After months of rallies, marches and meetings, HOPE has reached tentative agreement with the City of Houston on a historic first contract. It is the first-ever union contract negotiated between a Texas city and its civilian employees. Highlights of the contract include:

• The largest guaranteed raise ever for Houston city employees
• More control over employee health care costs
• Immediate 45% raise for the lowest paid city workers with a $10/hour minimum wage by Sept. 2009

HOPE members will be voting to ratify the agreement from Thursday, March 6 to Thursday, March 20. Informational meetings and votes will be held at more than 70 worksites across the city. Click here for a complete list of voting sites.

The sky was grey and the air was chilly, but the rain held off as HOPE marched in the 2008 Houston Martin Luther King Day parade. We were accompanied by our families, supporters from other area unions, and the rumble of 10 City of Houston Solid Waste trucks. We threw candy and passed out flyers urging the city to pay all its workers a living wage. This parade is especially significant because 2008 is the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death while fighting on behalf of Memphis city sanitation workers. That fight, with its basic demand of respect in the workplace and a quality wage, continues in Houston today. In honor of that fight, HOPE’s flyers carried a quote from Dr. King’s fight in Memphis 40 years ago:

You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, TN, April 3, 1968

See video of HOPE members marching here:

HOPE solid waste workers invite their colleagues from across the city to join them marching alongside Houston’s garbage trucks in the 2008 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade.

We are commemorating Dr. King’s legacy of fighting for the rights of municipal employees. 2008 is the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s death in Memphis, where he was standing with Memphis sanitation workers and AFSCME for justice for city workers.

We will be meeting at the corner of Texas and Hamilton at 9 a.m. Click here to download a flyer you can hand out at your worksite.

What’s in store for Houston in 2008? Houston librarian and HOPE bargaining team member Doug Weiskopf offers his forecast as a guest blogger at Off the Kuff. Here’s an excerpt:

While the population of the city of Houston grew approximately 8.5 percent from 2000-2006, the number of city workers actually fell by 9 percent. It’s time for the city to make a serious investment in public services. All we need is a little foresight and some good will, and we can ensure 2008 marks a bright new future for everyone in Houston.

Here is the YouTube video of HOPE in action at the November 1st rally:

More than 600 city workers and supporters turned out last night for a rally and march in downtown Houston. The large crowd listened to speeches, marched through the streets, and held a candlelight vigil to show the city administration that quality public services needs quality pay and quality benefits.

Speakers at the rally highlighted the more than 1,000 city workers who make less than the federal poverty line for a family of four and called for the City of Houston to pay its workers a living wage. Speakers included HOPE members James Moore, Belinda Rodriguez, and Ruby Jones; SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina; AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy; Houston City Council members Peter Brown and Sue Lovell; Rev. John Bowie of The Metropolitan Organization; Pastor Michael Crow of Barbers Memorial Missionary Baptist Church; Becky Moeller, Dale Wortham, and Richard Shaw of the AFL-CIO; Robert Rocha of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association; and Charles Steele, Jr., President and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and State Representative Kevin Bailey were unable to attend but sent messages of support. Also in attendance were Guillermo Vasquez and Zaff Capo of the American Federation of Teachers and Deacon Sam Dunning of the Catholic Archdiocese of Houston-Galveston.

It was an incredible night for all who participated.

See pictures of the event below.

HOPE, as part our campaign to ensure quality public services and quality pay for every city worker, has given four city employees a new perch. The four HOPE members - Arthur Proctor, Truman Cummings, Martha Gonzalez, and Sheray McKinney - greet morning commuters along the I-45 freeway from a new billboard. Located just north of the Cavalcade exit just south of 610, the new billboard is visible on your left as you drive into the city (south bound).

HOPE, as part of our effort to ensure quality public services for Houston, has begun airing ads on local radio stations. This spot, featuring HOPE members Belinda Vega and Jere Talley, is currently airing on KBXX 97.9 FM, The Box; KHMX, Mix 96.5; and KMJQ, Majic 102.1:

You can download it here or can read the text of the ad after the jump. Continue Reading »

State Rep. Rick Noriega, appearing with low-wage Houston city workers, announced his support for their effort to raise the pay of every Houston public employee to at least $10 an hour. The workers, members of the Houston Organization of Public Employees (HOPE), have introduced the wage proposal in ongoing contract talks with the City of Houston.

“Roughly one thousand city workers make less than $10 an hour,” said Noriega. “Our community can do better than that. Every worker deserves a living wage.” The federal poverty rate for a family of four is $9.83 an hour.

Here’s the YouTube video:

Noriega and the city employees stood outside the Houston Police Department, which recently took a major step toward establishing that $10 an hour level, setting a minimum annual pay of $20,000 a year, or $9.61 an hour, for its civilian employees. The city health department already pays all its employees at least $10 an hour. But more than 1,000 Houston public employees still make an hourly wage under $10.

A compensation study commissioned by the city found that Houston’s public employees make 21 percent less than municipal workers in other Texas and U.S. cities. Nevertheless, city negotiators are offering an annual across-the-board raise of only 2 percent for four years.

“With that kind of pay, we’ve got a revolving door in many departments,” said Bennie Henton, a laborer with the Department of Public Works who makes $9.06 an hour after ten years with the city. “We need fair pay for city workers to provide Houston the best possible public services.”

City officials and HOPE members have been in negotiations for seven months. They begin three days of intensive bargaining next week, and on Thursday, Nov. 1, HOPE members will hold a march and rally at City Hall.

See additional coverage of the press conference by visiting the blog of Matt Stiles of the Houston Chronicle here and here. The first one has audio from Representative Noriega speaking about HOPE at about 1:15 into Stiles’ podcast.