Mr. DiCiccio, we were in the mall yesterday outside of Senate building and we talked about this very topic that you sent out in email today. I told you that we are professionals and will treat you with respect and only ask that you do the same. You agreed with me that we do not need to stoop to being insulting to one another and can disagree and still have respectful dialogue. We shook hands like gentleman.

I got back to my office and checked my email as we got back from our debate and was not surprised to find your email message in my inbox. Less than twenty four hours later, and I can see that you had no intention of backing off of your inflammatory rhetoric. I wish I can say that I am surprised.

The use of terms like “union bosses” and “’old school Chicago style labor intimidations” is insulting, demeaning and morally wrong. I am asking you as a professional, as a fellow Italian-American, and a gentleman to not make this into a mudslinging, name calling event just to garner political support. If you want to object to us, fine. If you want to disagree with us, fine, but using terms like “union bosses” and other old school imagery is beneath the office of City Councilmen of Phoenix.

I am a 911 operator and a union official dedicated to saving lives and helping my union brothers and sisters serve the citizens of Phoenix every day. I am a 2nd generation middle class patriotic Italian-American supporting my family. I am a professional and courteous representative of the employees of the City of Phoenix, standing up for the traditional values of the working class. I am not a union “boss”, thug or anyone who intimidates politicians. That type of language garners images of past abuses and is insulting.

It is unfortunate that you have staked your political future on the popularity of blaming unions or public employees for the state of the economy. I have a strong belief that the voting public of the State of Arizona will begin to understand the truth of our situation soon enough.

We are easy targets. We quietly go about the business of maintaining one of the best run cities in the Country. We do it when times are plush. We also do it in times of financial crisis like we have faced in the most recent economic downturn.

I don’t see you objecting publicly to the people who got us in this state, CEO’s from Merril Lynch, Goldman and Sach’s, Enron, Lehman Brothers and AIG. You and your supporters fail to put the blame where it is due.

Instead you pick on the mechanic making $10 dollars per hour, the 911 operator making $16 dollars per hour, or the building inspector making $20 per hour. Unsuspecting targets with decent jobs who considered themselves lucky to be working at all, considering the recent rounds of layoffs that the city has done in order to trim the budget. You choose to attack the unsuspecting workers like police officers, firefighters, court clerks, secretaries and neighborhood development personnel who have had to take a substantial pay reduction over the last two years.

To treat labor and the working class as contributing to the economic woes is blatantly wrong. To not show respect to the workers and their rights in the city as you have done is morally apprehensible. Your family knows the struggles of labor and immigrants. I beseech you not to turn on that history in order to simply raise your standings in the Tea Party and their drive for maximum profits at the expense of the working class.

To quote from Pope John Paul II, “workers’ rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at maximum profits. The thing that must shape the whole economy is respect for the workers’ rights within each country and all through the world’s economy.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you consider stopping the insulting rhetoric

Frank Piccioli

Executive Board Member & Public Relations Director

There are at least twenty bills in various stages within the state House and state Senate buildings that compromise our abilities to perform our jobs effectively. These bills will require Phoenix to pay significant sums of tax dollars in order to advertise and administer the project outsourcing that would be created. It would put Phoenix at a severe disadvantage when seeking experienced and talented administrators and staff members to perform these functions.

There is no credible evidence that it would benefit the citizens or the small business community. Phoenix currently provides quality service to its citizens, and there are no guarantees that a contractor, who makes a low bid, would be able to deliver that same type of service.

During the past several years, the City of Phoenix and its employees have worked cooperatively to resolve the budget problems caused by the national recession. The employees have agreed to significant pay concessions and have given up other benefits during this financial crisis. The city budget is balanced.

Phoenix has a Charter and Ordinances adopted by the voters of Phoenix. The voters have the right to make changes if they wish to do so. They have the ultimate authority to decide how their city should be run.

Councilman Sal DiCiccio is attacking the City of Phoenix and its Charter. He has the opportunity to make changes in the city through the office that he holds. Those efforts have failed. The voters within the City of Phoenix, speaking through the other City Council members have not indicated that any of these actions are necessary or warranted.

The citizens of Phoenix should be able to make the decisions on how the city is run and direct the administration on how the services are provided. Councilman DiCiccio should not be plotting with outsiders to undermine Phoenix, its Charter, the citizens and their legally elected government.

In response, Councilman Sal DiCiccio is begun a campaign to distorting the facts, defaming Phoenix and destroying the City’s reputation and image. Councilman DiCiccio schemed with others to create and advance Senate Bills 1322, 1345 and 1347.

Phoenix’s image has suffered because of Councilman Sal DiCiccio’s conduct. Phoenix is a “world class” city; it deserves to be represented by ethical Council members who respect the rules of the city and are not promoting their own personal agendas.

The entire country has been a witness to the events taking place in Wisconsin and Ohio as upwards of 30,000 people took to the streets in protest of these same rights. They have threatened to cut salaries, to layoff thousands of Wisconsin workers and have even threatened the dissolution of the unions themselves.

According to AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, legislators are moving rapidly to pass new laws to gag workers and make it more difficult for them to organize for better wages, benefits and working conditions. He cites the following examples:

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich is moving quickly to cut public services, and eliminate the ability of state and local public employees to collectively bargain. He’s cutting services even though the recovery in Ohio is producing more than $50 million in additional state revenues than originally anticipated by the state’s budget office. Kasich is not focusing on job creation or providing Ohio with the services its people need. Instead, he’s using his powers as governor to punish and gag his political opponents.

In Wisconsin, the state legislature is fast-tracking a law to eliminate the ability of nurses, teachers, EMTs and correction officers to recommend and negotiate new policies to protect patients, educate students or guarantee safety in the states’ prisons. This forces the men and women who provide vital public services in the state to suffer and serve in silence. Nothing could be more un-American.

This is the single largest battle for city and state workers in nearly 40 years. You can help make a stand. You can let the politicians in control know that their political futures will not come on the backs of the municipal employees who serve their localities with pride.

Join us tomorrow at the state capitol building at noon. Lend your voice to our union brothers and sisters actively in protest. Let America know that all public employees stand together.

We need to make it clear to the politicians that they need to spend less time punishing workers and more time working with them to solve the problems that face us all.

Free and fair elections don’t exist in the workplace in America because of the intimidation and lies that employers use against their workers. Studies have shown that 60 percent of workers want to join a union if they were able to but only 8 percent of private sector employees are members of unions

In making his point he cites several important factoids about the tactics that organizations will use to discourage Union membership.

Bosses and union busting consultants rely on threats to intimidate and coerce people. In 57% of all union drives they threaten to close factories, but only closes them 2% of the time. Indeed, they do fire workers in about 34% of all union drives just to intimidate the rest of the works.

As we move forward with our negotiations for the next MOU term, it is important to understand that there are still Unit III employees who are not Union members because of tactics similar to those pointed out in his article. And while the threats may not be as overt as those cited by Elk, it is important to note two things:

One, they still exist. And two, they are illegal.

The Local 2960 is ramping up its effort to enroll as many Unit III employees as we can for the upcoming MOU period. We urge you to attend of of the many Meet and Greet meetings that we will be conducting in the various workplaces. Bring your questions and concerns. If you have been the victim of these kind of imtimidation or mis-information tactics, please let us know.

From a different article, Elk points out how the simple act of joining a Union creates a stronger sense of community with your fellow employees.

“… union members refer to themselves as “brothers and sisters” during union rallies… because of the bond of solidarity that is formed during the intense harassment and firing of workers leading up to union certification elections.”

If you would like more information about becoming a Union member please contact the Local 2960 office or a steward in your department.

Related Links:

• Teabaggers Are To Congresspeople What Union-Busters Are To Workers, by Mike Elk
• Give Me a Union, Not a Wheelchair: The Case for EFCA, by Mike Elk
• Democrats Taste Union Busting at their Town Hall Meetings – Will they Learn its Lessons? by Chris Townsend