Fresno County Union workers state protest downtown alongside Occupy Fresno

[annm4peace]

Power to the People. I hope Occupy Fresno helps to encourage others in the Central Valley to speak out, join unions, know their rights and their strength.

tp://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/19/2583260/county-union-workers-stage-downtown.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Occupy Fresno protestors got some company downtown on Wednesday when county government employees staged a neighboring demonstration against cuts to worker pay.
More than 150 members of Service Employees International Union Local 715 held candles outside the county Hall of Records in a show of solidarity for union negotiators who are in contract talks with county management.
County managers, in an effort to shore up budget problems, are asking employees to give up pay in a labor agreement that is supposed to take effect next month.
"Don't attack people who make what we make," said Michelle Ronsley, an office assistant in the county Department of Social Services. "We are not responsible for these deficits, but they're putting them on our backs."
County managers already have negotiated pay cuts for most of the county's labor groups. But the seven groups represented by SEIU have yet to secure a new contract.
The union represents more than 4,000 of the county's roughly 6,000 employees.
Union officials contend that county management is asking low-wage workers to take deeper cuts than higher-paid managers.
A mock pay check circulated at Wednesday's protest suggested that office assistants, like Ronsley, would have too little to live on.
County personnel officials declined to discuss the current contract talks, saying they did not want to negotiate through the press.


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/19/2583260/county-union-workers-stage-downtown.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz1bI9Xo1mz