— Muskogee’s non-uniform employees who won back their collective bargaining rights in August elected new leaders for the revived American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2465.

Dustin Williams, who spearheaded the employee group’s efforts to reorganize, was elected president. Roscoe Beasley was elected vice president, Cecelia Shells, secretary-treasurer, and Phillip Flannery as chief steward and at-large member.

Even though local leadership has been elected, Matthew Jordan said Local 2465 will remain under administratorship until an audit is completed. Jordan works as field organizer for AFSCME International and was appointed deputy administrator of the local after its contract expired this past year.

Williams said Friday’s leadership election was an important step in the reorganizational process after the employee group lost its right to bargain collectively with the city. City councilors stripped them of that right after a state law requiring cities of a certain size to bargain with non-uniform employees was repealed.

Even though the city had bargained with the employee group decades before the repealed law was passed, administrators convinced city councilors to let AFSCME’s contract expire. The decision caused a backlash within the community, resulting with the largest turnover of the City Council since the 1992 municipal elections.

“Our agenda is to get our old contract back in place and rebuild our union — restore it to our glory days,” Williams said. “I want to take in a new direction — bust out and be servants of our city outside the workplace.”

Williams said once the union successfully negotiates its next contract and dues are collected again, he hopes to convince members to take on community projects. One project Williams is looking at would be sponsoring a youth sports team for children who would be unable to participate without a sponsor.

“We keep this city running for our citizens — that’s our jobs,” Williams said. “If we are truly going to be servants of the city, we need to expand our efforts and get more involved in the community.”

Members of the employee group and administrators began contract negotiations shortly after employees recertified AFSCME as its bargaining agent in August. The parties said talks are progressing but declined to discuss specifics.

Reach D.E. Smoot at (918) 684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.