Longtime State Employee and Union Activist Laid Off

Last week I attended an exit interview with a member who has 24 years seniority and has been a day shift shop steward lead for many years. This member asked me to go with her to meet with the Secretary of HRSA.

She wanted an opportunity to talk about her experience as a state employee and to take to the highest level ongoing concerns about the kind of management she had witnessed through these years up to and including current events.

This member is forced to leave state employment because management is eliminating her job class as well as others in an attempt to meet the budget reductions. She suspects the decision to eliminate the job classes is based in part on her union activities and in part to reach senior state employees. The job option offered her would require her to sell her home and small farm and move to the other side of the state away from her significant other and her friends. Everything she has worked for is here.

She spoke passionately about the events she has witnessed and the work she has done to try to right the wrongs she had seen - both for patients and for union members. She talked about the low morale, the stress, the failure to provide a safe work environment, the seemingly preferential treatment provided to some who have had jobs created for them in order to prevent the consequences of reduction in force while our bargaining unit members face the dire consequences of the budget shortfall. She spoke about the dollars spent to provide salary upgrades to a handful of folks while others lose their jobs. She talked about the heavy handed way local management is dealing with the union stewards and leadership. She asked that these issues be examined.

She spoke frankly because she felt she had nothing more to lose and the members have something to gain. Going out the door, not knowing what will happen to her, she still stood strong for the membership she had served all these years. She did it with class and she did it with integrity - asking nothing for herself and her situation. I'm proud of her. I hope you are too. She's a WFSE steward through and through. Please remember to thank your own stewards for the hard work they do and the risks they take as they fight for justice and enforce the contract.