November 06, 2001
LOUISVILLE,
Ky. — The term "landslide" doesn't even begin to cover this.
By
an absolutely overwhelming margin, employees of the Kentucky Department of
Corrections have voted to join AFSCME. Results of the recent balloting were
announced on Nov. 6. The total was 1,284 votes for AFSCME and 287 votes for
"no union" — just three votes shy of a full 1,000-vote margin.
"This
is great news," said Sue Lee-Allen, an Oregon AFSCME Council 75 organizer
who spent several weeks in Kentucky recently working on the campaign there.
In
addition to Lee-Allen, Chuck Early of Oregon AFSCME Local 2746 (Clatsop County)
and Pam Mann of Oregon AFSCME Local 173 (Polk County) also worked on the
Kentucky campaign. In fact, Lee-Allen and Early will be returning to the
Bluegrass State soon, to do follow-up work on a campaign to organize the state's
5,000 social service workers.
But
back to the Kentucky DOC employees. Lee-Allen says wages and working conditions
for Corrections workers in Kentucky are "unbelievably bad." The
starting wage in the state system is just over $9 per hour. At one institution,
corrections officers are required to work three consecutive 13-hour shifts, and
many simply bunk down in security towers during their off-time rather than
trying to go home.
"There
are employees there who virtually live at the institutions," said
Lee-Allen. "It was incredible."
As AFSCME is well-known as the largest union for Corrections employees statewide, Lee-Allen said AFSCME was the easy choice for Kentucky's DOC workers once they became eligible for collective bargaining. The state's governor signed an executive order in July allowing Kentucky state employees to organize for the first time, and the result has been a stampede of state workers choosing AFSCME. Earlier this fall, about 3,000 health services state employees in Kentucky also voted to join AFSCME — and again, a campaign is now underway for the 5,000 social service employees there.