GOING ON OFFENSE CASE STUDIES AND LESSONS LEARNED IN SEIU’S FAIR ECONOMY STATE PROJECTS 2011–2012

A PROJECT OF THE PUBLIC DIVISION

2 GOING ON OFFENSE

GOING ON OFFENSE 3

INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................4

BUILDING SUPPORT FOR RAISING REVENUE ........................................6The People’s Budget Review .................................................................................. 6Pay Back Our Kids ................................................................................................. 8Mobilizing a Movement for Revenue Reform ......................................................11

EXPOSING THE CORPORATIONS BEHIND THE CRISIS ..................... 12Going After Bank of America for Profiting Without Pitching In ...........................12Big Banks Make Bad Neighbors ...........................................................................13Floridians for a Fair Economy ..............................................................................14More Campaigns Against Corporate Tax Loopholes ............................................15

POSITIONING OUR UNION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION ................... 18A Better Way for Oregon ......................................................................................18New Solutions for Michigan .................................................................................20Standing up for Reform in Services for the Unemployed, Single Parents ............22

BRIDGING A DIVIDE ON PENSIONS AND ADVOCATING FOR RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR ALL .......................................................... 23Engaging Members to Reduce Tensions and Inspire Activism ..............................23Taking Action to Show How the 1% Win on Social Security at Working Families’ Expense ...............................................................................25Using Legislation as a Catalyst for Action ............................................................25

BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED ........................................ 27

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................31

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUGUST 2012

4 GOING ON OFFENSE

INTRODUCTION

M any of us have experienced the challenges of recessions. We know that government revenues can rise or fall, programs can expand or contract, and bargaining can yield real gains for workers or can simply aim to stave off losses. We also know this

recession is different than anything we have experienced in the past. State budget shortfalls are more than double what they were in the 2002–05 recession. Those deficits are leading to much greater job loss. Today, there are almost 700,000 fewer public employees than there were in 2008. Compare this to the 2002–05 recession, when public employment actually grew most months.

Anti-government forces are seizing this opportunity to permanently change government’s role, the services it provides and the expectations of the public about the opportunities government creates. For example, the Pew Center on People and the Press found this year that support for a publicly provided safety net has fallen 19 percentage points since 1987, when 71 percent said it was government’s responsibility to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves. Now that figure is 52 percent with the difference between how

Democrats and Republicans answer the question growing from 27 to 42 points.

In an era where real wages for the 99% have stag-nated, unionization in the private sector is below 7 percent, and fewer than 15 percent of private sec-tor workers have a defined benefit pension. It’s no surprise that “benefits envy” has turned nasty and that savvy politicians seize upon that to move an anti-government or anti-union agenda.

As SEIU Public Division leaders shared war sto-ries from the front lines of this recent recession, it became clear that a new approach was called for. People agreed that we can’t get ourselves out of this mess by running the same campaigns or even doing the same thing better. And members were

frustrated. They wanted to see our union defending them, but frequently the boss wasn’t the problem. A good boss fight might yield a slightly bigger slice—but the problem is the size of the pie.

Through these shared frustrations, the concept of going on the offense was born. Fighting for more revenue is the essential ingredient to protecting public services and is a basic part of our offense strategy. On a state level, that’s politically viable now in only a handful of SEIU states. So our offense work began to look at local revenue-raising options. And we look at building support for raising revenue over the long haul as well as making workers part of the solution. In the midterm, we can do things that save government money and help people feel more confident that their tax dollars are being spent wisely by highlight-ing budget savings and ways to make government more efficient.

In offense work, the employer isn’t always the best target. We have a better target, the real people and institutions who broke the economy. Banks have destroyed local real

GOING ON OFFENSE 5

estate markets, caused property tax revenues to plummet, foreclosed on many of our mem-bers’ homes while destroying the neighbor-hoods they call home with blight. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office reports the overall corporate tax rate in 2011 dropped to 12.1 percent, the lowest recorded level dur-ing the 40 years of collecting such data. By comparison, corporate profits have soared since 2009. We know from Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney that the rich pay a much lower tax rate than average people. Our campaigns aim to highlight that there is enough money to fund the government we deserve—it just happens to be in the hands of the corporations and wealthy that don’t pay their fair share in taxes.

As the ideas around offense coalesced, Division leaders aimed to support locals undertaking an offense approach to their work. In 2011 and 2012, SEIU’s Public Service Division provided resources for a range of offense projects in nine states: Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Florida, Illinois, and special retirement security work in California and Oregon.

These six to nine month projects allowed locals to hire staff and develop lost-time programs to execute an offense project. Through work in the projects, members and allies piloted strategies to change the debate around public services, built support for raising revenue by ensuring the rich and big corporations pay their fair share, stood up for closing unfair tax loopholes that unfairly burden the middle class, positioned the union as part of the solution in closing a budget gap or safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and advocated for retirement security for all.

Members and locals focused on member leadership and action work with new energy and commitment. Across all states, members on lost-time have had opportunities to grow as activists and leaders. With training supporting members’ growth from activist to leaders, many members helped lead community, political and corporate fights. Education through the projects gave members an important frame-work for what is happening with our economy.

The goal in funding pilot projects was to develop export-able best practices that would help local unions undertake and refine their own offense work. This report highlights some of the most successful strategies in our campaigns as well as lessons learned from the challenges we faced. It also takes an in-depth look at our efforts with member education, leadership and action as well as other ways in which local unions worked to build our movement’s capac-ity for the future.

Leadership and Action by the NumbersMember participation and engagement in Fair Economy State Projects included:

• 115 lost-timers in 10 states;

• 16,500 phone calls to members urging them to take action;

• 1,472 member to member conversations;

• 2,274 worksite visits; and

• 4,560 doorstep or community conversations.

6 GOING ON OFFENSE

BUILDING SUPPORT FOR RAISING REVENUEThe budget crisis that has gripped states from coast to coast has made one thing very clear: most state and local governments are not bringing in enough revenue to provide adequate public services to meet the needs of our communities.

In today’s environment of strong anti-tax sentiment and poor public confidence in government, getting a legislature to pass or the public to approve increasing taxes to support services seems daunting. However, some SEIU members and allies are working to build the public support necessary do just that. Others are campaigning to raise awareness about and opposition to loopholes that allow big corporations and the rich to avoid paying their share of taxes. Some campaigns are working on long-term strategies to lay the groundwork for statewide progressive tax reform. Others are waging local fights that would generate revenue while exposing the corporations behind the budget crisis. This section discusses the strategies and tactics these campaigns have used. The People’s Budget ReviewIn St. Petersburg, Fla., the Florida Public Services Union (FPSU) teamed with progressive organizations to give the public a stronger voice in their community’s budget process—and in so doing, showed broad support for raising revenue as an alternative to slashing services.

Laying a Foundation in Bargaining—Like many communities, St. Petersburg, where FPSU represents 5,000 city, school and Head Start employees, was wrestling with the dual realities of a city budget deficit and recession that had hit workers and businesses in the community hard. In contract negotiations in 2011, the FPSU bargaining committee came up with a novel idea for “Community Cash.” They proposed that in lieu of a wage increase, the city give employees a bonus in the form of a scrip, which they were obligated to spend at local businesses. Members didn’t win the Community Cash last year, but the idea generated a lot of support, in part because of the positive impact it would have had on the local economy. Outreach around it helped build new and valuable relationships in the community, especially

with hundreds of small business owners who had recently founded an Independent Business Association that would help with later campaigns.

Working Through a Strong Community Coalition—In planning for this year’s budget campaign, FPSU worked with the Citizens’ Budget Committee made up of groups such as the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (CONA), Agenda 2010, League of Women Voters, Sierra Club, Awake and Independent Business Association to launch the People’s Budget Review in March. The budget review started with a survey that tested revenue-generating and budget-balancing ideas informed by technical budget research as well as outreach to members and community leaders. Their survey included

The community gathers in St. Petersburg, Fla., to announce the People’s Budget Review and encourage residents to fill out the survey at www.peoplesbudgetreview.org.

GOING ON OFFENSE 7

ideas such as raising the millage rate, increasing efficiencies, making banks pay for the impact of their foreclosed properties, and tapping excess reserve funds.

Activating Neighbors to Make their Voice Heard—Member and community volunteers, coordinated by a campaign-funded community organizer, reached out through door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, and neighborhood events. More than 4,200 residents completed the online survey. Campaigners also turned out hundreds of people to attend three budget summits organized by St. Petersburg’s mayor. Aggressive outreach with traditional and social media kept the issue front and center during the months-long budget process.

Letting the People Speak—Residents used their voice to send a loud and clear message to city leaders about the value of city services and strongly supported a millage increase to close the budget gap and invest in their priorities. Union members are doing their part by working with the city on efficiencies to save taxpayers money including increasing the ratio of managers to front-line workers and reducing the use of city-owned vehicles.

The Council is expected to pass a budget that includes a millage rate increase. The union plans to try to win community cash in a future contract campaign and to continue working with community allies to plan a St. Pete 2020 Summit. The goal is to continue the conversation generated by the People’s Budget Review to develop a vision for the future around economic development and fairness in St. Petersburg.

Sonya Roundtree, executive board member FPSU, distributes People’s Budget surveys to area residents.

8 GOING ON OFFENSE

Pay Back Our KidsPay Back Our Kids, a major element of the Our Future Minnesota project developed by Local 284, Healthcare Minnesota, Local 26, and the Minnesota State Council, was both legislation and a rallying cry for a campaign that allowed members and allies to shift from playing defense to offense.

Coming off a polarizing state shutdown in 2011 that ended with a budget deal addressing a $5 billion deficit with no new revenue, extensive borrowing and new cuts, labor was looking at the 2012 session as a battle to keep more bad things from happening. Republicans were expected to try and put “right-to-work” and a TABOR-like budget amendment on the ballot. There also was fear that if another small deficit was forecast, the Legislature would look to cut additional government spending. More than 10 years of trying to raise revenue to no avail had led to an embattled “don’t cut us” mentality and message at the Capitol and in school districts around the state.

Our Future Minnesota set out to go on the offense to create a drumbeat for revenue at the state and local level. Although 2012 was not a budget year in the Legislature, the campaign aimed to:

People Now Believe They Can Have a SayRobin Turner, Stormwater Tech, City of St. Petersburg, Vice President of Organizing at FPSU Florida Public Services Union (FPSU)

“St. Petersburg has been hit hard by our nation’s economic crisis. Our mayor wanted to close libraries, drain public pools, and cut vital public services. Meanwhile, the city is spending money the wrong way. As a union, we knew we had to do something different. So we brought the community in.

“Our union built relationships with groups we had never worked with in the past, and together we came up with the ‘People’s Budget Review.’ We knocked on doors and told people who live and work in the city that they could fill out our survey and have a say. We invited the community and union members to three budget summits with the mayor—and hundreds came.

“To my surprise, most people supported raising our millage rate to save services and jobs in our city. The mayor said he is willing to work with us to find solutions to the budget crisis.

“The People’s Budget Review changed the way St. Petersburg’s budget is prepared and discussed. People now believe that they can have the say in how our tax dol-lars are being spent. And our outreach has helped us connect with our neighbors and allow them to get to know union members as people.”

Rep. Ryan Winkler speaks at the Pay Back Our Kids press conference calling on the Minnesota Legislature to use its current year surplus to pay back its debt to Minnesota schools.

GOING ON OFFENSE 9

• Hold conservative legislators accountable for their reckless refusal to raise new and fair revenue.

• Frame the public narrative and identify legislators as making a choice between kids and families versus corporations and the 1%.

• Make raising fair revenue a 2012 election issue to set up the issue for action in 2013.

The campaign chose one issue at the state level—a budget balancing maneuver called the “school shift” in which the state borrowed $2.4 billion from Minnesota schools—to highlight the choices legislators were making. The issue was not new, but had gotten little attention in the past even though it created an increasing burden for districts, where many SEIU members live, work and send their children to school. The Pay Back Our Kids Act was a vehicle for discussion and action around the issue.

Strong messaging resonated broadly with the public by taking the wonky “school shift” and turning it into “a $2.4 billion IOU to our kids” that should be repaid. By evoking strong values and fiscal responsibility, the message was aimed to garner support from even middle-of-the-road voters. It clearly defined what they were for; not just what they were against. It gave the union, coalition partners, legislative allies and, later, candidates, the platform for a broader attack on GOP’s bad budget choices and their wrong priorities that favored corporations and the rich at the expense of middle-class families.

OFM actively recruited legislative champions, including Rep. Ryan Winkler, an aggressive and savvy legislator whose championing of the Pay Back Our Kids legislation on the House floor—and the media attention it received—got the attention of caucus leaders. The campaign prepared talking points, fact sheets, and other message documents, and moved those to political and progressive allies from the governor’s office on down, to reinforce the message and multiply our effectiveness. The work garnered 82 press hits on the issue over the course of the campaign, most of which, it should be noted, were not connected to turnout events.

The campaign was strategic about timing and tactics. Organizers planned the legislative rollout and action around the state’s February budget forecast to take advantage of a natural news hook and to frame the budget story their way. They branded the campaign as “Our Future Minnesota” to avoid common stereotypes, and ensured members, allies and most importantly kids were out front. To deal with members’ protest fatigue and make The Pay Back Our Kids Choir sings to lawmakers at the Minnesota Capitol.

10 GOING ON OFFENSE

the story more fresh, appealing and photogenic to reporters, they turned out 20 kids at their press conference and staged a choir action rather than a rally at the Capitol.

They brought the message home to districts. After the legislative session, members on lost-time planned in-district events to force conservative legislators to defend their refusal to raise revenue and their choice to borrow from Minnesota’s kids and their future. The campaign targeted three suburban districts based mainly on political calculations about the legislator’s vulnerability.

Each lost-timer was responsible for planning a town hall meeting and invited local school officials, current legislators and candidates to hear from the community about school funding. Lost-timers worked ahead of time to build a committee of interested union members in each district across all SEIU locals. The hope is these newly active members would remain active during the election and beyond. In all cases school superintendents and candidates came to the forum, in addition to concerned citizens.

Strengthening Relationships One Conversation at a TimeTerri Buttleman, Special Education Paraprofessional, West St. Paul School District and Local 284 Executive Board Member

“While on lost-time, I was organizing in an area where the district was proposing to go to a four-day school week. So I talked to people about why our schools were really being forced to consider such a drastic step backwards. Politicians were choosing to sacrifice children’s future instead of raising revenue and holding corporations accountable.

“At first, it was hard to get members to meet with me, but eventually I was able to build a commit-tee of people who said they wanted to do more. Education reform is a union issue and a com-munity issue. I did a lot of role plays to prepare for conversations with community allies, and worked closely with campaign staff to determine the best ways to engage new activists and partners.

“My work led to a community meeting that 35 people attended, including two state representative candidates. The event focused on alternative, progressive sources of revenue to ensure quality education in Burnsville.

“The school issue was THE major issue in the community—and our Pay Back Our Kids campaign gave me a way to connect with people and be proactive about the solutions that would be better for our children and our families.”

GOING ON OFFENSE 11

Mobilizing a Movement for Revenue ReformSEIU Local 73 and HCII worked on an offensive plan to advocate for a progressive state income tax and against corporate welfare. They focused their efforts on engaging members and the media outside of Chicago, in four targeted markets that will be critical to winning the political support needed to change Illinois’s Constitution and pass a progressive tax increase in the future.

A focus on building member leadership in strategic districtsLike Minnesota, Illinois placed a strong focus on changing the debate on fair taxes in targeted legislative districts, in this case in Peoria, Springfield, Champaign-Urbana and Rockford. The campaign organized a week of action in an effort to gain earned media and impact the public debate.

During one week in March, the campaign held 26 protests in four cities at companies such as ADM, Caterpillar and Kraft Foods, big corporations that, along with their CEOs, do not pay their fair share in taxes. The campaign also highlighted the impact of the declining tax base by protesting at libraries and schools that were targeted for closure. The locals organized the events by using 30 member organizers, representing SEIU HCIL/IN and Local 73 in the four cities and Chicago. Members served as media spokespersons, turnout captains, point-of-contact for law enforcement during actions, and meeting facilitators, which gave them new tools to use in training and developing other members.

The downstate program was designed in three waves. The first included one member from each local to work as legislative interns, promoting the progressive income tax at the state Capitol. In the second phase, five members organized around the 1%-vs.-99% messaging among members in the four target cities. Finally, 18 members were recruited to a “Flying Brigade.” Mentored by the more experienced members from the second wave, the brigade’s responsibilities included driving turnout for the week of actions as well as assuming the role of event speakers and action prep coordinators. The leadership development opportunities created by the week of action were invaluable in allowing a quick “trial by fire” assessment of new activists. It also gave the new members a sense of ownership, not only in what happens in their union, but in their communities.

The week of action generated more than a dozen press stories. The campaign followed up with a large-scale lobby day that brought 1,300 people to the Capitol. Afterward, the campaign worked with a policy ally, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, to host a series of town halls in the targeted cities on the progressive tax increase. The campaign engaged 1,873 HCII members and 315 Local 73 members during the project.

Working with OccupyIllinois found its most productive ally relationship in all four small cities was with the local Occupy group. After direct outreach and intentional work on relationship-building, all four Occupy chapters participated jointly in actions and planning.

Protestors gather at ADM headquarters in Illinois to protest the low taxes paid by the CEO and the company.

12 GOING ON OFFENSE

EXPOSING THE CORPORATIONS BEHIND THE CRISISGoing After Bank of America for Profiting Without Pitching InWhat can members do when they are headed into very difficult negotiations with a political ally who is calling for shared sacrifice and major cuts to public services? In Connecticut, when the state was facing a budget deficit in 2011, leaders knew they needed to keep the heat on, but change up their traditional strategy of going after the governor. The political action of SEIU members had just been decisive in electing Daniel Malloy, the first Democratic governor of the state in 20 years.

Coordinate budget and bargaining campaign—Instead of simply defending public sector jobs and services, SEIU locals decided to go on offense together. They coordinated a comprehensive budget and bargaining campaign that focused not just on the interest of SEIU members, but on the common good. They made Bank of America the target of the actions and in a fight for the middle class. They hammered on the link between the state budget crisis and the failure of the state’s largest bank to pay its fair share of taxes, as well as its role in driving down home values with foreclosures and limiting job-creating lending to small businesses.

Bring members into the strategy loop—Local unions scheduled a leadership conference for 500 stewards and activists from five local unions to discuss strategy and tactics. The public campaign

kicked off with a Valentine’s Day action at a Bank of America branch, with a giant heart and members carrying signs saying “We Pay Taxes, Why Don’t You?” Similar messages were used in actions at Bank of America branches throughout the state on tax day.

Take advantage of existing opportunities for media attention—Members turned out for every one of 17 town hall meetings scheduled by the governor to get public feedback on his budget. Spokespeople were trained to stick to the message of tax fairness, and not their own self-interest, even though concerns about potential layoffs and benefit cuts were running high.

Coordinate strategy and message across locals and unions—SEIU locals worked together very closely throughout the campaign and also coordinated with a labor coalition, influencing the strategy and message across unions representing 46,000 state workers. Negotiations were difficult, and members in a few units voted down the initial contract, but lawmakers eventually achieved a balanced budget that dealt with the state’s budget crisis in a responsible manner. As a result of the campaign, the governor changed his budget proposal and restored most of the state property tax credit for working families and instead put more of a tax on the wealthy.

SEIU members protest on Valentine’s Day 2011 calling on Bank of America to “show some love, and pay their taxes.”

GOING ON OFFENSE 13

Big Banks (and other Corporations) Make Bad NeighborsTwo campaigns devoted time and energy to community outreach to build support for fines and other enforcement for banks that were not properly maintaining their foreclosed properties. The initiatives will not alone solve the budget problems those local jurisdictions are facing. However, making big banks pay for the public costs of their reckless lending has potential to bring in revenue, and the agitation around the issues help educate members and the public about who really caused the crisis our communities are facing: big banks, not hardworking public service employees.

In Saginaw, Mich., where foreclosures have devastated neighborhoods with boarded up, falling down and fire-damaged houses, lost-timers from local 517M took the lead on a community organizing campaign to build support for a city ordinance on foreclosures. Research revealed the startling extent of the problem in Saginaw: the city currently has almost 1,000 foreclosures; about half of which are bank-owned properties, each one costing the city an estimated $20,000 a year to maintain. Members and union staff worked under a “New Solutions” umbrella, drawing on the successful public relations and negotiation strategy used during bargaining with state employees last year. Members on lost-time engaged union members and their community through neighborhood associations and clergy. They honed public speaking skills and lobbied Saginaw leaders at more than 20 community meetings.

The community organizing paid off when City Council members, the fire chief, a neighbor of a blighted home, and community and religious leaders joined SEIU members at a press conference in front of a boarded up, blighted, bank-owned home to raise awareness around the issue. They also presented a book to City Council of some of the most blighted homes in each of the council member’s districts. Currently, the administration is addressing legal issues in preparation for a City Council vote on the ordinance in the summer of 2012.

In Minnesota, the Our Future Minnesota campaign geared up a community outreach campaign around foreclosures in Coon Rapids. The campaign drafted, advocated for, and introduced a city ordinance to charge banks for the impact that foreclosed, vacant homes have on neighborhood and city budgets.

Supported by a white paper that linked bank foreclosures to increasing property taxes, decreasing home values and declining city revenues, the campaign generated press around the issue in local and regional outlets. Members on lost-time gathered hundreds of community signatures on a petition urging Council action on the issue. They worked with a supportive City Council member and showed their strength by turning out 25 people to a City Council meeting. Allies from Occupy Our Homes joined our campaign to ask Coon Rapids to pass this ordinance.

…

There’s plenty of room to customize

o

o “contractors ”

o

this land was a proven “storage”

o

’

A page from Michigan’s “Lookbook” —a guide to Saginaw's foreclosed properties by city council district. The book was presented to city council as part of a campaign to pass a foreclosure ordinace.

14 GOING ON OFFENSE

Floridians for a Fair EconomyAmid a bleak budget situation, attacks on collective bargaining and threats of privatization, Floridians for a Fair Economy aimed to unite SEIU members, other labor unions and progressive allies in a campaign to turn up the heat on legislators who allow big, profitable corporations to avoid taxes, starving the state of revenue and forcing deep cuts to services ordinary people need.

Rallying around legislation called the Fair Economy Act, Florida’s locals and state council built a coalition of concerned organizations to advocate for a stronger, fairer tax code in the state. The act would have required combined reporting for corporations, instituted a “throw-back” rule to account for profits from sales made by multistate corporations, and required full disclosure and accounting of taxpayer giveaways and promised job creation benefits involved in “economic development.”

The campaign identified and exposed loopholes that allow many big and highly profitable corporations to avoid paying taxes while small businesses and the middle class pay more than their fair share to support the state’s critical public services.

With an initial goal of using the legislation as a vehicle for public debate, the campaign focused on work with allies and actions aimed at raising awareness about how much tax loopholes cost Floridians—and what a fair tax system would mean for public services, education, healthcare, and other priorities.

The campaign built the most bipartisan support around the issue of transparency and accountability for economic development incentives, pushing the Senate Budget

Committee, controlled by Republicans, to agree to examine economic development subsidies and their actual impact on jobs and the economy. A legislative co-sponsor, Sen. Eleanor Sobel, proposed an amendment on the last day of the legislative session so the issue could be debated on the floor, with a commitment on the record by the Senate President and Budget Committee Chair to conduct the study this summer. SEIU ally Florida Center for Fiscal and Economy Policy along with the conservative Florida Tax Watch will work together on the project.

Ideas for the Future: Property Tax Fairness and SwapsFlorida’s Fair Economy Campaign also began work on property taxes in Palm Beach County and swaps in Palm Beach Schools that piloted some promising ideas for the future in Florida and beyond.

During a press conference at the Capitol, Jackson Memorial nurses dressed in SEIU purple played a symbolic tug of war match with teachers and other education advocates to dramatize the budget pressures that hurt Florida families when big corporations don’t pay their fair share.

GOING ON OFFENSE 15

An investigation by FPSU showed systemic flaws in the system used to value properties in the state that allow rich and corporate property owners in Palm Beach County (and the rest of the state) to pay less than their fair share of property taxes. Modest homes are appraised at or near market value while high-end homes are appraised far below market value, on average, allowing owners to get away with paying less than their fair share of property taxes to support schools. West Palm Beach lost $1.4 billion in property value through property tax appeals in 2009 and 2010; 87 percent of lost value—a full $1.2 billion—came from properties worth $1 million or more.

As an initial step, the school board has called on those responsible for the assessments, the Value Adjustment Board to provide accurate information about the cost of property tax appeals. The VAB has said it is interested in working with the union to change state law which governs much of the appeals process.

The Fair Economy Campaign also began a conversation with officials in the Palm Beach schools about the millions of dollars the district is paying each year to Wall Street banks such as Citibank and USB as a result of toxic interest rate swap. Palm Beach Schools are stuck in the deals for nearly 20 years unless they pay banks $56.5 million to get out. The deals mean kids in Palm Beach County are making sacrifices in their schools so the district can pay millions each year to help fund bonuses for Wall Street bankers at firms such as Citibank. The deals can be changed if the banks agree to do so. This spring, the campaign began urging the district to try to negotiate an end to the swaps—or stop doing business with the banks involved.

More Campaigns Against Corporate Tax LoopholesMany other states found creative ways to expose corporate tax loopholes as a way to shine a light on the choices special interest-backed politicians make that undercut the services our communities need.

In Washington, SEIU locals worked with a broad coalition to introduce legislation to close corporate tax loopholes to help solve the state’s $5 billion budget shortfall in 2011. SEIU, along with Our Economic Future, a strong coalition of labor and progressive allies, mobilized for a series of escalating actions in Olympia to expose the loopholes that drain taxpayer money from important priorities such as education and healthcare. Local unions and advocates continued to stress the need to protect services, but placed that argument in a solution-oriented frame, which proved more effective than a more traditional “Save our Services” approach. A campaign in social and traditional media shined a spotlight on some of the more egregious corporate loopholes, from tax breaks for country club memberships and private jets to special tax exemptions for chicken farmers. Creative op-eds pointed out inequities.

In February, members delivered a “Corporate Valentine” to Florida’s House and Senate leadership asking them to support closing corporate tax loopholes.

16 GOING ON OFFENSE

In this state, you might be better off being a chickenDiane Sosne, Guest columnist

Bill just wanted a home with a warm bed.

Too bad he's not a chicken, because under

Washington state law he'd be getting better

treatment.

Bill, a south Puget Sound-area resident, suffers

from mental illness and chemical dependency.

In his mid-20s, he’s been working on getting

treatment and rebuilding his life. Last year

he got into a clean and sober house. He was

able to pay the $300 monthly room-share rent

thanks to Disability Lifeline, a state program

that provides modest cash grants to help

disabled adults purchase basic necessities such

as rent. The home gave Bill stability and a

chance to get the help he needs.

Then last fall the state cut monthly Disability

Lifeline payments from $339 to $258. Bill

could no longer afford to rent his apartment,

and began sleeping on the street. Without the

support he needed, he relapsed, found himself

in jail, then ended up in an intensive inpatient

treatment facility.

Now about those chickens: Ten years ago, the

state Legislature passed a special tax break to

benefit a few dozen factory farms that raise

chickens. There’s a tax break on bedding –

wood shavings, sawdust, straw, shredded paper

– and another tax break for natural gas to heat

the barns so the birds can stay warm. All told,

these tax breaks cost Washington $4.5 million

over the last four years. With the state facing

a $5 billion deficit, it’s time for the corporate

chicken farms to pay their fair share.

After all, what’s more important – a roof over

the head of a fellow human being, or corporate

tax breaks to underwrite soft bedding for next

week’s casserole?

Faced with that basic question of values and

priorities, the state Legislature acted decisively:

When they convened in January, they slashed

Disability Lifeline benefits again, to a paltry

$193 per month. As for the poultry bedding and

heating tax breaks, the Legislature left them

untouched.

They also left untouched tax breaks for

private jet owners; for people who get elective

cosmetic surgery; for stockbrokers and

mortgage brokers; for big out-of-state banks;

for corporations that laid off hundreds of

workers. All told, the Legislature left more than

567 tax breaks untouched.

Instead, lawmakers cut health care for the

elderly and for pregnant women. They cut

funding for kids in day care. They cut home

care services for seniors. They cut food and

housing for people who need it most.

And they cut Bill.

Sadly, and ironically, taxpayers will carry a

far heavier burden paying Bill’s incarceration

(about $300 a day) and hospitalization (more

than $500 a day) than the $339 a month for

Disability Lifeline, which helped Bill get back

on his feet.Cutting Bill’s Disability Lifeline cost

a fellow human being his stability. And it cost

all of us taxpayers thousands of dollars. It was

a foolish budget choice.

State leaders need to stop making budget

choices that cost taxpayers more in the long

run. The Legislature should close tax loopholes

to preserve basic services, because in these

tough times, corporations should pay their

fair share. I’m confident the chickens will

understand.

Diane Sosne, is president of Service Employees

International Union Healthcare 1199NW,

representing more than 22,000 nurses and

other health care workers in Washington state.

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.

com/2011/03/31/v-print/1598723/in-this-state-

you-might-be-better.html#ixzz1JVoNeG6w#st

orylink=cpy

GOING ON OFFENSE 17

Just before tax day in 2011, SEIU and allies protested at timber giant Weyerhaeuser to expose that it paid zero state taxes the previous year on a profit of $37 million, while failing to create jobs in the state. While the final budget passed by the Legislature contained many cuts to vital services, the coordinated actions and disciplined messaging helped keep the conversation about corporate tax loopholes—not a critique of public service employees or those who rely on services.

In Pennsylvania, the Fair Economy campaign in 2011 worked to build new relationships with environmental organizations and campaign for a tax on the extraction of natural gas in Marcellus shale. In actions throughout the state, SEIU members rallied with community and religious allies to highlight both the environmental impact and economic injustice of failing to tax drilling companies. They also targeted the “Delaware loophole”—a tax avoidance gimmick that allows corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes on the profits they make in the state—for draining tax money away from public services. A series of actions targeted Comcast for abusing the tax loophole and draining money away from education and other priorities. While the campaign did not claim victory on either issue, the campaign forced Gov. Tom Corbett to move to a better position on Marcellus shale, and the attention our actions received took up some of the public space that might have been filled with public employee bashing. At the same time, state employees were able to negotiate a strong contract despite a constrained budget.

18 GOING ON OFFENSE

POSITIONING OUR UNION AS PART OF THE SOLUTIONOur Fair Economy State projects tested new strategies in bargaining and budget campaigns to reposition public employees as a positive force in today’s economy. Through the campaigns, SEIU locals engaged members and worked together with allies—sometimes unlikely bedfellows—to come up with thorough, well-researched, cost-saving and efficiency solutions that save taxpayers millions and offer a credible alternative to cuts-only budgets.

A Better Way for OregonFacing difficult negotiations on behalf of nearly 50,000 state and publicly funded workers amid a widening shortfall in revenue, SEIU Local 503 embarked on a novel approach early in 2011: protect services, jobs and benefits by activating members and allies to campaign for proactive solutions to the state’s budget crisis.

As part of Moving Oregon Forward, leaders invited members to suggest efficiencies and cost savings. The local assigned a team of trained researchers to vet the most promising of more than 1,500 ideas, adding a few from the union’s staff, and develop a set of workable proposals. To increase their budget analysis expertise and credibility with lawmakers and the public, the union recruited an unlikely ally to consult on their campaign: Gary Weeks, former director, Oregon Department of Administrative Services.

Union calls for fewer state managersPortland Business Journal by Andy Giegerich, Business Journal staff writer

Date: Monday, February 21, 2011

Union leaders believe Oregon has too many managers per state employee.

By boosting the number of front-line workers per manager, the state could preserve services, according

to officials from Local 503 of the Service Employees International Union. The union contends that, based

on its data, many managers don’t supervise any staffers.

The SEIU data found that state agencies with more than 1,000 employees average 7.7 staffers per

supervisor. When non-supervisory managers are included, the ratio drops to 6.1 staffers per manager.

In smaller agencies, one manager is employed for every 4.6.workers.

“When times were better, having this many managers may have been justified, but with so many kids

and seniors needing hands-on help, shouldn’t the state be ready to set different staffing priorities?” said

Karen Miller, a Tigard union member and Portland state child welfare office worker, in a statement.

Miller and dozens of other Department of Human Services workers lobbied lawmakers in Salem Monday

on alternatives to budget cuts. Several Human Services departments are in line for massive cuts when

lawmakers complete the 2011-13 budget in June.

Linda Burgin, an Oregon Department of Education research analyst and Local 503’s president, noted

that Texas has mandated an 11-to-1 worker-to-manager ratio.

“That number may or may not be justifiable, but perhaps the legislature could give agencies a target to

shoot for,” Burgin said in a statement.

Thousands of SEIU Local 503 members rally at the Oregon Capitol during contract negotiations in 2011, reminding the administration that enacting the savings the union brought to light would be a better way to solve the budget crisis than service cuts.

GOING ON OFFENSE 19

The union released a comprehensive report “Moving Oregon Forward: A Better Way/A Roadmap to a Balanced Solution to Our Budget Crisis Drawn from the Suggestions of Front-Line State Workers.” Reaction was immediate and largely favorable from legislative leaders of both parties, the governor and the media.

Better Way themes were integrated into every aspect of the local’s budget and bargaining campaign. Members, leaders and staff campaigned for their cost-savings ideas at every opportunity, visiting lawmakers, testifying before legislative committees, and spending their furlough day at a Capitol rally with union and community allies. More than 60 co-sponsors were attracted to the cause.

Oregon’s Legislature and state agencies acted on several of the union’s recommendations, including legislation to reduce management to a standard of 11:1 to prioritize front-line service delivery, reduce service and supplies costs by 6.5 percent, centralize administrative services, and add staff to the state Medicaid Fraud Unit to increase collections. The state’s final budget, while far from perfect, averted some service cuts that had been proposed and left every state agency employee better compensated at the end. The union produced a report card to show how well legislators and the governor responded to the union’s proposed efficiencies, and continued to push for action this year to ensure that members’ ideas for efficiencies are an important part of an overall effort to protect services.

The research-driven campaign proved so successful in state bargaining that Local 503 replicated some of the strategies in negotiations for more than 3,000 classified workers on seven Oregon University System campuses. Finally, with a contract extension for about 12,000 home care providers still unsigned 17 months after expiration of the existing agreement and the state demanding an end to health benefits for half of the

Workers as the Voice for Government EfficiencyCarmen Mayoral, Case Manager, DHS, Board Member, SEIU Local 503

“Our local surveyed members and came up with proactive solutions to Oregon’s revenue shortfall. I came off the job for two months and worked as a member organizer. I recruited members to participate in rallies and attend town hall meetings. A high point in our campaign was a big rally with 2,000 members in the street.

“Because of all the work we did educating the public and advocating for services, the media and the public saw our negotiations differently this time. They could see that we weren’t there just for our own pay and ben-efits. Legislators said ‘thank you very much for identifying solutions.’ We weren’t just saying cuts are bad. We were saying let’s talk about how to provide the best services. We said there’s a better way. Legislators are now starting to look to us—state workers—as a voice for the community. We are seen as experts at coming up with budget solutions. And that’s a big change. We did things a different way, and it is paying off in Oregon.”

20 GOING ON OFFENSE

4,500 workers who qualified, Local 503 tapped the research again. Recommendations from “Moving Oregon Forward” were included in a package of proposals advanced by the union and progressive allies that allowed the Legislature to close a $53.4 million budget gap and fund the health coverage.

New Solutions for MichiganFront-line workers’ cost savings and efficiency ideas were also central to a media and bargaining strategy that reframed negotiations between state workers and a new Republican governor in Michigan. SEIU Locals 517M and 526M wanted to avoid a “governor versus unions” showdown, and through their fair economy project called New Solutions for Michigan, the two locals developed a strategy for bargaining to put state employees on the side of taxpayers and the public.

Along with labor coalition allies from the UAW, AFSCME and MSEA as well as community partners, SEIU released a report, “New Solutions for Michigan: Strategies from Front-line Employees to Make State Agencies Leaner and More Cost Effective” that argued for the state to:

• Prioritize front-line service delivery by reducing the number of management po-sitions.

• Pursue better value from contractors, consultants and agency staff.

• Deliver better customer service through collaboration between agency leaders and front-line employees.

The news media took workers’ recommendations seriously—both the Detroit News and Lansing State Journal penned editorials in support—and the governor took notice.

The coalition got the most traction on the issue of worker-management ratios, and ultimately the governor asked the state’s Civil Service Commission to do its own analysis of staffing levels. Members wrote letters to the editor and authored op-eds to help keep the story going.

The “New Solutions for Michigan” report was a catalyst for greater cooperation among the unions than ever before, and “New Solutions” became the theme of the unions’ first-ever coordinated bargaining over economic issues. In nearly every news story about negotiations, union leaders talked about workers’ goal of achieving cost savings and protecting taxpayer dollars. Research and communications staff from the unions worked together throughout the months-long bargaining to share ideas and ensure message discipline. The multiunion state contract included language about New Solutions and established a LEAN process. This will allow the state and unions to hire a consultant to make recommendations about improved service delivery in the state.

Transparency and Accountability in Contracting

Then Executive Director Phil Thompson of SEIU Local 517M presents the New Solutions report with recommendation about staff-to-management ratios at 2011 press conference.

State should study unions’ saving ideas.

Report suggests fewer managers and contractors

May 24, 2011

Lansing State Journal

GOING ON OFFENSE 21

Michigan members continued the conversation about New Solutions this year with a call for more transparency and accountability in state contracts. Armed with research showing private contracts cost Michigan taxpayers twice as much as state workers, lost-timers and campaign staff organized a press conference during their lobby day calling for greater scrutiny of public contracts. Members’ stories about contract abuses provided real-life examples of the problem, especially acute in the Science and Engineering unit. They delivered mini magnifying glasses to legislators to help them get a closer look at contract abuses, and visited leading legislators to lay the groundwork for legislative options. In the House, Rep. Brandon Dillon offered a budget amendment on the issue, which failed along party lines in committee. However, on the Senate side, the amendment bypassed the committee and Sen. Bert Johnson was able to secure a floor vote. It failed 18 to 20, however, six Republicans voted for the amendment; indicating the issue has legs for the 2013 session.

Making it Local As part of the second round of pilot projects, staff and lost-timers from 517M piloted tactics for taking a worker-led efficiency campaign to the local level in Saginaw. Two dedicated members on lost-time surveyed fellow employees, came up with 25 ideas, vetted them, and started talking with local officials about how they might be implemented. These proposals include a plan for lower-cost leaf collection and selling

Bill Ruhf, president of SEIU Local 517M, holds up a magnifying glass at a Capitol press conference calling on lawmakers to demand greater transparency in the contracting process.

“The Lost-Time Program Ignited a Fire in Me”Roderick Pritchett, Saginaw Member Lost-Time Program, Local 517M

“I thank God for the lost-time program because it ignited a fire in me, and now it is up to me to carry the torch and keep on going. I think it actually made me a stronger person, and it certainly made me more active. Our team went to 27 neighbor-hood association meetings to talk about the city’s foreclosure maintenance policy. At one, I found out that my wife and I are actually part of that commu-nity group. We both signed up to be more actively involved. When we had a press conference, I talked to the media about how fore-closures are impacting our community. I also organized an Unemployment Agency Speak-Out in Saginaw and a tax day action with more than 45 participants. My wife and I rallied at a GE action in Detroit. I organized an Unemployment Agency Speak-Out in Saginaw.

“I want to continue to work to make my community a better place to live. In the future, look for me to be running within Saginaw for a seat on City Council or as a county commissioner.”

22 GOING ON OFFENSE

city compost to resident gardeners instead of having to pay to have it landfilled. So far they have met with the mayor, city manager, and eight of the nine City Council members. Along with work to end blight and improve services for the unemployed, the discussions about efficiencies and cost savings in Saginaw are helping elected officials and the community see public employee union members in a new light. Standing Up for Reform in Services for the Unemployed and Single ParentsSEIU members are showing their commitment to their clients and their services by standing up for the unemployed and other vulnerable people who are being ripped off by big banks.

In Oregon, members of SEIU Local 503 and allies at Economic Fairness Oregon waged a campaign against US Bank for extracting egregious fees from unemployed Oregonians just for accessing their own money. The “Reliacard” is a debit card used by the state to get unemployment benefits and child support payments to Oregonians who do not have access to direct deposit checking accounts. The bank benefits from use of the funds between the time they are deposited by the state and withdrawn by the recipient.

As part of their contract bargaining campaign, SEIU members signed a petition calling on the state to end the abuses. Protests at US Bank locations and a flash-mob action drew media

attention to the issue. Home care worker Kim Sticher, travelled to St. Louis for a bank shareholders meeting where after presenting 557 pages of signed petitions protesting the bank’s abuses to US Bank president and CEO Richard Davis, she more than held her own in an impromptu debate with Davis. The campaign resonated with members and the public alike because of its compelling story: a company that contributed to the jobs crisis was benefiting from the plight of the jobless. Before the close of 2011, Oregon’s state treasurer announced a new contract with US Bank that eliminated the abusive fees.

In Michigan, members of SEIU Local 517M who work at the Unemployment Insurance Agency recommended changes to the debit card contract as part of an effort to promote ideas from front-line IUA members for cost savings, accountability improvements, and better services for Michigan’s unemployed. They flagged the state’s $1.3 million contract with JP Morgan Chase in a report, “Improving Michigan’s Unemployment Agency: a Proposal for Better Customer Services.”

When the state took no action and extended the contract for another year, a small number of members staged a Grinch rally in December at a JP Morgan branch in Lansing. The event piqued the interest of a legislative ally interested in championing the issue. Rep. Jim Ananich spearheaded a letter, signed by a group of 16 state lawmakers, urging state officials to renegotiate the lucrative JP Morgan Chase contract. The state has agreed to issue a new RFP this December.

In addition, UIA members organized a speak-out in Saginaw to give agency workers and the unemployed a chance to talk about the need for reform at the agency.

GOING ON OFFENSE 23

BRIDGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDE ON PENSIONS: ADVOCATING FOR RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR ALLWith attacks on public employee pensions increasing, two projects focused on testing strategies and tactics for bridging the divide between public and private employees around pension issues. Locals in Oregon and California employed a variety of tactics for communicating with and engaging members around the issue as well as showing the public that union members are concerned about the common good of retirement security for all.

Engaging Members on the Issue to Reduce Tensions and Inspire ActivismPublic employee retirement plans have faced serious attacks. In 2011, there were 38 separate bills introduced to reduce or change PERS benefits in Oregon. At the same time, Oregon’s private sector workforce faced a precipitous decline in defined benefit plans or plans at all, including two high-profile cases where employee plans were frozen, in the case of Jeld-Wen windows, or dumped on the PBGC, in the case of Harry & David fruits.

Like many locals, Oregon Local 503 includes members who have pensions and care provider members (home care, DD, adult foster care) who have no retirement security. With such a stark contrast in circumstances within one local, increasing awareness and understanding of the issues, and building unity around solutions was an important goal of the campaign. A second goal was laying the groundwork with members and policymakers to offer a state-sponsored retirement security bill in the Legislature in 2013.

Members on lost-time and staff engaged members through worksite meetings, one-on-ones, and meetings at local offices throughout the state. The campaign identified 406 retirement security activists, and 80 of them participated in training sessions and committed to taking actions such as hosting a worksite meeting, collecting stories, writing a newsletter article, or running a meeting with a legislator or candidate about the need for retirement security for all. In these meetings, members were asked to share stories about themselves, family members, or friends to illustrate the challenges of planning for retirement, since individual stories often paint the picture of the retirement security crisis better than facts and figures. One story became an op-ed by Yvonne Walker, retirement security chair, then ran on CNN.com. The campaign briefed legislative leadership, allies, and other public employee unions on the need to launch a broader discussion about retirement security in Oregon. They commissioned an EPI report and pushed for the first-ever legislative hearing on the issue in January 2012.

A major focus of the campaign was getting commitments from other labor unions, allies and nonprofits to take up retirement security issues in 2013. SEIU’s advocacy for a proactive, offensive approach helped convince the Firefighters and NEA to support legislation around 401(k) fee disclosure and creating a state-sponsored private sector retirement plan. Local 503’s strong relationship with AARP, built over years of joint work to promote the interests of seniors, brought a strong partner to the effort. AARP joined the local for legislative hearings and plans to be an active partner in the public debate about retirement security in the coming legislative session.

24 GOING ON OFFENSE

401(k)s are too risky for retirementBy Yvonne Walker, Special to CNNupdated 9:09 AM EDT, Wed May 9, 2012

Editor's note: Yvonne Walker is president of the

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Local 1000, which represents 95,000 California

state employees.

(CNN) — Sharon Edwards of Salem, Oregon, may

have to move to Mexico, where the cost of living is

cheaper, so she can afford her retirement.

She was always good about saving, but because

of forced retirement at 62, the self-employed

interpreter is now limited to a $500 monthly

budget. Her finances are determined by Social

Security, savings and the cost of treating a chronic

lung disease. She worries about meeting her basic

needs during her later years and thinks about

selling her house to finance her expenses.

"When I budgeted for life as a single woman, I

didn't budget for 3% inflation, the loss of half of

my retirement savings in the market crash, my

hearing loss or early retirement," she said.

Almost daily, we hear stories of the crisis stemming

from the breakdown of the three-legged stool of

retirement: traditional pensions, Social Security and

individual savings. For the majority of Americans,

one of the legs of the stool is already gone --

traditional pensions. With its replacement, the 401(k),

the stool is in danger of tipping retirees into poverty.

Recent research finds 401(k)-style defined

contribution plans have lost their shine. IRAs

and 401(k) plans lost a combined $2.8 trillion,

or 47% of their value, between September 2007

and December 2008, the height of the economic

recession.

Retirement experts find that these plans have

numerous shortcomings, including high operation

costs and low investment returns. The biggest

problem with defined contribution plans is that

alone they do not provide retirees with guaranteed

retirement income.

If employees don't make the right large contributions into the right investment mix at

the right time, they are at high risk for poverty

during retirement. This risk continues to spread

as the job of planning and managing retirement

savings continues to be transferred to workers

who have to learn in their spare time to do what

professional money managers are trained and

paid to do full-time.

The switch from traditional pensions to defined

contribution plans in the private sector also

challenges workers to determine their own life

expectancy as they manage their savings plan.

Edwards may live to 70 or she may live to 95,

but she has to manage her retirement savings as

if she'll live to 95, or else longer-than-average life

expectancy could cause her to run out of money.

This means both that she needed to save more, and

invest much more conservatively, than if she had a

traditional pension.

If workers continue to be forced to play the dual

role of employee and retirement actuary, stories

of older workers like Edwards will not change for

the better. We must work to improve and expand

retirement options.

We need to explore new innovative retirement

models that provide guaranteed retirement income

for all workers if we are going to be a country

where once again working people can reasonably

expect to be able to retire.

This year, California State Sen. Kevin De León and

Darrell Steinberg, the Senate president pro tempore,

made headlines for introducing legislation that

would allow private-sector workers to enroll in a

modest, state-operated retirement program.

A similar proposal has been championed by New

York City Comptroller John Liu. The plan, based

on a new retirement model created by New School

economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci, would

pool employee and employer contributions into a

professionally managed, citywide retirement fund.

Although the future of these proposals is uncertain, they are a step in the right direction.

Traditional pensions usually outperform their counterparts because they are managed

professionally, and because they can use the

average life expectancy of their participants for

their investment time horizon.

We should look at what has worked well with

traditional pensions, which keep nearly 5 million

older Americans out of poverty, and use those

attributes to reach more retirees. After all,

shouldn't retirement stories come with happy

endings?

Part of what we aspire to as Americans is being able

to stop working with our dreams and reasonable

expectations of retirement still intact. What does it

say about the American dream if Sharon Edwards

can't continue to afford her home or actually has to

move to another country to retire?

GOING ON OFFENSE 25

Actions Show How 1% Win on Social Security at Our ExpenseAs private employers continue to eliminate pension plans and cut retirement contributions of all types, Social Security is more important than ever before. For millions of low-wage workers who pay into the system, Social Security benefits of less than $1,200 per month are often the primary source of retirement income.

The right wing insists that Social Security is bankrupt, or will be soon, and we need to privatize it, reduce benefits, or raise the retirement age. What they don’t talk about is the $110,100 annual cap on Social Security deductions. This means that those with the highest incomes effectively end up paying a lower Social Security tax as a percentage of their overall income, even though they may be eligible for higher benefits when they retire.

This year, SEIU Local 503 members joined community allies in Portland, Salem and Albany to hold events in mid-March—the time each year that the richest 1% stop contributing in to Social Security—to draw attention to the unfair advantage Social Security contribution rules afford the wealthiest Americans. By expanding the Social Security tax base so all Americans pay the same rate on their income, we would generate more than enough revenue to raise benefit levels, expand access to Social Security and fill its long-term funding gap.

Using Legislation as a Catalyst for Communication and ActionMembers in California have been reaching out to co-workers about a bill authored by state Sen. Kevin De Leon that would create a state-sponsored plan that would provide access to retirement security for the 7 million private sector workers in California who work for employers who don’t offer any retirement plan.

Members involved in the California retirement security project have used the legislation as an opportunity to engage and inform public employee members about the retirement insecurity crisis that private sector workers in California are facing.

Four SEIU locals—99, 721, 1000 and 521—participated in the campaign, conducting meetings with members, engaging in

“The More Members Know About Others’ Retirement Insecurity, the More Outraged I Believe They Will Be”Lyn Wilson, Retirement Counselor, Oregon PERS, Local 503

“I was glad to see a diverse group of members with different life experience meeting about retirement security. I brought a co-worker with me. She was blown away when she found out that home care workers don’t have a pension or even a way to access a deferred compensation plan. She assumed home care workers were part of PERS, like us. The more members know about this fact, the more outraged I believe they will be.”

Commuters in Portland, Ore., were offered “free rides” in a large pink cardboard Cadillac. Members of SEIU Local 503, like public health nurse LeeLa Coleman (above) tried on a Mitt Romney mask and tried to imagine what it would be like to get a boost in their salaries in mid-March, when millionaires and billionaires like him see their obligation to contribute to Social Security end for the year. “We must strengthen Social Security so that it will be around for future generations of Americans,” said Coleman.

26 GOING ON OFFENSE

public actions, and lobbying legislators to support the retirement security bill, SB 1234. The California Senate approved SB 1234 on May 30, and the bill is now before the state Assembly. Members are ramping up their activities, and two additional locals, 221 in San Diego and 1021 in northern California, are joining the effort.

Members also have been involved in a long-term campaign to encourage CalPERS, the public employee retirement system in the state, to invest pension funds in infrastructure projects in California to help create jobs and show that public pension dollars can help make our communities better places to live and work.

“We Have to Take on the Real Crisis in Retirement Security in our Communities”Matt Nathanson, Public Health Nurse in Santa Cruz County, Calif., Local 521“Our local’s retirement committee has been taking a multipronged approach to retirement security. We are fighting right-wing efforts to slash our benefit formula, make us pay lots more for our pensions, and drive retirement ages up. But we also have long-term, innovative campaigns that focus on the common good because the public is not going to be supportive of our pensions when they don’t have any retirement security. We can say that we’ve earned them and we have the right to them, but our arguments are going to fall on deaf ears.

“We have been promoting legislation that limits spiking and double-dipping—two methods that mostly managers use to drive up their pensions artificially.

“We are also working on a proposal to create a separate public retirement system that private sector employers can buy into. Private employers would get the ben-efit of low-cost, professional management. Workers would get increased security through a form of defined benefit pension. It may not pass this year,but we have to take on the real crisis in retirement security that exists in our communities.”

GOING ON OFFENSE 27

BUILDING A MOVEMENT FOR THE FUTURE: BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNEDEven with the best-laid plans, campaigns occasionally met with unexpected challenges and obstacles. Given that these two rounds of projects were intended to be pilots, and much of the work was new to the division and locals, we were intentional in both rounds in having honest mid- and end-point debriefs and compiling the campaign lessons, with the intent of not repeating earlier mistakes in the work going forward. Below is a summary of some of the common lessons from both rounds of pilots.

Staffing matters. Not surprisingly, our ability to attract earned media correlated to having a dedicated communications staff or consultant on the ground assigned to our project.

Most projects also had dedicated staff on member engagement—people who designed and oversaw the lost-time programs. This attributed greatly to increased member satisfaction and better leadership development.

In too many cases, we were unable to utilize existing local staff to help augment the project. Going forward, we should seek to be more systematic in helping local union staff achieve “offense” skills.

Filling lost-time positions can be difficult and time consuming. Members who were able to come off the job had very good experiences, learned a lot, and grew as activists and leaders. However, most campaigns had challenges filling open lost-time positions, especially with public sector workers. Because of budget cuts and short-staffing, employers frequently deny leave requests, or members don’t want to ask. Our many failed attempts at getting members off highlighted the insufficient leave language in many contracts. It also highlighted that locals do not have a good way of reaching beyond their “usual suspects” when seeking out possible lost-timers. In addition, campaigns found that too much specificity in seeking activists from particular geographies or employers often didn’t work. In summary, solutions to make lost-time recruitment easier in the future include:

• Negotiate language in the contract that gives members the right to take time off for union work.

• Allow a lot of time for recruitment and processing leave requests with employ-ers. You should plan your lost-time program three months out and begin recruit-ing members two months out from your projected start date.

• Find ways to cast a wider net in recruiting and leadership development, creating opportunities to find and place new activists as lost-timers. Some locals do work-site presentations on the campaign to attract new interest. Use applications and other tools to screen previously inactive members.

• Be flexible in recruiting: often it is necessary to assign activists from one geogra-phy or worksite to organize in another area and offer part-time or nontraditional hours to meet goals.

28 GOING ON OFFENSE

Recruiting member volunteers is an ongoing challenge. Our member leadership program had to work hard to engage members as volunteers, even when we spent dedicated lost-time to recruiting volunteers. Many report that it’s not because of lack of interest, just that our members are frequently working multiple jobs, etc. In one case, a staffer noted that they were able to turn out 40 people for a foreclosure event, and only 15 people for a contract ratification, which underscores that our members are interested in this work. Going forward, these campaigns should be more thoughtful, and work harder at getting member volunteers. Some ways to do that include:

• Building volunteer goals and weekend/evening activities into the campaign.

• Teach volunteer recruitment and give lost-timers volunteer recruitment goals.

• Reward and recognize volunteers who were active in the campaign.

• Ask lost-timers to commit to a few volunteer shifts once their lost-time is finished.

Work in targeted swing districts. Both Illinois and Minnesota recognized that to win on revenue they would need to persuade legislators in outlying legislative districts. The campaigns targeted those districts based on what they knew about their likely swing votes for revenue and then built campaigns in small outlying cities aimed at engaging new member activists and changing the conversation in those districts. Letting the eventual political needs drive the targeting made sense.

We still have more to learn about putting the target on corporations. Member engagement turned out to be not as hard as anticipated. But it was hard for locals to do corporate accountability in a way that was a holistic part of the campaign and not feel like an add-on. When it was an add-on, it was not usually a successful campaign. The corporate accountability actions were most effective when clearly connected to a budget fight (such as Bank of America in Connecticut) and/or a specific policy issue (end the fees on the US Bank Reliacard in Oregon), and when we focused on corporations’ failure to pay taxes. Also noteworthy, our attempts to get positive media coverage by calling out a hometown employer or specific wealthy individual backfired and actually attracted unhelpful coverage.

We can do more to connect offense work to bargaining. Some campaigns, such as Minnesota, began to connect their bargaining work to their offense strategies by raising the employer’s banking relationships in bargaining. In other campaigns, for example, Oregon added a “for the common good” element to their contract campaign. Contract actions included protests at US Bank about their Reliacard fees. However, we have more work to do to fully integrate bargaining and contract campaigns with offense principles. In some cases, that may be bargaining over an issue for the common good, in other cases it may be using bargaining to highlight budget savings and positioning the workers as solution-focused. In other cases, it may be making clear in the contract campaign the real forces that devastated local and state budgets or fighting for new revenues.

Building local union capacity. The division aimed to leave the locals that participated in the pilot projects with permanently enhanced capacity and increased member and staff engagement in offense work. In many cases, locals adopted the offense language and engaged a wide swath of members and staff in elements of the work. Many locals

GOING ON OFFENSE 29

engaged new members in this work or deepened members’ skills. It was less often, however, that local staff gained new offense skills that they can keep applying now that the campaigns are finished. Going forward work between the International Union and locals should be designed to yield increased local union capacity more often.

We can do a better job talking to general memberships about the offense work. Some campaigns incorporated offense training into existing member events, held a large kick-off conference or did Saturday trainings to educate a large group of members about the campaign.

However, too many campaigns limited their offense conversations with members to just lost-timers. We should encourage locals to have a plan to communicate and train widely on offense ideas, including an underlying political economy analysis.

Be clear about the purpose of events. Campaigns experimented with a range of events and learned that it is critical to be clear about why events are planned. Are we primarily trying to get media coverage? Build public support? Organize/energize members or the community? Send a message to lawmakers or employers?

Sometimes, when attracting media or building public support is a primary focus for action, traditional, large-number events are counterproductive or require a level of recruitment and logistics work that isn’t necessary. Some campaigns found that reporters are more likely to apply a traditional “unions as a special interest” frame to stories about large-crowd events, especially when they are organized at locations like the capitol. Other campaigns found they were able to generate much better media coverage from multiple, small events in secondary markets than with one, large event in a major city. Many campaigns reported rally fatigue among members, and had success with creative actions that gave members a chance to have fun and did not require large numbers to be successful. Sometimes events were not required at all for good media coverage. Many campaigns had success with op-eds and letters to the editor, and many used editorial board meetings to move their message and ideas. Campaigns that used existing news hooks—a governor or council budget hearings, city council meetings, the release of budget or unemployment numbers, etc.—gave the media a good angle for reporting their story without the need for events.

When charged with “changing the debate”—a very high bar—a short stint of earned media events was generally not as effective as attempting to provide message tools to policy elites and opinion leaders. In Florida and Minnesota we were able to provide much of the research and talking points that state legislative minority leaders hungered for and used by building on existing relationships with those legislators and their staff. In both cases, legislators adopted our preferred language for talking about taxation at their press conferences and public events.

Carefully consider the role of research in campaigns. Research moved the ball forward on many campaigns—supporting work across campaigns to analyze budget solutions or highlight tax inequities, dramatizing the impact of foreclosures or swaps on communities, and helping to identify corporate targets. Among the research work, white papers and reports were often very effective in establishing credibility and providing a context for public actions and organizing. However, when white papers were done in the absence of a plan for what to do to promote the ideas and findings within them, they were not a good use of researchers’ time. Likewise, savings reports were more

30 GOING ON OFFENSE

effective when they were rooted in outreach among members, who “owned” the ideas, as opposed to simply a vehicle for a public relations campaign.

New media presence is important, but not all tactics were successful. Some campaigns experimented with Facebook, email and websites. In general, campaigns found that a very basic website was an important aspect to a public campaign’s legitimacy. Campaigns were less successful at engaging many Facebook “friends.” It took many months to get a few hundred likes and that was mostly allies. Campaigns also had a hard time building email lists, even with purchased Internet ads. Even when allies handed over email addresses, the campaign’s emails were frequently not opened. Robo calls and texts were more effective. Going forward we should make it easier for campaigns to establish a simple website, which includes a campaign logo. In most campaigns, we could have done more to engage the blogosphere and nontraditional media sources on our campaign issues.

Be strategic about when to lead with the union and when we lead with something else. Campaigns struggled with when to be explicit that a union was leading the offense work and when to create a new coalition like Floridians for a Fair Economy or Our Future Minnesota that would take the lead. There is no one size fits all approach, but having parents and teachers as spokespeople was well-received by the Minnesota media, who never branded OFM as a union fighting for higher taxes. On the other hand, when we were advocating for the common good or improved efficiencies it was beneficial to brand this as a union effort.

Efficiency campaigns—expect opposition; plan for a field campaign. Whether layers of middle management or officials at the civil service commission, it was not unusual for our efficiency ideas to meet with a deaf ear, or actual opposition. We were most successful executing efficiency proposals when workers took the lead in a plan to pressure stakeholders around the ideas. We were most effective doing this during the budget negotiation process when legislators could be critical allies if agency heads were uninterested.

GOING ON OFFENSE 31

CONCLUSIONThe pilots were created based on a widespread belief that public sector workers need to organize in the current environment differently than in the past. SEIU Public Division leaders agreed that we should adopt an offensive approach that repositions union members as solution-focused and advocates for the common good.

Not surprisingly, the work isn’t easy. The demands on locals are so enormous it was hard to devote local union resources to a new campaign. While many staff and members adapted quickly to the new approach, for others it was harder to get out of old ways of doing and talking about things—especially when those old ways have worked perfectly well for decades.

After 11 pilot projects, it’s clear we were effective in engaging members and changing public policy. We’re left with the belief that while we can improve our impact, we are well on our way to crafting strategies to meet the challenging moment where we are. We should continue to learn from and expand offense campaigns in the years ahead.

The experiences in the pilot projects gave the division the background to tackle economic inequality in its four-year blueprint, passed at the 2012 Convention. That blueprint underscores the offense themes in its call to action:

• We will demand and win equitable revenue reform that provides enough resources to fund quality public services and forces the 1%—the super-rich and big corporations—to pay their fair share.

• We will be a pro-active voice for concrete budget solutions at all levels of government where our members provide services.

• We will reframe the public debate about the role of government, public services and the workers who provide those services, and build support for the belief that government is a force for ensuring that everyone has an equal chance to survive, thrive and achieve a better future for their families.

• We will support the broader union program to change the political environment; by aggressively pursuing policies that benefit all working people, we will advance our belief that unions are a force for the common good and the primary solution to the economic inequality crisis.

• We will take on corporate-funded attacks on our jobs, our retirement security and our collective bargaining rights, and we will fight irresponsible efforts to contract out the services we provide.

• We will work to promote retirement security for all Americans by strengthening Social Security, creating innovative models to expand retirement security for more workers and advocating for needed reforms to make public pension plans sustainable.

Our offense work is the best chance to reclaim government’s role and reposition public workers as valued community members and service providers. It’s also our best chance to tackle our nation’s ever growing economic inequality.

16000 08.06.12 jc