For Immediate Release

Dateline: Philadelphia, PA

Friday, July 12, 2013, 1:00 pm

Contact: Bob Wolper, 215-896-2970

Sources: AFSCME District Council 33

Philadelphia, PA – Pete Matthews, the President of AFSCME District Council 33, took to the airwaves today on talk radio station WURD-900 AM and issued a challenge to Mayor Mike Nutter to hold public negotiations with District Council 33 at the time and place of the Mayor’s choosing.

“The Mayor has not attended even one negotiating session for over five years and he has never acknowledged that our union has saved the City hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Matthews. “Now that he has gone public with his side of the story on this radio station and in other media, District Council 33 would like to issue this challenge to Mayor Nutter: Show up, in person, and let’s bargain in public so that the citizens and taxpayers of the City can get the whole story.”

“A recent study showed that every day this mayor fails to do his job, more people in our City are ending up in poverty, including the hard working women and men of District Council 33 who keep this city running,” said Matthews

The report, by Temple Associate Professor of Economics Michael Bognanno, indicated that since taking office and as a direct result of Mayor Michael Nutter’s refusal to negotiate fairly with the city worker unions AFSCME District Councils 33 and 47, the number of city workers living below the poverty line has doubled.

In 2007, 20.7% of city workers earned below the poverty rate, adjusted for the cost of living in Philadelphia. In 2013, more than 41.9% of District Council 33 and District Council 47 members now live below the poverty rate. Even more alarming, the study shows that fully 58% of District Council 33 members are working below the poverty line.

“We have been ready and willing to negotiate with this mayor, contrary to what he tells the media,” said Matthews. “He is the one who has refused to come back to the table, instead falsely claiming we are at an impasse and going to the PA State Supreme court to overturn collective bargaining rights for all public sector workers so he could impose contract terms on our union.”

“Now that the PA Supreme Court has turned down his union-busting request, it is time for our transparency mayor to do his job,” continued Matthews. “We think it is far past the time for him to show up in person at negotiations. Mayor Nutter can then tell our bargaining committee why he thinks the hundreds of millions of dollars we have saved the City don’t matter and why he thinks we don’t deserve a fair contract. We are willing to continue negotiations at any place open to the public of his choosing as long as he shows up in person and allows the media to cover the negotiations from start to finish. ”

The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO’s 26th annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade and Family Celebration will take place on Monday, September 2nd. We will gather at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 union hall (1301 S. Columbus Blvd at Washington) starting at 8:30, with a rally to follow and the parade up to Penn’s Landing kicking off at 10:00 AM.

The Family Celebration at Penn’s Landing will start at 11:00 AM, featuring food, make-and-take crafts, live music, games, kids activities, and more!

Go To: http://pa.aflcio.org/philaflcio/?action=article&articleid=ccd16257-08f4-44df-ae22-e5d3a4e65a49

By The PA. AFL-CIO

Sign The Petition Now At: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6838
And Tell Pennsylvania’s Lawmakers And Judges To Protect Our Right To Vote!

On Monday, July 15, voting rights advocates and injured parties are getting their day in court, with the trial set to begin which will determine the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law.  The timing of this trial will surely add to the national attention that it receives, just weeks after the US Supreme Court’s decision to gut the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Under the protections of the Voting Rights Act, Federal Courts had recently struck down voter ID laws in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, because they would have disproportionately denied voting rights to minority voters.  Mere hours after the US Supreme Court rulings, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama all declared that they would immediately begin enforcement of their voter ID laws.  The laws in these states are substantially similar to our own voter ID law.  The fact that Pennsylvania did not require pre-clearance from the Federal Government to make changes to our voting laws, in no way mitigates the fact that our voter ID law would have exactly the same impact, of suppressing the votes of minorities.

And it is not just African Americans and Latinos who will be disenfranchised if this law were to survive a legal challenge in Pennsylvania; the elderly, including elderly veterans, young voters, the poor, and urban voters who rely on public transportation, are all less likely to possess a photo ID that would meet the State’s strict guidelines.

“The entire roll-out of the voter ID law in Pennsylvania has been marked with distortions and misinformation from this administration,” said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale.  “The Governor’s office initially claimed that only 1% of Pennsylvanians lacked appropriate photo identification.  After passage of the bill, the Secretary of State revised that number upward by 800%, declaring that 758,000 registered voters do not have PennDOT IDs.  Our own analysis last summer proved that the real number was closer to 1.6 million, or nearly 20% of the voting population in the Commonwealth.”

These legitimate voters who are at risk of having their right to vote taken away are highly concentrated in urban areas, college towns, and in areas of high poverty.

“Nearly half the voting population of Philadelphia, 427,000 voters, could lose their right to vote under this law unless they spend time and money which they may not have, to obtain a new photo identification card that they may not know they need,” said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Snyder.  “The motivations for this law could not be more obviously political.  Advocates for this photo ID voting requirements have been unable to identify a single case of voter fraud in Pennsylvania that could have been prevented by this law.”

Sign The Petition Now At: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6838
And Tell Pennsylvania’s Lawmakers And Judges To Protect Our Right To Vote!