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Revenue ballot measure vital to save Calif. public services
Californians could face massive cuts in public services—including in-home and elder care, education at all levels and social safety net programs for the very poor—if voters do not approve a statewide revenue measure on the November ballot. Just last week, a coalition of AFSCME and other union members submitted 300,000 signatures toward the 807,615 required to qualify the measure. Read the rest of this entry » |
Anti-worker lawmakers out of touch with Wisconsin working families
Although the recall of Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker is getting the most media attention, control of the State Senate also hangs in the balance as four anti-worker lawmakers are facing recalls on June 5. Just this week, light has been shed on two of those senators—Terry Moulton and co-majority leader Scott Fitzgerald—that shows just how out-of-touch they are with the working families in their districts. Read the rest of this entry » |
AFSCME members rally for child care services at NY City Hall
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently unveiled his ‘Early Learn’ program that would increasingly allow private companies to take over city-subsidized child care and Head Start centers, saying “[the plan] revolutionizes early child care in New York City.” Read the rest of this entry » |
AFSCME members fend off bills as Ariz. legislature finishes session
The Arizona Legislature has finally gaveled its 2012 session to a close. Even though anti-worker lawmakers held supermajorities in both chambers, AFSCME members were able to kill many of the ALEC-inspired, corporate-backed bills put up for consideration. Teachers, first responders and all public service employees joined together to fight back and keep some of the most extreme legislation from seeing the light of day. Read the rest of this entry » |
Walker tries to divide, will not conquer
Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker told a top donor that he planned to use “divide and conquer” tactics against Badger State working families. Walker’s comments to Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks were caught on video and released this week by documentary filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein (conversation at 7:30 mark of the video). Since the segment was filmed, Hendricks has been Walker’s top donor, giving $510,000 to his recall campaign fund. Read the rest of this entry » |
We Are Wisconsin
There were six primary elections held yesterday to determine who will face Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and three other anti-worker state senators in recall elections on June 5. AFSCME members are unified in their support for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, lieutenant governor candidate Mahlon Mitchell and all four pro-worker state senate candidates heading into the June recall. Read the rest of this entry »
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Big Election Day for Workers’ Rights
Today is Election Day in Wisconsin, Indiana and North Carolina—three states that are already battlegrounds in the fight for workers’ rights and will be critical swing states in the elections this November. Read the rest of this entry » |
Michigan workers fighting to ‘Protect Out Jobs’
Michigan’s working families have seen an unprecedented attack on democracy and their basic workplace rights since Gov. Rick Snyder and his legislative allies took over the levers of power in state government last year. Snyder’s biggest power grab was the expansion of powers for state-appointed emergency financial managers, making them into “local dictators” who can unilaterally break collective bargaining agreements and dismiss democratically-elected officials. Read the rest of this entry » |
Missouri home care providers win historic court ruling
After a protracted three-year court battle, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the state must certify the election by home care workers who voted overwhelmingly for union representation. The Missouri Home Care Union—a partnership between AFSCME Council 72 and SEIU—will represent 13,000 home care workers across the Show Me State. Read the rest of this entry »
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AFSCME N.Y. honors lawmakers who stood up for state workers
AFSCME New York hosted a legislative reception at the state capitol in Albany on Monday to honor more than 70 lawmakers who stood strong for public service workers’ retirement security by voting no on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s anti-worker pension plan in March. Read the rest of this entry » |
Maine’s anti-worker Gov. calls state workers ‘corrupt’
Since he was elected 16 months ago, Maine Gov. Paul LePage has been on a bizarre anti-worker crusade that has included removing an historic workers’ memorial mural from the state Department of Labor, shepherding a public-sector right-to-work-for-less bill through the legislature and using his line-item veto to cut big holes in the state’s safety net. Last Friday, LePage turned his anti-worker rhetoric up to eleven. Read the rest of this entry » |
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Maryland expands collective bargaining for state workers
As the Maryland General Assembly session came to a close in April, legislators passed a bill that gives state workers in four previously excluded executive departments collective bargaining rights already enjoyed by their sisters and brothers in the state service. AFSCME members across the state worked with Gov. Martin O’Malley as he led the charge to get this critical expansion of workers’ rights through the legislative process. Read the rest of this entry » |
Right-to-work-for-less hits snag in Minn.
The Minnesota state House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly—118-9—to table right-to-work-for-less legislation early Friday. Thanks to the public outcry AFSCME members from Council 5 and Council 65 helped to cultivate, state legislators felt pressured to pull back on their anti-worker agenda. Read the rest of this entry » |
by Helen Cox | April 25, 2012
BURLINGTON, Vt. – This past week, AFSCME members came together in Vermont to support the efforts of caregivers in forming their union, Vermont Homecare United/AFSCME.
Melissa Matoushek, Robin Calabria and Patti Cilwick (left to right) contacted caregivers across Vermont to help form their union, Vermont Homecare United/AFSCME. (Photo by Helen Cox)
Members from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and right here in Vermont have already reached hundreds of caregivers at their homes and have significantly grown our Council 93 family.
“Visiting caregivers to talk about their work is an amazing experience and the first step in ensuring that they can continue providing quality care and maintaining strong programs in our state.” said Patti Cilwick, a social worker at HowardCenter, a local non-profit. “All of our voices are stronger when we come together with AFSCME.”
More than 5,000 caregivers in the Green Mountain State provide Medicaid-funded in-home services to children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities. Since January, caregivers have come together to stand up for quality care and respect for the care they provide. Read the rest of this entry »
Federal judge rules random drug testing of Florida workers unconstitutional
A federal judge tossed out Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s executive order that required random drug testing for 85,000 public service workers in the Sunshine State. U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro ruled the order unconstitutional in violation of the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable search and seizure. Ungaro’s ruling applies to current employees who faced drug testing under Scott’s plan, not to testing in conjunction with a job change. Read the rest of this entry » |
AFSCME members challenge partisan ruling in Michigan
The Michigan Board of Canvassers deadlocked on a 2-2 vote today, blocking a citizens’ veto of the “local dictators” law from reaching the November ballot. The anti-worker board members quickly ducked out of the chamber amidst shouts of “shame” from 150 opponents of the law who packed the hearing room. Had the ballot initiative been certified today, the local dictators law would have been immediately suspended until the November vote. AFSCME-led Stand Up for Democracy plans to challenge this ruling on the grounds that Board precedent argued for certification. Read the rest of this entry » |
Walker’s cronies get bonuses while working families cut back
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker handed out $765,000 in bonuses and raises to his top staff, as AFSCME members and other public service workers tightened their belts in the wake of his anti-worker budget. These payouts are part of Walker’s politicization of Wisconsin state government. After taking office he replaced 40 top civil service positions with political appointees. Read the rest of this entry » |
AFSCME leads shareholders to rein in CEO pay
Citigroup shareholders made history last week when they voted to reject the proposed pay package for the company’s top executives. Financial services institutions must now hold non-binding “say on pay” votes—which give shareholders the chance to disapprove of excessive executive compensation—at least every three years. In 2006, the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan was the first U.S. investor group to file a “say on pay” proposal. Six years later, thanks to Dodd-Frank, it is the law of the land. Read the rest of this entry » |
AFSCME members fight to protect Colorado voters
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has launched a massive attack on the rights of Centennial State voters this year. Gessler has been lobbying the state legislature to block efforts—supported by AFSCME and allied groups—to prevent voters from being considered “inactive” after missing only one election. Read the rest of this entry » |
Iowa senator’s speech helps keep IWD office open
Governor Terry Branstad’s plan to close the Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) office in Des Moines was scrapped shortly after a state senator made a passionate speech on the topic. State Senator Bill Dotzler headed to the floor of the legislature after the announcement of a plan to shutter the Des Moines IWD office in a pilot program that would replace human agents with phone banks and computer kiosks. The IWD agency reversed course only thirty minutes after Dotzler’s speech. Read the rest of this entry » |
| Corporations, super-rich must pay their fair share
As average Americans are putting the finishing touches on their income tax returns this week, millionaires like Mitt Romney and major corporations—including General Electric, Verizon, Boeing and Wells Fargo—have been taking advantage of loopholes and corporate tax credits to get out of paying their fair share. Meanwhile, some Members of Congress have been carrying water for the super-rich by passing the Ryan Budget—a plan to shift yet more of the tax burden from those who can afford it most onto the backs of working families, while slashing the public services these families need and AFSCME members provide. Read the rest of this entry » |
Labor and civil rights groups must ‘Join together like never before’
The fight for public workers’ rights has a long history, from the struggle for recognition in 1930s Wisconsin to the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike of 1968, to the current battles against lawmakers’ outrageous attacks. With so many anti-worker governors doing their best to strip public workers of their hard fought right to collectively bargain, it is clear that “we’re still fighting that battle” for workers’ rights today, said AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders in a panel discussion at the National Action Network’s national convention in Washington, DC. Saunders continued: “we must build a Main Street movement” that brings labor and civil rights groups “together like never before.” Read the rest of this entry » |
La. Gov. Jindal cuts public workers’ pay, exempts self
The 2010 elections swept in a wave of anti-worker governors and lawmakers in states across the country. But Louisiana workers have dealt with their own for the past five years. Gov. Bobby Jindal—a favorite for the Republican nomination for Vice President—made it his priority to cut back and privatize prisons and other public services in the Pelican State by slashing jobs and undermining the pensions of the remaining public workers,. Read the rest of this entry » |
Working families rally nationwide to support USPS
The move to defund the U.S. Postal Service is yet another volley in the corporate-driven effort to balance state and federal budgets on the backs of working families without making the super-rich pay their fair share. AFSCME members have fought back against these policies in states where governors and state legislators have tried to deny public service workers the right to collectively bargain, unilaterally slash workers’ pensions, pursue harmful right-to-work-for-less and paycheck deception legislation, privatize or shut down public services and even install local dictators to ignore workers’ rights and tear up union contracts. Read the rest of this entry » |
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Four corporate sponsors abandon ALEC
Four corporate partners have dumped their sponsorship of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as light has been shed on pre-packaged legislation that served as the model for the spate of anti-worker and voter suppression laws in state legislatures nationwide. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods Inc. and Intuit Inc. (maker of Quicken software) have all cut their ties to ALEC as the organization’s model legislation faces increased public scrutiny. Read the rest of this entry » |
