Free and Fair Election Impossible at this Time

December 17, 2009

Dear Suffolk County AME member,

CWA is pulling our petition to hold an election to represent you. This has been a difficult decision, but at this time, we believe that the County and AME have created an impossible environment for a fair election. CWA will continue to offer advice and support going forward. CWA still believes that AME members would be much better served within our union.

Here is where we believe things stand:

County Violates The Law
The Taylor Law says clearly that when there are competing unions, the county must give “reasonable access” so that the unions can communicate on an equal footing. The County has clearly given de-facto access to AME, while barring CWA. It seems clear to us that the County wants AME to continue to represent you, and was worried that a larger and more militant union could come in.

Although CWA asked PERB to seek an injunction requiring the county to give us reasonable access, that request was denied.

AME Creates Climate of Fear
Sadly, AME decided to run a campaign where they threatened their own membership by “ratting out” pro-CWA members to their supervisors. AME did not tell the truth about the benefits fund, about the ownership of the building, about dues, and about CWA’s track record.

The fear campaign, and all the misinformation –coupled with a lack of CWA access to the job sites – simply proved too difficult to overcome.

Although CWA enjoys a great deal of support from literally thousands of rank and file members, we believe that an atmosphere filled with so much fear, intimidation and threats makes a free and fair election impossible.

Difficult Negotiations Ahead
AME will now be faced with difficult negotiations against an employer that is intent on balancing their budget on your backs. We wish the leadership good luck in securing a fair and just contract in this atmosphere. If CWA can be of assistance in beating back even more concessions from the County, we are happy to help.

In order to win a decent agreement, we hope that the current leadership stop creating divisions, stop punishing their own membership, and instead focus on the real problem: Steve Levy.

In order to win a fair contract, AME must do something new and brave: They must put aside the divisiveness and begin to trust their membership. They must trust that their members will fight back when asked. They must trust their members, even those that have honest disagreements over strategy. They must trust that the members are smart enough to vote on all agreements; they must trust the members can mobilize to fight back. AME leadership must learn how to share power with rank and file members, and pull back from their instinct to be secretive, punitive and manipulative. It is critical to face Levy unified like never before.

Large National Unions Do Better
We believe that small independent unions do not have the necessary clout anymore to win decent contracts. In the recent Tier 5 pension give back, for example, all the other unions that are part of a big national union got a better deal. CWA, AFSCME and AFT all got either no Tier 5 giveback, or a promised 2 year no layoff agreement in exchange for agreeing to Tier 5. AME was forced to accept the Tier 5 giveback and got nothing in exchange. The national unions were able to use their sizable political clout to negotiate a better deal on Tier 5.

We firmly believe that in this day and age, it is dangerous to negotiate without backup from a national union. In a crisis, independent unions have no one to turn to for political back up, resources or solidarity.

CWA is Not Abandoning AME Members
It is up to all of you to decide what your future direction should be. AME has generally served the membership well up until recently. But the concessions on lag pay, health care, pension, etc will only get worse unless AME gains more power by joining up with the larger labor movement.

Although we are pleased that our involvement forced AME to promise membership votes in the future, the leadership needs to make more fundamental changes to begin acting like a real union.

There are hundreds of potential leaders we have met over the past several months that can be called upon to renew and re-energize AME. Ultimately, when a new leadership is elected at AME, we hope that they consider calling for a membership vote on affiliating with CWA. We look forward to the day when Suffolk County workers are part of our growing, democratic and strong union.

Good luck in your negotiations. We hope to meet up again soon.

In Solidarity



Tim Dubnau Erin Mahoney
Organizing Coordinator Organizer