DC33’s size and our work’s importance haven’t changed since the days of Earl Stout. Instead, decades of corruption and confusion have eroded our power.
This contract negotiation process activated old and new members for the first time in decades. We rallied publicly; we prepared to fall in line with our strike captains; we made plans to support each other even with severely limited information. We declared the extension unacceptable, out of line for a new mayor, and insulting to our union. Leadership at the council and local levels asked a great deal from the rank and file, and we were ready to give it… and then we got another dose of familiar disappointment.
Next year’s negotiations might get us better terms or they might not, but they can never replace the opportunity to show our members what solidarity and militant organizing could do. The world is changing. American global hegemony is fading; climate change is already reshaping parts of the world; legal and bureaucratic threats against unions in the US are rising even as previously ignored and unorganized sectors make huge gains. We need an active and militant union, not tired acquiescence, to face these challenges.
I don’t care about the extension. I care that we all know we can and MUST fight for radical gains for workers in the coming years. We deserve Union leadership that can recognize that need.