From UPWA Organizing Committee
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
California’s public social services and workers face the greatest threat in our lifetime. In the wake of the passage of the California budget on February 19, California workers face:
• Cuts of potentially tens of thousands of public service jobs.
• Elimination of access to quality education for millions of students.
• Radical reductions and roll-back of public services, including health care, social welfare, housing, environment protection, and local services.
• State fiscal measures that worsen unemployment and prospects for economic recovery.
The crisis California workers face is caused by the ongoing collapse of California’s economy, compounded by the accelerating crisis of the interrelated national and global economies. Furthermore, in California, the crisis is intensified by the long-term structural imbalances in the tax structure and impediments present in the state constitution, reflected by Proposition 13 and the 2/3 requirement for passage of the budget.
As the economic crisis has accelerated over the past year and-and-a-half, public unions and local governments have attempted to deal with the situation in isolation. Overall, this strategy has not effectively defended the gains labor has made over the past century, nor protected the resources local governments need to adequately provide services to the public. And, with the recently passed state budget, the situation is becoming worse, with no prospects for improvement on the horizon. Therefore, this growing crisis requires formulating new strategies and agendas based on a collective response.
In light of this multi-dimensional economic crisis, an initial statewide public workers conference will be convened on March 15, 2009 at Sacramento City College from 12 noon to 6 pm. The conference has been organized by the United Public Workers for Action. The UPWA is a network and organizing committee formed in 2008 by San Francisco Bay Area union members and activists committed to bring all-affected workers in the state together to address the current crisis.
The March 15 conference aims to accomplish the following:
• Lay out the effects of the economic/budget crisis on public services and workers, and identify potential allies.
• Examine the reasons for the current political and policy impasse and the recent succession of band-aid budget measures.
• Develop a common agenda to confront the ongoing crisis in the interest of the public, and rebuild viable public services and funding sources responsive to Californian’s changing needs during both good and bad economic times;
• Develop strategies and organizations to address the systemic crisis over a sustained period of time.
Underscoring this agenda is the recognition that the economic/budget crisis is not being solved within the parameters of the established political system. The policies that come out of the Governor’s office and the State Legislature have avoided confronting the underlying problems, and have been inadequate short-term responses. Labor has a constructive role to play in building a broad movement to tackle these problems.
Specific areas that will be discussed in workshops at the March 15 conference are:
• Revenue generation and the political process;
• The 2/3 requirement and how to change it;
• The crisis of the public service sector;
• The state’s public education system, its funding, and its future;
• The housing crisis;
• Impact of the crisis on services for immigrants;
• Organizing for community and the future.
The conference will also develop plans and initiate outreach for action both legislatively and in mobilizing all public workers for the statewide day of action for immigrant rights and services to be held on May 1, 2009 in Sacramento.
The UPWA-sponsored conference will also be supporting the statewide mobilization for defense of California’s community and state colleges to be held the following day on March 16 at the Capitol Building.
We invite your local to endorse, make a contribution to defray the costs, send a delegation, and make a report both verbal and written to the conference and for placement on our website—www.upwa.info.
The March 15 conference has been endorsed by the San Francisco Labor Council, AFT Local 2121 at San Francisco City College, AFSCME District Council 57, AFSCME 444, AFT Local 1493 at Skyline College and the UTLA.
In Solidarity, for the UPWA Organizing Committee