Public Employee Press

Political Action
PEOPLE contributions save jobs

The leader of a small local has set tall goals for DC 37’s PEOPLE campaign.

“We want District Council 37 to be the number one PEOPLE contributor by the AFSCME convention in Boston next year, and I am starting with my local,” said PEOPLE Chair Jackie Rowe-Adams, the president of Local 299. “We voted for Obama and for change. We need to keep supporting him with PEOPLE contributions. Yes we can and yes we will!” she told members May 27 at a union meeting.

Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality is the grassroots political action fundraising arm of DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Union members’ contributions helped elect Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States, and helped win Democratic majorities in Congress in 2008. AFSCME has launched a drive to expand PEOPLE to support the president’s worker-friendly agenda and strengthen the margin of leadership for union-friendly politicians.

The campaign aims to increase the number of union members who contribute at the MVP level of $4 per pay period, or about $100 a year, Rowe-Adams told her members.

“Forty cents a day is not much to ask to protect union jobs and hold elected officials accountable,” said AFSCME’s Sue Levitan, the local’s guest May 27.

Union-friendly elected officials will need support from labor more than ever this year to win health-care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act, which would let workers join unions without management harassment, and other legislation to help working families.

“Joining PEOPLE is an investment in yourself, your community and your union,” Rowe-Adams said. “As public-sector workers, we depend on elected officials to defend our jobs and the vital services we provide.”

Anti-union Republicans are already preparing to undo the gains of the Obama administration in the 2010 elections for numerous state and local positions and dozens of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives seats.

PEOPLE dollars protect jobs. Members’ contributions helped DC 37 save 1,500 jobs at the Off-Track Betting Corp. and 300 SAPIS drug prevention jobs in the city’s public schools.

“Big business and corporations spend $300 million a year lobbying against pro-worker legislation,” said Levitan. “They outspend unions nine to one. That’s why your PEOPLE participation is vital.”

— DSW