The government reform committee met today to discuss 4 anti-union/public employee bills.  All 4 bills received a “Do Pass” recommendation by a 4-2 vote (one member was absent).  The Rules Committee has not yet voted on these bills. 

 

The committee is comprised of 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats.  The vote was down party lines as expected.

 

The rhetoric and claims were fast and loose.  Complete falsehoods were presented as facts.  Such as, “Employees are forced to join”, “Employees are not allowed to quit”, and “Employees don’t even realize that they have a payroll deduction”, etc., etc.

 

Each bill was introduced by a staff member.  In every case, the next speaker was a representative of the Goldwater Institute who then re-explained the bill.  All speakers opposing these bills were limited to two minutes.  In the case of SB 1484 – the bill that would require you to fill out a new deduction card every year to “reaffirm your commitment” to be a union member, Nick Dranius from Goldwater explained that THEY rewrote the bill to address the problems that prevented last session’s version SB1365 from being constitutional.  I didn’t vote for him and neither did anyone I know, because he wasn’t running for office.

 

Briefly, SB 1484 is designed to make union membership more difficult in the hopes that membership will decline.

 

SB 1485 Prohibits recognition of and bargaining with unions.

 

SB 1486  Eliminates release time.

 

SB 1487 Completely eliminates union dues payroll deduction.

 

This is clearly an attack on working families and the middle class funded by out of state corporations and millionaires.   The Goldwater Institute has unfettered access to the highest levels of the legislature.  They are also the highest bidder.  Have no doubt, dollars and greed are driving these actions and our opponents know that your ability to have a level playing field and equal voice is dependent on your ability to organize and bargain collectively.  This also negatively impacts their ability to make money.

Senate Rules Committee
Sylvia Allen	Member
Andy Biggs	Vice-Chairman
Olivia Cajero Bedford	Member
David Lujan	Member
John McComish	Member
Steve Pierce	Chairman

 

 

Please call, write and/or e-mail your State Senator and oppose these 4 bills.

If you have questions, need help identifying your Senator or formulating your message, give me a call.

 

Jason Stokes

Chief Rep

602-254-6320

Feb 1, 2012 Jason will join many other employee representatives to oppose Senate Bills 1484, 1485, 1486 and 1487.   These bills would end union release time, dues deductions and make Meet & Confer illegal.  They have been put on tomorrows agenda for the Senate Government Reform Committee and are scheduled to be heard at 9:00 a.m.    

The intent of these bills is to eradicate collective bargaining, employee rights and unions in Arizona.  These are the same east coast union busting tactics that have been seen in other parts of the country.

We need your help.

Please email or call these key members of the Arizona State Senate. Tell them to kill SB1484, SB1485, SB1486 and SB1487.

To read these bills click the link below.

http://www.azleg.gov/Bills.asp?FirstBill=SB1451&LastBill=SB1500

Please call the following members of the Arizona Senate Government Reform Committee NOW.

Sen. Frank Antenori 602.926.5683

Sen. Judy Burges 602.926.5861

Sen. Lori Klein 602.926.5284

Sen. Rick Murphy 602.926.4444

Sen. Steve Smith 602.926.5685

Senate President Steve Pierce 602.926.5584

Don’t let them bring Washington-style big government and bitter partisan politics to our cities. Don’t let them destroy individual liberties and drastically reduce individual freedom.

Take action today, please.

Jason Stokes – Chief Representative

602-254-6320

 

 

As you may be aware, Monday started the 2^nd regular session of the fiftieth legislature.  As you can imagine, there is still a great deal of anti-public employee sentiment floating around down at the Capitol.  ASPTEA is committed to keeping the membership up to date regarding bills that could negatively impact you and the community.

 

Even though the session has just begun, the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is clearly noticeable.  Our web page has provided a great deal of information regarding ALEC.  If you are not familiar with the organization, click on this link, alecexposed.org.

 

Now more than ever, it is important to be active in letting your legislators know that we are involved, educated and vote!  We are good, hardworking people that are tired of having our character and livelihoods attacked by those wishing to impose state level solutions to local issues. 

 

As of Thursday afternoon, we are closely watching 4 bills.

 

SB1063: REFERENCE TITLE: unions; employer bargains; prohibitions

 

This bill requires “arms length negotiations” and appears to also prohibit union release time.  These issues may sound familiar as the “arms length negotiations” are a direct quote from one of our councilmen, who failed last week to garner majority support for this idea from the full council.  The prohibition on release time mirrors a Goldwater Institute lawsuit filed against Phoenix and one of the other unions.

 

SB1064: REFERENCE TITLE: municipalities; local liberty charter.

 

Here is a link to the actual text of the bill.  There is not enough room to list everything that is wrong with this bill’s attack on local control.

SB1064

 

Both of these bills were introduced by Senator Lori Klein (R) of Legislative District 6, Roughly I-17 to Cave Creek and Thunderbird to New River.  Here is the official map: Legislative_Districts 06

Both are also on the Government Reform Committee agenda to be heard on January 18^th.   The Government Reform Committee consists of:

 

 

 

Members	Position	Staff
Frank Antenori	Member	Republican Analyst:
Steve Gallardo	Member	Democratic Analyst:
Lori Klein	Vice-Chairman	Republican Intern:
David Lujan	Member	Democratic Intern:
Rick Murphy	Chairman
Steve Smith	Member

 

You can click on the names for contact information to call, write or e-mail your opinions to these legislators.  I recommend all three.

 

The next two bills are in the House of Representatives.  They are: HB 2317 REFERENCE TITLE: public employees; activities; unions; compensation and HB 2318: REFERENCE TITLE: unions; public employees; prohibitions.

 

HB 2317, introduced by several Representatives, seeks to prohibit any public entity the ability to negotiate “release hours” for union activity.  Here is the bill: HB2317

HB 2318 goes even further, prohibiting public sector unions and associations altogether as “illegal and unlawful”.  Take a look: HB2318

 

As I said earlier, now is not the time for complacency.  Be active, write, call and e-mail your legislators. 

 

There is a lot of information available at AZLEG.GOV.

 

If have questions or need help, call me.

 

Jason Stokes 602-254-6320.