The AFSCME 2822 Executive Board put out an email on May 1 asking dues paying members to tell the AFCME 5 state council to prioritize a few over the many.
To say that the 2822 local made a “democratic decision” to have local union leaders not work at their regular jobs and be paid by our dues full-time is absurd. The amount of members that were present at the meeting would have easily been less than 5% of dues-paying members. It was far from a fair representation of 2822.
I decided to run for President because of my concern about this exact action. You can make this an actual democratic decision by filling out your ballot and returning it by May 13.
The process of Ali Fuhrman taking leave via AFSCME was shrouded in secrecy. Library employees received a vague email from management on November 14, 2023 saying Fuhrman was on leave through the union and was not an active Hennepin County employee. There was no mention or explanation of Fuhrman’s status until it was mentioned in passing on the second page of the January 2024 newsletter.
Even then, all the newsletter said was that it was too bad management had scooped Fuhrman by announcing her leave before she could. Yet she said nothing for 6 weeks about it to the greater union. There was a budget committee meeting on December 6 where her full-time salary and the salary of other union members were taken up by the members present as part of 2822’s whole budget.
President Fuhrman may be making the same per hour while she is on leave. But the budget from the December meeting shows that she is paying herself at 40 hours a week when her job with the county was 32 hours a week. The increase of 16 hours a paycheck gave her a raise of $394.24 via your dues to her pocket.
And now that she has to come back to the library to work with the rest of us, the executive board is upset. It seems they want to withhold information and not have their actions questioned about why they don’t work alongside us. That strategy didn’t work out too well for former Library Director Chad Helton.
The executive board claims to prioritize building new leaders. The President has served in her position for 7 years now. It’s time for a change.
Cordially,
Brian Madigan