Last week, I asked whether there was any international union president willing to say publicly that the seniority is a sacred union principle and that the way in which the AFL-CIO layoffs were structured potentially threatens that principle. I haven’t heard from any international president.

But, I just got this letter that was written by one local union president to John Sweeney about job security and also referring obliquely to seniority. It’s’ from Roger Benson, president of AFT and SEIU Local 4053 in Albany, New York (yeah, those New Yorkers never shut up for anyone). I’d be happy to print Sweeney’s response to Benson (are you out there, AFL press department?):
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May 11th 2005

Dear President Sweeney:

I am writing to you regarding the May 8th New York Times articles that reports the National AFL-CIO is laying off 105 employees. This action makes our job at the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), and I am sure at many other public sector locals, much more dfficult.

Job security is our top priority. In the last eight years, the current PEF Administration has preveneted every single proposed non-voluntary state layoff. We have saved thousands of our members from the terrible economic disruption of being laid off. This has been our top priority and we have fashioned arguments with the employers against layoffs. As a result of our work, several creative approaches have been used to assure the continuing job security of our members including job reassignment, identifying new revenue streams and retirement incentives. At the core of our efforts is the premise that job security is Job One. If a union cannot prevent its members from being laid off, the rest of our activities become irrelevant.

Obviously, the action of the National AFL-CIO dramatically and significantly undercuts all our work in the area of job security. My management counterparts will have an absolute field day with this action and literally shove it down my throat the next time we get in a layoff fight back situation. How can we continue to argue the importance of job security when the National AFL-CIO now models one of the worst forms of management behavior?

Quite frankly, I don’t need to hear about “difficult choices” or “financial responsibility. I have heard all those arguments from management before and it will only make the situation worse now hearing them from our national union President, too.

Please reconsider this action–members’ lives and families depend on it.

Sincerely,

Roger E. Benson
President
AFT & SEIU Local 4053

cc: Edward McElroy, President AFT
Andrew Stern, President, SEIU
PEF Executive Board
PEF Council Leaders
PEF Staff