NYT: Countering the Siege

[Omaha Steve]

Omaha Steve is a proud AFSCME member.




http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/business/13mcentee.html?_r=1


Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York Times

Gerald W. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, in his Washington office.

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: April 12, 2011

WASHINGTON — Perhaps more than any other American, Gerald W. McEntee has surfed the rising tide of public sector unions to success and power. As leader of the largest union of state and local government workers for three decades, he has amassed enormous political influence and a huge campaign war chest that he has not hesitated to use to advance his union’s interests.

But now, with public sector unions under attack in deficit-plagued states and cities nationwide, Mr. McEntee faces the biggest challenge of his career — avoiding a wipeout.

In Wisconsin and Ohio, newly enacted laws will cripple the bargaining rights of 200,000 members of his union and may cause many to quit, jeopardizing the union’s dues base and political clout. The union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as Afscme (pronounced AFS-mee), is also under assault in Florida and New Jersey, where governors and lawmakers are seeking to curb bargaining rights or achieve far-reaching concessions on what many say are overly generous health benefits and pensions.

Still combative at age 76, Mr. McEntee has pushed away talk of retirement and plunged into battle to defend his union, which has grown from 900,000 members when he took over to 1.4 million today.


Amber Arnold
Gerald McEntee speaking at a rally in February in Wisconsin protesting anti-union legislation.


“The Republicans who were elected last November promised to focus on jobs, but instead they’re focusing on going after the unions,” Mr. McEntee said. “That’s a big overreach.”

In Wisconsin and Ohio, Republican lawmakers argued that public sector unions had grown too powerful and that it was vital to weaken public employees’ bargaining rights, so as to give state and local governments flexibility to help erase their budget deficits. In what is largely a decentralized union, Mr. McEntee is doing his utmost to serve as national field marshal, strategist and megaphone for the counterattack.

FULL story at link.

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