Today, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to repeal the Affordable Care Act will unfold at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, where oral arguments in Texas v. Azar will be heard. The case threatens the future of the ACA, which provides health care to millions of Americans.
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 to keep workers out of poverty.
Local 3800 Members Address University Board of Regents
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.
