Text Box: From the Executive Director…   By the time you read this we should have received the ballots for the International Union’s (I.U.’s) reorganization plan dubbed “California Unite to Win [Bigger]”. We have until October 6th to return our ballots for the count.   Local 620’s Executive Board recently voted to recommend a “Yes” vote on this plan despite the fact that there are many uncertainties about how Local 620’s elected Members/Officers and Staff will fit into this large proposed regional structure.   To be sure the Executive Board has some reservations about the impending changes before us.  However, the Board is pleased that we negotiated an agreement with the International Union that enables us to continue to participate in a meaningful way in the discussions which we all hope will shape this new regional structure into a large, more powerful union with strong democratic membership governance and local control over local issues.   Change is Inevitable Progress Requires Work   Everywhere we look the pace of change is accelerating and the old orders are falling by the wayside.  When we look internationally we see globalization increasing at a pace that is difficult to grasp, but which will dramatically alter and reshape the way we think, the way we learn, and the way we work.   One has to be blind not to see large international corporations outsourcing middle

Text Box: class jobs while other equally large corporations import low cost goods and services from other countries.  This raises the question of who will they sell to when both our middle class and our labor movement are gone?    Here in California we anticipate a continued squeeze on middle class jobs and housing while an unprecedented demographic change sees the population increasing rapidly in our inland lower cost (non-union) areas and stagnating or decreasing in the (more costly) coastal regions where our unions are stronger.   Employers in both the private and public sectors in Santa Barbara and SLO Counties are not immune to these trends and neither are we as Union Members.  Many of us are experiencing the increasing pressures related to the rising cost of housing, the attendant increase in transportation costs, health insurance benefit cuts, and premium increases all during a period of little or no real wage growth. Our employers are also facing the demographic shifts relative to housing costs and the baby boom’s imminent retirement even as they try to provide more services to a growing population.   In the face of these changes it would be unrealistic to think that Local 620 does not need to change in order to improve and meet the challenges ahead.  Our growth has been phenomenal, but along with that growth comes more challenge.  Communication with and between our membership has improved, but not to the level it needs to be nor at a pace to keep up with the rapidly changing environment around us.  Our size is still (Continued on page 2)

 

Text Box: We are always updating our database.  Please return the member change form to the Santa Barbara Office.

Text Box: October 2006

Text Box: Volume 7, ISSUe 2006-4

Text Box: Page 2

Text Box: Home

From the Executive Director

1

Minimum Dues Increase Approved

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Upcoming Elections

3

Congratulations PAC Members!

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Bargaining Highlights & Steward Training

4

Laughlin 2006!

6

Update from Northern Turf

7

Attention Court Employees

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