Political Action
Political Action |
County Employees Management Association |
News:
CEMA Member Alex Cerul runs for Superior Court Judge
www.cerul4judge.com
Other CEMA Endorsements:
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
District 2 – George Shirakawa – www.sccgov.org
District 3 – Dave Cortese – www.sccgov.org
District 5 – Joe Simitian
SAN JOSE CITY
Measure B – NO
B PENSION MODIFICATION Shall the Charter be amended to modify retirement benefits of City employees and retirees by: increasing employees’ contributions, establishing a voluntary reduced pension plan for current employees, establish pension cost and benefit limitations for new employees, modify disability retirement procedures, temporarily suspend retiree COLAs during emergencies, require voter approval for increases in future pension benefits? NO
For more information about the No on B campaign go to http://action.afscme.org/dobettersj
Council District 2 – Ash Kalra – www.ashkalra.com
Council District 4 – Kansen Chu – www.kansenchu.com
Council District 6 – Steve Kline – www.stevekline2012.com
Council District 8 – Jimmy Nguyen – www.vitejimmynguyen.com
Council District 10 – Brian O’Neill – www.oneilfordistrict10.com
Cynthia Sevely for Superior Court Judge Seat #7 – www.sevely4judge.com
Jim Beall – State Senate, District 11 – www.jimbeall.org
Save the Date!
CEMA PAC is putting on a “MEET & GREET” reception at the Wyndham Hotel, 1350 North 1st Street, San Jose, CA 95112, Thursday, March 22nd, 2012. This 5:30—7:30 p.m. event is a great way for CEMA members to get to know candidates running for the Board of Supervisors, San Jose City Council, and other important political races.
Each candidate will have time to address the group, as well as plenty of one-on-one time with CEMA members. The last time we used this forum it was hugely successful, with the candidates and CEMA members remarking what a great venue it was for getting to know the issues. The cost is $20, and reservation can be made through Eventbrite. Just click the link below.
http://cemapacmeetandgreet.eventbrite.com
November 8, 2011 General Election
CEMA and the South Bay Labor Council are gearing up for local elections in November. We need your continued support! Please let us sign you up to help. On August 23 or 24 there will be a 2 hour training at the lunch hour to learn how to recruit volunteers and put them to work. Let us know if you are interested in attending this training.
CEMA will be sending candidates questionnaires the week August 2, 2011. The COPE committee will be reformulating our questions on July 21 at noon at the Union office. Let us know in advance if you would like to participate in this process. These races are for local cities, school districts and special districts. These positions are often a stepping stone to the Board of Supervisors and State Legislature. We want to establish relationships early on so that when they are our “bosses” they will be aware of CEMA! We plan on a interviewing these candidates in their community; so watch for the endorsement meeting announcement.
Labor in the Pulpit
Labor Day weekend volunteers are needed to speak at a churches, synagogues and mosques on labor issues. The labor council will provide a script and training. They need about 1000 volunteers. Our members who have done this in the past express the positive feelings of educating our communities on our labor issues. Please call the CEMA office (408) 289-9691 and speak with Susan or email Rachel if you would like more information.
Help put a stop to escalating calls for ending public employees’ right to collective bargaining. Click here for more information.
The Campaign 101 Needs Your Support
Attend this event and help strengthen the labor movement.
2010 Board Race – It’s All About the 2011 Contract
The November election is over and it is time to welcome our newest Board of Supervisor, Mike Wasserman. CEMA looks forward to working with our new board member and educating him about middle management issues and concerns.
Our contract expires in 2011 and by all estimates the County budget will not improve, but worsen. We will continue to work with our Board of Supervisors to protect and improve our employement rights, our wages and our benefits.
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Members:
Janet Atkins, Chair*
Amando Cablas
Alberto Carrillo
Teresa Castellanos
Edna Esguerra
Maria Fuentes
Jorge Gonzalez
Jackie Howe
Richard Nichols
Mary Jane Solis
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Meetings:
1654 The Alameda, Suite 110
San Jose, CA 95126
2nd Thursday of the month
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
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Mission:
The Purpose of the CEMA Political Action Committee (PAC) is to prepare and execute a Political Action Plan and Work Plan that reflects wide member involvement in the activities of the CEMA The committee then makes recommendations on whom to endorse, what resources to utilize and the amount of monies to be used from the CEMA PAC Fund. The PAC will keep the committee Work Plan updated as events and issues arise.
A primary activity of the PAC is electing CEMA endorsed candidates in all 5 Board of Supervisor Districts and the three elected department heads: Assessor, Sheriff, District Attorney and CEMA endorsed Superior Court Judge seats. The PAC also tracks and as, appropriate, supports state and federal candidates and issues that have a direct effect on the CEMA membership. The PAC also considers ballot measures that have a direct effect on members.
The composition of the PAC comes from the membership of CEMA. The committee chair is an Executive Board member. The committee, as noted in the CEMA By-laws, is “responsible for political advocacy and action on behalf of CEMA”. The Committee makes recommendations to the Executive Board who makes all final decisions regarding the political action efforts of CEMA. The CEMA Political Action Program has complete autonomy from Operating Engineers Local 3, District 90, Political Action Committee.
ONGOING STRATEGIES TO BUILD AN EFFECTIVE PAC
- Build CEMA member involvement and ownership by showing results that improve the members’ terms and conditions of employment due to direct political action.
- Keep working from within our membership to find politically connected members with history of political activism to participate in CEMA‘s political action goals.
- Phone call the CEMA membership to insure they are supporting CEMA endorsed candidates and issues and solicit ways they can become involved in the activities of the PAC.
- Build strong relationships with the District 90 OE3 Grievance/COPE Committee. Build awareness of middle manager issues and work collaboratively to build Political action success for both CEMA and OE3.
- Build strong relationships with the South Bay Labor Council Committee on Political Education (COPE) committee by participating in the COPE process and building coalitions to insure that Labor Council endorsed candidates support Middle Manager issues.
- Build alliances with community organizations that share CEMA’s Political Action plan and strategy. We need to recruit CEMA members who are also members of these community organizations to advance CEMA/Labor interests.
- Groom our own members to run for elected office. We currently have members who are elected office holders and can help us with developing other CEMA members to run for County offices.
- Continue ongoing efforts to politically educate our membership through topics at the Professional Development Luncheons, articles on the CEMA website and repeating the message “Politics is CEMA Business”.
- Build the economic resources of the CEMA PAC by encouraging member participation in political fundraising.
- Inform Board of Supervisors members and elected Department Heads and the County Executive on issues critical to the membership during contract negotiations.
- Maintain an ongoing relationship with board members so that they are aware of our issues and concerns
- Work to increase voter registration among the CEMA membership.
FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN PRIORITIZING SUPPORT
- CEMA needs to continually work to refine through member involvement the criteria that will be followed when endorsing candidates or issues.
- The following are the current factors that the PAC will consider when making a decision to support candidate or issue important to CEMA.:
- Candidate Support
- Champion Santa Clara County Middle Management issues and concerns.
- Strong support for CEMA’s critical contract issues such as full paid health benefits, reclassification rights, special compensations, additional time off and leave rights and other organizational issues that might arise.
- Endorsement by South Bay Labor Council Committee on Political Education (COPE).
- Support of the employee organizations whom they will govern.
- Ability to run a viable campaign
- Demonstrated knowledge and ability to be an effective office holder once elected
- Initiatives/Policy/Legislation
- Degree to which the issue/measure affects or benefits members directly
- Degree to which the issue/measure affects the community in which our members live in
- Degree to which the issue/measure has impact on broader labor issues
- Candidate Support
ENDORSEMENT PROCESS
- At the beginning of each year the PAC will publish the Political Action Plan for member comments and input. The plan will identify issues or races that CEMA plans to be involved in that are important to members.
- CEMA will notify members of an endorsement meeting in which candidates will be invited to be interviewed. The meeting and process will be open to the entire membership. At the discretion the PAC and Executive Board the CEMA endorsement meeting can be combined with the South Bay Labor Council PAC or the OE3 District 90 PAC or other organizations.
- Questions will be prepared by the PAC based on the criteria for endorsement noted above.
- Members present at the endorsement meeting will be given a rating sheet to rate the candidate on answers to CEMA issues.
- Once the endorsement meeting has been held, the PAC will make recommendations to the Executive Board based on the candidate interviews member input, and the criteria for endorsement. They will also make recommendations on specific ways that the membership will assist in getting the CEMA endorsed candidate elected or the measure passed.
- The timing of the endorsement meeting will be held upon consideration of other labor organizations endorsement meetings.
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