The truth hurts

Governor Rick Scott’s administration is moving forward with prison privatization. The PBA claimed it won a big victory with a recent court ruling that temporarily halted privatization on a technicality. All the PBA has shown is that it is weak and have done nothing.

Gov. Scott and the FDOC have turned a blind eye to the PBA and will do everything they can to privatize our jobs. After the bids come in (the deadline is Nov. 10), the Legislature will try to pass privatization, and seal the deal for private companies to take our jobs.

We need to send the strongest possible message to the governor and the Legislature that we are standing up for our jobs. The way we do this is with the biggest possible vote for our union—Teamsters Local 2011. Now more than ever, we need a powerful union with us in this fight—the Teamsters Union.

It’s not too late to vote! If you have had difficulty getting a ballot for any reason, it’s not too late to get a replacement ballot. If you have not received a ballot yet, call the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) immediately and request a replacement ballot be sent to your home. Call PERC at (850) 488-8641 . When prompted, press 3 to contact the Elections Commission. You can vote in the privacy of your home. Call PERC right away because ballots must be received by PERC by November 15.

For more information on our Teamsters election, go to www.FDOCTeamsters.org (http://www.FDOCTeamsters.org). To receive campaign updates, news alerts and other important information direct to your wireless phone, text "FDOC" to 86466, and join our Facebook group: "FDOC Teamsters."

FDOC Teamsters Organizing Committee

Read the last line of this article. It tells you all you need to know before you vote for the strongest union-PBA!!!

Florida private prison fight puts state on defense
By Steve Bousquet, Times Columnist
In Print: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The state has twice squared off in court with a union for prison workers.

Twice the union has won and the state has lost.

Is the state prepared to lose a third time?

The Florida Police Benevolent Association is trying to prevent the state from hiring a private vendor to run 29 South Florida prisons, an idea hatched by the Legislature and approved by Gov. Rick Scott.

In a year when lawmakers ordered state workers to contribute 3 percent of their pay to their pensions, the region-wide outsourcing of so many prisons at once struck the PBA as almost vindictive. The Legislature said it wants to save money, period.

At the same time, the once-invincible PBA is fighting to remain the bargaining agent for 19,000 state correctional officers. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has mounted an aggressive campaign to end the PBA's three-decade reign.

Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford in Tallahassee ordered the privatization project stopped in August, ruling that lawmakers illegally stuck the outsourcing plan in the budget by the use of language known as proviso.

Minutes before the deadline to appeal the ruling came last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi appealed Fulford's decision. She did so not on behalf of the Department of Corrections, the actual defendant in the case, but at the Legislature's request.

"A very strange circumstance," says PBA attorney M. Stephen Turner.

When the losing side appeals, it stays or suspends a lower court decision. So the prison system reopened the bidding process, but said it would not hire a vendor "until the litigation is complete."

That infuriated the PBA, which raced back to Fulford's court, where she smacked down the state in a second ruling issued Saturday morning. A union official, James Baiardi, testified by phone at Friday's hearing that thousands of state employees are in a "panic" over the prospect of not only losing sleep, but losing their jobs and homes.

"Trial courts have leeway to balance the interests of affected persons with the concerns of the state," Fulford wrote in her ruling, which ordered the Department of Corrections to "cease and desist" the request for private-prison proposals.

The state shut the bidding window for a second time, and the prison system said Monday that no decision has been reached on whether to appeal Fulford's latest order.

The privatization plan was projected to save taxpayers $22 million this fiscal year because private firms would be required to operate at a 7 percent discount.

It's November. The fiscal year is almost half over. The union vows to keep up the fight, even as it works to remain the voice of Florida's correctional officers.

PBA director Matt Puckett says rank-and-file workers fault the union for not doing enough to get them more money. State employees haven't had an across-the-board raise in five years.

Next week, the Public Employees Relations Commission will tally thousands of employee secret ballots. Once again, the PBA is hoping for a victory.

Any guesses as to which side the Legislature is rooting for?

How can anyone defend pba? Here in south Florida two whole prisons will be gone. Hendry and Glades are closing. So, what did pba do for us at these prisons? We lost our jobs. PBA skinks! I would join any other union before I gave them a red cent.

You know, in all of the articles that I have read about this issue, not once did the reporter(s) mention (just to slam it home to those of the population that just don't get it) the waste in tax payer money to fund the hefty sums of these out of state attorney's that are representing the state.. doesn't it just chap your ass to know that you are paying to get butf&%ked by the gov and his greedy self-serving rejects? :devil: :devil:

How can anyone defend pba? Here in south Florida two whole prisons will be gone. Hendry and Glades are closing. So, what did pba do for us at these prisons? We lost our jobs. PBA skinks! I would join any other union before I gave them a red cent.

OK Mr. Naive. :roll:

How can anyone defend pba? Here in south Florida two whole prisons will be gone. Hendry and Glades are closing. So, what did pba do for us at these prisons? We lost our jobs. PBA skinks! I would join any other union before I gave them a red cent.

Plenty of us suppoort and voted for PBA, Phil :shock: Privatization was stopped because PBA file the law suit, Phil :shock: Don't worry we will find out who are union will be in a few weeks, Phil :shock:

And how did that law suit help the employee's at Glades and Hendry? It is amazing, you do to things very well. You speak how pba has helped everyone and when shown the real facts, you avoid answering the question. Oh well, the ballots will be counted in a week. :D