Wake and Funeral Mass Arrangements for Martha Fitzsimmons

 Wake:  Thursday Evening    February 25^th, 2010 McDonough Hall  (Gleason Building)  2^nd floor 1101 Columbian Avenue Oak Park, Illinois  60302

Visiting hours: 6 pm through 9 pm At 7:30 pm, there will be a special service with prayer, sharing memories, and music. Everyone who wishes to share a “Martha story” is asked to write up a reflection and bring it on Thursday evening to share with family and friends. All stories are being collected to create a memory book for Rafa.  

Memorial Mass:  11 AM  - Saturday , February 27^th, 2010  St. Giles Church  (Columbian and Greenfield) Oak Park, Il. 60302

 Reception:  McDonough Hall immediately after the service.

Some thoughts on Martha from Larry Spivack, President of the Illinois Labor History Society and Regional Director, AFSCME Council 31 and an AFSCME organizer who helped start this Local.

About 25 years ago Martha Fitzsimmons joined a zealous group of advocates. They were Cook County Public Defenders, but they were more than that. They were a band of activists who sought to bring a Union to the Public Defenders Office. In doing so they were able to bring a much greater sense of dignity to the job, not just in material terms, but also in creating a sense of community that had been lacking for some time. By September of 1987 a ground breaking Agreement between the Public Defender and AFSCME’s newest affiliate, the Cook County Public Defender’s Association had created something almost unimaginable: It was a contract between the parties that made a pathway for a financially durable career as a Public Defender and made an organization that lives to this day with one of the best contracts for attorneys who are sometimes referred to around the country as the Peoples’ Lawyers. Public sector lawyers around the country can, in part, thank Martha Fitzsimmons if they have competitive wages and benefits.

This Agreement would not have been reached or lasted as long without Martha Fitzsimmons. Martha was a hard bargainer, known to never mince words or to compromise without cause. Despite her strong opinions and ideas, Martha was one of the few who walked the walk and lived by her own words. Martha stayed active in the Union for the entirety of her career. If not out front on a bargaining committee or on the leadership team of the local union, Martha was a steward the entire time AFSCME represented our office. She was always a resource for younger attorneys who realized the idea of union representation was a natural role for an Assistant Public Defender but had no idea how to get there. Martha’s actions in helping build the union into a vibrant institution is not unique, but nevertheless unusual when it comes to Attorneys. Martha was one of the few who made the connection between unionization and social justice for the indigent and less fortunate. For Martha, defending the Constitution and defending her union contract were one in the same. And it wasn’t just about making more money. The connection to good working conditions and an office that promoted career service and the best criminal defense attorneys anywhere is not a simple concept to conjure. But Martha understood this quite well.

It may seem a bit hyperbolic to compare Martha to some of our early heroines in labor history. Mother Jones who fought to end child labor and the dehumanization and  degradation of coal miners; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who helped bring justice to textile workers; Delores Huerta who struggled for farm worker’s rights or even Jane Adams who marched in nearly every worker’s cause. But we would be remiss if we didn’t think of Martha Fitzsimmons when we think of some of the women today who have advanced the cause of workers in general and women and children in particular.

I am sure that Martha will be remembered by many of her clients for how she helped them. It is my hope that any PD who has benefited from Martha’s lifetime of service to the office and her union will realize that their standard of living today, their ability to provide a extraordinary service to “the people” is in a large part, due to a women named Martha Fitzsimmons.

As some of you may know, our sister, Martha Fitzsimmons left the office after her battle with lung cancer took a turn for the worse.  The Executive Board, voted to honor Martha and her service to our clients and this union by making a donation in her honor to a cause she has felt strongly about for many years.  What follows is a letter that we sent along with a donation to the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. 

 Martha is also our Member of the Month.

Mark Levitt – winner of the Democratic primary in the 4th Judicial Subcircuit, Lake County.  Mark has been an assistant Cook County public defender for almost 20 years and was lead counsel in the ”Browns Chicken” case.  Mark will face a Republican challenger in the general election.

Terry MacCarthy- a supervisor and former member of the local won Full Circuit Bronstein seat in the primary.  He has no Republican challenger in the general election.

Daniel Gallagher- Dan, an assistant at 26th Street was uncontested in the primary and will face a  Republican challenger in the fall.

Ann Finley Collins- A member of the Homicide Task Force, won in a race with many qualified challengers including two sitting judges.  Ann will not have a challenger in the general election.

Judge Jim Epstein – a former public defender who helped organize the local twenty years ago has won a seat on the 1st District Appellate court (McNulty vacancy).

Judge Geary Kull -  another former public defender, was in a very heated race and it still might be too close to call because he has a slim lead of abut 80 votes based on the vote totals available as of  2/3/10 at / 8:00 a.m.

Best of luck to all the winners and thanks to the members of this local who spread the word to  the voters in Cook County to vote for and elect the best of the bunch.

As you know, over the past year the American labor movement, along with tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, has been working to make health care available and affordable to everyone.  With strong leadership from President Obama, for the first time since the enactment of the Medicare Program in the 1960’s, Congress has tackled the challenge of reforming the American health insurance system.   

This has been no easy task.  Although Medicare, a government-run health care program that covers every senior citizen in our country, has proven tremendously successful and popular, right-wing ideologues and employers teamed up to attack any effort to expand government involvement in reshaping our health care system.  They spread misinformation and managed to confuse many people about what health care reform would mean for the average citizen. 

The fact is that health care in America has become big business for the insurance companies who make huge profits and exert enormous control over who gets health care and how it is delivered.  There is no way to reform the system without taking on their power and profits—and only government has the ability to do that. 

After months of Congressional debate and widespread public discussion, both houses of Congress have now passed bills that would vastly expand access to health care and would help to rein in the soaring costs of health care.  This legislation would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.  It would make sure that workers who lose their jobs don’t lose health care coverage.  And it would make health care affordable for those who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but don’t get coverage through their employer, providing health care to some 31 million people who now don’t have it. 

These are the common elements which both bills share; there are some differences between them, however, that are still in the process of being worked out.  One of the biggest differences has to do with how expanded health care coverage would be paid for.  The House bill would tax individuals with higher incomes; the Senate bill would tax higher-cost health insurance plans.  

The labor movement believed that the House version was preferable, but the Senate has been unyielding in its refusal to tax the wealthy, so we have focused our efforts on trying to reduce the impact that the Senate’s plan to tax higher-cost health plans would have on working families.  (While the tax would be on insurance companies, it has been widely acknowledged that it could be passed on to the employers who purchase plans and ultimately in some part to the workers in those plans.)

Over the past few days, President McEntee and other labor leaders have been in meetings with the White House and they announced late yesterday that an agreement has been reached which, we believe, will be incorporated in any final bill that comes before Congress for a vote.  This agreement means that working families will not be unfairly taxed.  It includes the following provisions:    

*         State and local government health care plans and health care plans negotiated under collective bargaining arrangements will be exempted from the tax entirely until the year 2018

*         The threshold above which the tax would be applied was raised to $24,000 for family coverage and to $8,900 for individual coverage.   (The general range of plan costs for AFSCME members in Illinois is between $15,000-19,000 for family coverage, well below this threshold—and individual coverage is also much lower). 

*          Dental and vision benefits will be excluded from the calculation of the threshold. 

*          The threshold will be increased if the rise in coverage costs between 2010 and 2013 is higher than forecast.

*          The plan increases the threshold for plans that cover retirees and workers in certain high risk occupations.

All Americans, both union and non-union, will benefit from this agreement because it raises the threshold level and exempts dental and vision benefits.  It ensures that plans dominated by women and older workers, which tend to be more costly, are protected.  It also protects plans covering retirees and workers in high risk jobs. 

As is customary with legislation like this, workers who negotiate health care benefits through their union will have a transition period to allow labor and management time to negotiate new terms.  Among the laws with similar transitions are:  The Family and Medical Leave Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, COBRA Health Care Continuation, the Mental Health Parity Act and the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Public employer plans are also protected during the transition, as state and local governments continue to struggle with the Bush Recession.  By exempting their plans from increased taxes, state and local governments will not have to strap taxpayers with more service cuts, which could throw our economy back into another recession. 

With this agreement in place, the labor movement can continue its vigorous advocacy for the passage of historic health insurance reform legislation that is a vital step forward in creating a health care system that meets the needs of all Americans.

You can help workers in distress by donating to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. Click here to make a donation and learn more about how the center is working to help Haitian workers.

The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the union movement, suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti: Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders

The 150,000-member National Nurses United issued an urgent call last night through its nationwide disaster relief network to recruit nurse volunteers to assist Haiti. Twitter updates use the hashtag #HaitiRN

Search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Va., and Los Angeles County, Calif., made up of members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) locals 2068 and 1014, are preparing to head to Haiti to aid in the rescue efforts. Other teams are likely to follow.

 

Primary Election

As lawyers who appear before judges for a living, we know the importance of choosing  good judges in our elections.  But whom we choose to be County Board President, Commissioner or Governor can be just as important.  Although I wont tell you who to vote for in those races, I will tell you that it is vitally important for each one of you to be an informed voter.  And the burden and obligation to find out which candidate is best is placed squarely upon your shoulders. 

 To help you with that burden, the League of Women Voters, the Better Government Association and ABC Channel 7 will be airing 6 debates, one which already occurred but can be viewed online, to help you make these decisions.  

Because even lawyers who are well informed do not always know the backgrounds and qualifications of all the judicial candidates on the ballot, the Chicago Bar Associaton and the Chicago Council of Lawyers have made their evaluations of candidates avialble to voters on the world wide web.  You, your friends and relatives may want to review these two reports before casting your votes.  Early voting begins January 11th.

Pizza and Pop with the Executive Board

The Local’s Executive Board decided late last year to have meetings at most of our work sites in order to gain an understanding of any issues that concern the membership.  Executive at Large, Bruce Mosbacher, will be arranging the schedule of meetings.  Feel free to contact him at board@cookcountypd.org to help organize the meeting at your site because Bruce and the board may not be as familiar as you are with the best places and times to have our meetings.  We want to begin meetings after the February Primary election and hope to have them concluded by the middle of  March.

Job Audit Grievance Granted

In a prior posting, I asked, on behalf of the local, for members to send me a letter or memo indicating that you were working out of classification (for e.g.,  doing Grade 3 work but getting only Grade 2 pay).  Nearly 25  members sent me information outlining the work that they were doing and requested that the union ask that they be audited. 

The local sent a letter to management, pursuant to Section 19.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, requesting audits of  each member that sent me a letter and the County eventually conducted job audits of each of those members.  The County auditors found fourteen of those members to be working above their pay grade. 

After extensive discussion among the Executive Board members of past practice and the promotion procedure under the contract, the Board decided to pursue a grievance on behalf of those members identified by the County as working above classification.  In December of 2009, Executive at Large Joe Gump and I met with management, had a hearing, and were pleased to have the grievance granted.  As a result of our success on the grievance, these members will be upgraded consistent with the audits within the next few weeks.

In Solidarity,

K. S. Galhotra

President