CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

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OCB sends AJOS to an election
A special message from Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes
January 2005

Welcome to Local 1180. Those are words I want extend to every AJOS worker throughout HRA. You will have a chance this spring to decide which union should represent you, and I hope that you will choose Local 1180. But I feel like 1180 is already representing you, because we have been fighting for the rights of AJOS workers every day since HRA first announced its intention to create this new title.

Local 1180 has been fighting for the rights of AJOS workers every day since HRA first announced its intention to create this new title

Take a at the many articles about the AJOS title here in the HRA Watch section of the website. You'll see that from the very beginning, 1180 took on HRA management over the issues affecting AJOS members. Workers had questions about training, about caseloads, about salaries and promotions, and about who would represent them. We demanded answers from HRA and when it became clear they hadn't thought any of these things through, we opposed the creation of the title and urged our members not to take it.

We were concerned that the AJOS title would prove to be a dead-end for workers, because it's an agency-specific title. We wrote leaflets laying out the questions and met with our members to share our concerns.

When HRA managers started bullying 1180 members into taking the title, we defended them. When they tried to lure members with an illegal merit pay scheme, we filed a grievance and won. We filed an improper practice charge. We even went to court to try to stop HRA management. When some members decided to take the title, we fought for their rights in the new title. We have been there, at every step of the way, representing the interests of the workers in the AJOS title.

We will continue to do that. Part of our fight for AJOS workers has been the effort to win representation for the workers in the title. Local 1180 filed a petition with OCB in March 2001 seeking jurisdiction for the AJOS title. We have always believed that AJOS work is 1180 work, that what AJOS workers do fits naturally with what 1180 members have always done in the welfare centers. More than that, though, we believe that AJOS workers deserve the same union rights and benefits as any other 1180 member, and they deserve a union that will fight tooth and nail for those rights.

That's why I urge you to vote for Local 1180 when you have the chance to decide which union will represent you. Because we already do.

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