Dear Temple/AFSCME bargaining unit member,

This update provides Temple/AFSCME bargaining unit members with current information about the status of our contract. As many of you are aware our collective bargaining agreement expired on October 31, 2007. While we negotiate a new agreement, we continue to operate under the terms of the old agreement.

The Union has engaged in many activities over the last few months. The Union has held over sixteen lunch time meetings attended by over 200 bargaining unit members giving contract reports. We met with State Senator and Temple Trustee Michael Stack. He was very supportive of us and wrote a strong letter to President Hart and the Trustees. We will be meeting with him again in the New Year to plan our next steps.

In September we had an Unfair Labor Practice hearing. This hearing came about because of charges the Union filed against Temple Administration for its conduct during negotiations. In an effort to resolve the issues and at the suggestion of the hearing officer we agreed to a conciliation process. That process went nowhere as the Administration refused once again to come to any agreements with the Union. A new hearing has been scheduled for January.

Our action committee was busy in September, October and November. They leafleted the convocation and organized demonstrations at the October and November Board of Trustee meetings. These were joint demonstrations with the Faculty Union who are now working under an expired contract as well (please see news stories on our web site). We will be planning other events in the New Year to continue to pressure the Administration to come to a fair agreement and to give our members the long over due and well deserved raise they should have already received. Please call the Union at (215) 893-3756 to join the action committee and to find out what you can do to help our efforts.

On December 18, 2008 I met with the mediator and Temple’s lead negotiator to discuss the contract. That meeting was much like past meetings with Temple restating its position with no willingness to take part in a ‘give and take’ process. Given our experiences in the past and seeing what the TAUP (Faculty Union) has gone through this came as no surprise. After many months of negotiations the Faculty has also seen their contract expire, and they are stuck on the same issues we are, a fair across the board raise and fair share.

What is clear is that the Administration has launched an attack on organized labor at Temple. They want to take full control over how raises are given out with no transparency and no accountability. They want to introduce an arbitrary system that will lead to favoritism and discrimination. They want to silence the voice of our Union and the TAUP. If we do not stand up to this attack now they will come for other hard won benefits.

These are difficult times and it has not been easy to go without a raise, yet the issues are of great importance. By not agreeing to a pay system that in the long run will lower our standard of living and take away health care and retirement security we have demonstrated a strong resistance to the attack on us. Our fight is going to go on for some time. We have now been joined in that fight by the TAUP, the success of each of our Unions depends on the success of both of our Unions.

It is shameful that there are University Trustees and Leaders that have put our members through this ordeal. Yet I talk to members every day who know what is at stake. They know that the days of greed and disrespect for workers are numbered. Change is coming and it would be wise for the University Trustees and President Hart to treat their unionized employees with fairness.

In Solidarity

Paul L. Dannenfelser
President AFSCME/Local 1723