It was a big win for Chattanooga city employees and for fairness when the City Council amended the city’s appeals policy.

If an employee was suspended or demoted and it did not cost the employee 10% of their salary over a three year period, they would not be able to appeal their discipline past their administrator.

Now because of the work SEIU members did in educating city council members, the city has fixed this injustice. Now, all employees have the right to appeal disciplinary actions involving lost time whether they’ve lost money or not.

“This would not have happened without union members working both behind the scenes and in the public eye to point out the unfairness of the old policy,” says Nancy Nason, who works in the city’s IS department. “Getting the big problems solved is one of the reasons why we formed a union and all city employees, whether they’re members or not, should be thankful that SEIU was out fighting for their rights.”