The University of Minnesota Board of Regents recently approved their 2020 budget, which includes tuition increases, the possibility of health care hikes, and a wage increase that doesn’t do enough
Following a brutal workplace attack in October that left her unconscious and hospitalized, Tina Suckow is speaking out. She and her AFSCME sisters and brothers are raising their voices against her firing by Iowa state authorities and in favor of a federal bill that would help prevent such workplace attacks.
Back in 2015, workers at the Children’s Adolescent Behavioral Health Services facility found out about a budget plan to transition the program out of the state’s hands and into the private sector and got right to work opposing it. AFSCME members from Local 701, alongside community allies and elected officials from across the state, fought hard to keep the program alive. They pointed out that many of the youth in the workers’ care would be unable to find housing or adequate treatment with private providers, who can turn away clients arbitrarily.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed into law a historic bill granting 20,000 state workers the right to collectively bargain.
The bill, which he signed Wednesday, is the largest expansion of collective bargaining rights for state workers anywhere in the U.S. in 16 years, and it will position those workers to better fight a rigged economy that favors the wealthy.
Last week members of over a dozen labor unions were joined for a breakfast roundtable by a very special guest: freshman Congressman Dean Phillips.
Congressman Phillips was elected to represent Minnesota’s Third Congressional District in 2018, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district in decades. He defeated five-term incumbent Erik Paulsen, who supported corporations over workers, cut taxes for the super-rich, and voted in virtual lock-step with extreme right-wing Republicans while he was in office.
As AFSCME Local 66 celebrates the union’s 100th anniversary this year, members are looking back on their union’s long, rich history – and how it’s impacted their lives, families and communities. For Sandy Pernu Wallin, the AFSCME connection runs deep. Sandy – a second generation Local 66 member - is organizing her AFSCME siblings to carry her family’s passion for union activism into the local’s next century.
For 30 years, Sandy’s mom Mitzie Pernu worked as a 911 dispatcher in Virginia, MN and was a passionate activist in Local 66.
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Public service workers across the country lauded the passage of Nevada Senate Bill 135, which expands collective bargaining rights to over 20,000 Nevada state employees – the largest statewide expansion of collective bargaining rights in 16 years.
Last year, after nearly 25 years of working hard at her job at the University of Michigan, Deborah Van Horn was forced out of work by health issues and soon found herself in need of financial assistance.
“I was put on disability, but after a while you only get about 50 percent of your normal wages,” she recounts. “It was important to me to cover general expenses and keep my credit in good standing.”
