Focus on TUSD - September 2007

Slabaugh Fights "the Good Fight" for AFSCME Members
Bruce Slabaugh believes blue-collar employees need people to stick up for them.

He's the right person to do that, taking the road his union family traveled to the place he's at now as president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 449. More than 450 TUSD employees are members of that local.

Slabaugh, who has been a TUSD school bus mechanic since 1989, said that at the local level, wages and benefits continue to be the most important issue for members. He pointed out the lowest paid TUSD employees belong to Local 449, such as bus drivers and monitors, custodians, mechanics, plumbers and painters.

In 1991, when he got involved in AFSCME, the local had fewer than 200 members. Hard work has resulted in a nearly doubled membership, Slabaugh said.

"Each year, we work to make sure we have 100 percent health insurance for the workers," he pointed out. "We also have $800 a year contributed toward dependent health care insurance and 100 percent health care insurance for employees who work less than eight hours a day."

Blue-collar employees are also represented on the professional development committee for step salary increases, he noted. "We believe in education for everyone," Slabaugh said. "I've always said that an educational institution should provide educational advances for all the employees. That's something they couldn't argue with."

Slabaugh, who has been on the negotiating team for a dozen years, said that a secondary issue for his local is discipline, which means that "people are not being taken advantage of in the work place." A grievance process handles those disputes. Working conditions, such as health and safety, are also important to members.

Slabaugh is finishing a third two-year team as president and may continue in that post. "I'm going to stay with this and fight the good fight," he said.

Bruce Slabaugh Bio

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations