COPA Updates:

Municipal elections in Massachusetts are fast approaching! If you know of a good candidate for Mayor, City Councilor, Alderman, Selectman or School Committee, please send your endorsement recommendations to copa@seiu888.org for consideration by the COPA Committee.

The first COPA Pension Subcommittee meeting will be held on Thursday, March 19th at 6:30pm at the SEIU Local 888 union hall.  This is an opportunity for members to learn about the system and become involved in the union's work around pensions, OPEB, and early retirement.

Please RSVP to JGaynes@seiu888.org and indicate which meetings you at interested in attending.

Legislative Priorities:

"An Act Relative to the Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees of the Committee on Public Counsel Services" SEIU Local 888 will be focusing on several legislative priorities at the state house during this session. The first is a bill filed by Rep. Mike Moran that will allow more than 700 public defenders and staff the right to organize. Employees of the public defender's offices are chronically underfunded and their wages lag behind those of others who work for the state doing similar work. Collective bargaining rights will help to level the playing field and introduce a measure of fairness that is currently lacking.

"Act to Further Define Standards of Employee Safety" The second priority is a bill filed by Sen. Marc Pacheco that will apply OSHA standards to municipalities that have no standards of their own. This legislation will protect Local 888 members who work in municipalities that are currently unprotected and are at risk of an unnecessary and costly workplace injury.

Pension reclassifications Our final priority will be making sure that Local 888 members are in the correct pension classification group so they can retire with the dignity they deserve. Towards that end, we have filed eight pension reclassification bills at the request of our chapter membership to reclassify up to 700 members into a higher pension group.

To learn more about these pension fights and to find about our COPA subcommittee on pensions, please visit //www.seiu888.org/copa/ or email copa@seiu888.org.

Don't miss the next COPA meeting

To make COPA meetings more accessible and to accommodate more members, the March COPA meeting will be held on Thursday, March 26th, at 6:00pm at 145 Tremont Street, Suite 202, Boston, MA 02111.

We will also have a special elected guest join our conversation. Hopefully this new time and location will encourage more COPA members to be active in Local 888's political committee.