Evanston City Council soon will decide whether to voluntarily recognize a new branch of a local union for those employees who currently lack representation.
But the city already has a 35-year history of dealing with the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
“We’ve run the gamut of issues, but we’ve always resolved them by talking across the table to each other,” said Judith Witt, the city’s human resources director, who represents the city in labor negotiations.
Evanston’s AFSCME Local 1891 organized a broad swathe of city employees in 1968 — workers in the departments of Parks and Forestry, Water and Sewer, Streets and Sanitation, and Public Works. It now represents 171 of the city’s 874 employees, sharing the field with three other unions that serve firefighters and police.
Local 1891 President Ray Summers said the city and AFSCME have always enjoyed an “amicable” relationship.
“Basically we have the same agenda,” he said. “We’re here to deliver services.”
If they are recognized as a union, the organizing workers could form their own AFSCME local, Summers said, or they could join the existing one.
A few years before AFSCME came to Evanston, the union had about 254,000 members nationwide. It has since grown into one of the country’s largest labor organizations, representing more than 1.3 million workers. The union comprises about 3,500 autonomous locals that design their own structures, write individual constitutions, elect officers and collect dues.
AFSCME originated in Madison, Wis., in the 1930s as an organization of white-collar professionals attempting to retain their jobs in spite of the shifting winds of the state patronage system. Now the union is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, and a plurality of its membership is blue-collar.
It also has one of the nation’s largest political action committees, Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality (PEOPLE). More than 100 independent organizations have chosen to affiliate with AFSCME. On its Web site, the union said it wins 90 percent of its representation elections.
Many AFSCME locals have chosen to organize regional councils, coordinating activities for a large area. Evanston’s AFSCME workers and other Chicago area locals are part of Council 31. In December, the council won a case against former Gov. George Ryan that maintained a restraining order preventing the layoffs of state employees.
Dan Kwiecinski, a Streets and Sanitation equipment operator and AFSCME member, said the current local leadership is among the best he’s seen after 15 years of city employment. Kwiecinski also called AFSCME’s international president, Gerald W. McEntee, an inspiring speaker.
“He could make anybody stand up and join hands and hug each other,” he said.
Kwiecinski criticized city officials who have argued that workers are not educated enough about the union.
“The city government is saying that there are people who didn’t know what they are signing,” he said. “You hired these people, and you’re saying they’re incompetent to sign a card?”
