09/20/2014
We Did it!
It's official, County Commission has approved a 3% across the board pay raise due to the help of your co workers.
Your co workers along with friends and families in the County, local unions and their families here in Southwest Florida, local unions and their families in Lee County, the State and National AFL-CIO and the Utility Workers members around the country deserve a big thank you.
For those co workers that would not sign the petition out of fear, you should look upon your co workers with respect and appreciation in helping you receive this pay raise. Take notice that your co workers did not suffer reprisal from management for doing the right thing. Speaking in one large and loud voice has protections, First amendment protections. Speaking in a unified voice with support from other workers, union members, families, friends and supporters from around the United States brings pressure upon those holding the “purse strings”. It's the American way. Remember, we live in a democracy and we should work in a democracy. This is what a local union provides...a voice in support of each worker. Protections for workers when they have been wronged by the actions of management. A chance to bargain for anything that falls under worker pay, benefits, and working conditions. A way to equalize the power that management has over the worker without fear of reprisal, intimidation, and retribution.
County management will probably go out of their way to use this pay raise to show us how well they look out for our interests when in fact they have been shamed into this. They will take credit for how well they regard our sacrifices and how good they are treating us for all our hard work. Don't be fooled by their empty lies. Remember how benevolent they were just a few years ago when layoffs were doled out, The furlough program, the 6 years without any pay increase while our state government took 3% away from us for our very healthy pension program because private sector employees contribute to theirs. The past 2 across the board pay raises are only a way to try to buy you out of thinking of becoming union...nothing more. In this coming budget, the county will take the $20 million of extra money they have and move it into the reserve fund bringing that fund to $110 million. Why? Why couldn't the county use a portion of this to reinstate our merit pay increases and other lost benefits they took away from us? If management really cared for us, this would have been restored for us once the county entered into the black. Truth is the funds to help us during these lean times were always there. Remember the 2.5 billion dollars they have invested in Bank of America accounts? What happened to all that interest? Face it, without pressure, these miniscule 3% across the board raises will be all we will ever see...their “new normal”. Let this pay increase which all of you who participated brought to all county employees be the beginning of a better day for county employees. Let this news show that together we can win back what we lost and earn the respect of management.
Lee County Organizing Committee
