SEIU Members Welcome the New Metro Council

"Metro Muscle" Campaign Kicks Off

After the new Metro Council members were sworn in, their first stop was to the SEIU Union Hall where they met with members as Local 205’s “Metro Muscle” campaign kicked off.

Dozens of employees from the Water Department, Health Department, Social Services, Public Library, 911, NES, and Metro Schools had a chance to shake hands with and get to know the people who will vote on their pay and benefits.
 
Council members were given a presentation about what Metro employees make (average salary is $32,000/year), what their benefits are, and the difficulties employees have had under the Dean Administration.

“We have not had a cost of living increase for 4 years, increments have been eliminated, and even longevity pay was sacrificed a while back,” said Gordon Gross at the Health Department. “Meanwhile, our insurance and the cost of living keeps going up. After all that, now they want to force us into a 401k-type retirement plan? That's the kind that wiped out the retirement savings of millions of Americans. It’s ridiculous and I’m grateful for the opportunity to help educate the Council members about what’s really going on.”

“I don’t think the newer Council members are aware of what we’ve been going through the last few years and I think they really want to do the right thing,” said Tyrone Jolley of Metro Water. “We just have to keep reminding them that whether it’s a flood or any other day of the week, it’s public employees who keep Nashville moving and the city should honor its commitments to us.”
 
This meeting with the Metro Council members was just the first in a series of events SEIU is planning over the next several months. Our “Metro Muscle” campaign is designed to connect Metro employees in a meaningful way with elected officials and to begin educating them about the issues employees and their families face in an era of layoffs and budget cuts.

“I’m excited by what happened here tonight and I hope more employees are going to take advantage of this program,” said Bryan Jones, a librarian at Nashville Public Library. “We cannot allow Metro to continue business as usual when it comes to our pay and benefits for the next four years, but if we aren’t speaking out, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

Stay tuned for more information from Local 205 about more events like this coming up over the next several months.