by Kerry Taylor
Labor Notes
Sanitation workers in Charleston are knocking on doors to drum up support for their battle to gain recognition for Local 1199B, part of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees- AFSCME.
On April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination during a 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, the Charleston workers launched a door-to- door petition drive to raise awareness of their struggle and pressure the City Council to recognize the union.
City officials have offered to meet with any individual worker about their concerns, but maintain that the state’s right-to-work laws prevent them from negotiating with public sector employees. Union supporters counter that no South Carolina law forbids public employees from collectively bargaining.
Workers have complained of abusive supervisors, an ambiguous system of promotions that pits workers against one another, and treacherous working conditions.
One driver was blamed for an incident in which a falling tree branch pinned her in the cab and seriously injured her neck and shoulders. She was rushed back to work, as was a collector whose eyes were burned by chemicals that shot from a paint can as it was being compacted.
Until recently the sanitation workers had hoped to resolve these grievances through discussions with their supervisors. The discussions have provided a few token concessions such as new rain jackets, but little actual relief.
The workers have now concluded that establishing an employees’ organization with democratic rights to negotiate with the city is the only way to win some measure of equality and fairness.
“If you’re a public servant you deserve dignity, respect, and acknowledgment that you’re doing a service for the community,” said Richard Polite, a 12-year sanitation department veteran, who adds that the workers’ demands are not primarily economic but center on basic human rights.
“We’re overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. The people who are in charge of sanitation have got to realize that they’re dealing with human beings.”
While the City Council has the power to grant the union’s request, the decision likely rests with Mayor Joseph P. Riley, who enjoys considerable influence over the Council.
LEARNING FROM THE ‘60s
Since last summer, the workers have been meeting with Mary Moultrie and other leaders of a historic 1969 struggle. Forty years ago, Charleston was the center of a bitter 113-day strike by 400 hospital workers, almost all of them black women.
It drew strong support from Local 1199 and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and many civil rights and union activists viewed the strike as an indication of the potential for joining black power with labor militancy.
“There is more openness in Charleston today. It’s a different city,” acknowledges Moultrie. “But what drew me to the sanitation workers is that the day-to-day grievances are exactly the same as the ones we faced 40 years ago. This petition drive has brought those hidden grievances to the attention of the public.”
Area students and members of Longshoremen (ILA) Local 1422 have joined the workers in collecting more than 4,000 signatures.
“Our reciprocal approach to workers who are organizing is a lesson we learned well during our struggle,” said Leonard Riley of Local 1422 [a member of the SC Progressive Network], which was at the center of a nearly two-year international solidarity campaign to resist union-busting and to free five of its members- the Charleston 5-arrested during a picket line protest.
“We know that we have to be there for any group of workers like the sanitation workers who are doing what they do to earn a living and protect themselves on the job,” he said. “No one does it in this political and economic climate on their own.”
Time to Fix Broken Criminal Justice System
July 1st, 2009By Victoria Middleton
Executive director, ACLU South Carolina national office
We all have a stake in fixing our state’s broken criminal justice system, and this is the time to encourage our representatives to make the streets and schools safer while holding down government growth.
Last weekend, the General Assembly-appointed Sentencing Reform Commission (SRC) held a public retreat in Charleston aimed at coming up with cost-effective strategies for improving public safety. The Pew Center on States has analyzed the fiscal and human cost of the current SC system: one person in 38 is in prison, on probation, or on parole; 6.6 percent of general state funds is allotted to probation; we spend $1 on prisons for every 6 cents spent on probation and parole.
We applaud the SRC’s willingness to listen to outside experts and learn from other states’ best practices. We hope they are open to creative solutions that will increase public safety and make prudent use of taxpayers’ funding.
1) We urge that the SRC become a permanent, standing commission with a broader mandate, one that looks at factors that drive over-population in South Carolina prisons and sends too many non-violent people, including juveniles, to jail.
2) We urge that the funding the State saves by changing our sentencing practices be invested in people – not prisons. Other states have reinvested corrections dollars in communities, especially those where most ex-offenders return, so that these folks can successfully reintegrate into society. These smart investments in people reduce crime and result in more productive, tax-paying citizens.
3) We oppose so-called “truth in sentencing,” which too often means mandatory minimum sentences by another name. Alternatives to incarceration, such as residential drug treatment, intensive community reporting, house arrest, and half-way houses that allow folks to continue working are cheaper and often more effective than time behind bars. They also keep people working and families together so the impact of criminal justice involvement is less grave on the community as a whole.
4) We also oppose any measures like the “three strikes” rule which have taken away flexibility in sentencing and led to unjust sentences for minor crimes. Under “three strikes” provisions, our prisons are now overflowing with individuals convicted of low level offenses, serving longer and longer sentences at greater and greater cost – with very little benefit for public safety.
Doing nothing will not only guarantee an increase in our prison population, it will increase the number of victims in our communities at an escalating cost to the public. We jail too many non-violent drug offenders, rather than treating them and turning them into productive, tax-paying citizens. We are sending too many children to jail rather than supporting them and their families with intervention that will correct behavioral problems early and keep them in school. To stop the cycle of violence requires imagination and courage as well as good policy.
A remarkable woman demonstrated this recently at a forum co-sponsored by the Community Partnership in Charleston. Vanessa Halyard is an advocate for victims and for abused children who, after her only son was murdered, reached out to the killer’s mother. She took a bold step to break the cycle of violence, because she knows that punishment is not enough.
It requires bold leadership to make real change, and it requires the community to support bold initiatives. We hope the SRC will propose real change, but enacting these reforms will only happen if average citizens care enough.
Victoria Middleton is executive director of the ACLU’s South Carolina national office in Charleston.
Tags: aclu, criminal justice, sentencing
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