More than 200 county employees, including dozens from Jackson Health System, turned out June 18 to rally for the return of our 5% contribution. Police officers, bus drivers, sanitation workers, park workers and many others joined us.
The building managers wouldn’t let us meet inside the Stephen P. Clark Center, as they do almost every other group imaginable. They also tried to move us as far away as possible once we gathered outside. But we stood firm in our right to speak out and didn’t let the hassling stop us.
SEIU 1991 President Martha Baker, RN, PBA President John Rivera, AFSCME Local 121 president Emilio Azoy and South Florida AFL-CIO executive director Jim Junecko rallied an enthusiastic crowd to demand an independent audit of the county’s health fund. We revealed that the county administration is sitting on a huge surplus that is at least $40 million more than its own consultants consider necessary to sustain the fund.
As Baker put it in a quote that was picked up by the Miami Herald story: “If that money isn’t needed to keep the county afloat, give it back to the people who earned it.”
To see the complete Miami Herald coverage, click here. To see photos and video from the rally, click here.
Thanks to everyone who turned out to stand together and send a strong message to our County Mayor and the County Commission!