The Metro Budget: Your Union is Ready to Fight...Are You?

By Doug Collier, Local 205 President

It’s that time of year… budget season.

If you’ve been a Metro employee for any amount of time, you know the drill. Department budgets are cut. Raises are up in the air. The rumors of layoffs float all across the city.

Budget season is not a fun time of the year for city employees and we want you to know that Local 205 is working hard to try and help union members through a turbulent time. We’ve opened up a “Budget Hotline” for employees to let us know whether they’ve been targeted for a layoff, demotion, or reclassification. We’ve also sent out a piece of mail to all members who work in Davidson County letting them know the stakes this time and a schedule of union meetings to talk about the budget issues and how it impacts you.

But there’s one thing that Local 205 can’t do to help out… force you to get involved. That’s right—we need to have union members like you committing to help us in the struggle to stop the layoffs, get the COLAs that workers deserve, and to rein in health insurance costs. We can’t win this fight unless you are on the team with us. And paying union dues isn’t enough—we need you to attend the council budget meetings with each department over the next two months (see below).

The bottom line is this. There is still time to affect the Mayor’s proposed budget—even if your department has targeted you for a layoff, demotion, or reclassification. But we can’t do it if workers don’t step up and speak up. We will give you the tools you need, but you have to make the decision to act with us. Will you do it?

Lastly, I’d like you to think about this. This is the first year in office for the new Mayor and Metro Council. If both of them think that there is no resistance to what they want to do to your job, they will do it again. And next time, things could be worse.

It’s your choice. I’m asking you to join with us and take a stand. Come to the union worksite meetings and to the Council Budget Hearings for your department and let’s show that we can be STRONGER TOGETHER!