News

The coronavirus pandemic won’t be controlled until states, cities, towns and schools – and particularly health departments – have the funding they need from the federal government, says AFSCME Reti

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has sent a letter to Congress that echoes what AFSCME has been saying for months: It’s long past time to robustly fund the front lines.

In his first days on the job, President Joe Biden has taken swift executive action to protect and empower public service workers, strengthen public services and help working people.

Through a budget proposal announced this week, President Donald Trump continues his attacks on vital programs for working families, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

And rather than invest in America’s future, he seeks to disinvest, proposing deep funding cuts to programs in education, environmental protection, disease prevention and more.

Last summer, members of AFSCME Local 1307 joined with members of MNA and MAPE at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center (AMRTC) for an informational picket to call attention to unsafe working conditions at the facility. As a result of these actions, AMRTC added a new job classification – Safety Support Specialist – to the on-site staff.

If you followed every Democratic presidential primary debate and read the candidates’ positions on every topic and watched the AFSCME Public Service Forum held in August, you might think there is nothing left to know about the men and women vying to be the next president of the United States.

The Minneapolis-St Paul metro region is in the middle of a housing crisis. Home prices are rising, rents have skyrocketed, and construction of new housing has not kept pace with the number of people moving to the region. The housing squeeze harms the most vulnerable first; with no affordable options and nowhere else to go, more people must resort to surviving on the streets.

When it comes to retirement plans, most working Americans have only a few options. For many public workers, though, a pension promises a secure, dignified retirement after a lifetime of service.

Here’s a big reason to join a union – a bigger paycheck.New numbers from U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show just how much of a difference a union makes in terms of worker pay.

On a normal day, Sandra Pacheco, an administrative assistant in Puerto Rico’s Department of Transportation and Public Works, begins her day at 7 a.m., filing paperwork for her colleagues in the field. It’s a job that Pacheco, who is president of her local, AFSCME Local 3889, Council 95 (Servidores Públicos Unidos de Puerto Rico), does with pride and dedication.

The new year brings good news for millions of working Americans. Nearly 7 million of them are in line to get pay raises this year thanks to state and local minimum-wage hikes.