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VICTORY Grievance rights preserved, “Fire at Will” defeated
In another major victory, TSEU members worked hard to kill a provision in SB 643 making state living center workers “at will”. This provision gave state living centers the authority to fire employees without having to justify the firing and would have eliminated all grievance and complaint rights. We worked with supportive legislators including Rep. Garnet Coleman and Rep. Abel Herrero who offered an amendment to remove the “at will” provision from the bill. The amendment was passed after a strong statewide phone calling campaign from union members to representatives turned the tide. Over 60 legislators eventually signed on to the amendment and easily won the final vote on the issue. The attack on state school workers was the leading edge of an ongoing attack on the due process rights of all state workers that allows them to confront accusations, file grievances, and argue their cases in disciplinary actions. At will is part of the pattern of blaming workers for failures in the system by automatically assuming guilt upon accusation. We will continue to oppose such attempts. Our success in this fight was directly due to strong political action work over the past year and highlights the importance of joining the union and joining COPE as we build to the next legislative session.

Victory State Supported Living Centers (state schools) to stay open
An alliance of TSEU, family groups, and supporters of state schools successfully defeated HB 1589 which would have required the state to begin the process of closing and consolidating state schools (now SSLCs). Going into this legislative session multiple bills were introduced that contained provisions to require closure and consolidation. These bills got momentum from a hysterical atmosphere that blamed the problems at state schools almost exclusively on front line employees while failing to give more than token recognition to the ongoing failure of the State of Texas to adequately fund services, staff facilities, or pay workers a living wage.
TSEU started a campaign to raise awareness of the issues far in advance of the session. With our allies we were able to derail the attempts to close facilities and begin to push the debate into the arena of fixing the problems and improving the system of care.
Using a no closure petition campaign that collected over 1,600 signatures, home district legislative visits, phone call campaigns, our State School Mini-Lobby Day, TSEU’s Statewide Lobby Day, and an organizing push that signed up over 1,000 new members during 2008, WE WON the battle. The fight goes on. There will be no closures but we know we will fight this battle again in the next legislative session. The effort to improve care and fix the problems in the system continues and will be critical to our ability to prevent closures in the future. Union members are among the most dedicated workers that the State Supported Living Centers (formerly State Schools) have. We have to use our skills and knowledge to make sure that only the best care is delivered.

Victory More funding, staff for State Supported Living Centers
Contingency funding was appropriated as a result of the state and DADS reaching a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice in their ongoing investigation of problems at the state schools. This includes $45,069,658 out of general revenue for the two year period beginning on the effective date of the budget (Sept. 1, 2009). The purpose of this money is to provide for additional staffing, monitoring activities, training, and other one time costs.
Specified in this is authority for the agency to add 1,160 new jobs by Aug. 31, 2010 and an additional 1,160 jobs by Aug. 31, 2011. This helps us set at least part of our agenda in the next years. We need to continue to hammer on the issue of under-staffing and push hard to pressure the agency to use the money they have been allocated to actually fill these positions and to make a majority of them direct care positions.