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.

Marvin Timmons is a self-declared union man, through and through. He’s also a veteran; a “mechanical guy;” a loving husband, grandfather and brother; a lover of animals and nature; and, in his own words, a “forever optimist.”

And to his coworkers and supervisors at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, where Marvin has spent the past 15 summers working in building maintenance, grounds keeping and security at Upper Sioux State Park near Granite Falls, Marvin is much more than a colleague. He’s an inspiration.

As a public librarian for the Philadelphia Free Library, Sheila O’Steen embodies what we think of when we imagine a public service worker. Every day, she interacts with members of her community. Whether her patrons are young or old, affluent or impoverished, O’Steen shares knowledge and information with everyone she serves.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act worked. In the years and decades that followed its implementation, the law helped minority voters make their voices heard, especially African Americans who had been discriminated against at the polls. As a result, our democracy became stronger.

But in 2013, despite bipartisan reauthorization of the law by Congress, the Supreme Court gutted it, ruling 5-4 that a key provision was no longer necessary because the Voting Rights Act had worked and the problem was fixed.

Despite high levels of stress on the job, many state and local workers say they highly value serving the public and their communities and feel generally satisfied with their jobs.

This finding, from a national survey commissioned by the National Institute on Retirement Security, will not surprise many AFSCME members, who work in state, county and local governments and never quit on their communities.

AFSCME members who work in health care and social services jobs face workplace violence daily. Now they are closer to having it.

Election Day 2019 was a big victory for working families. In states and cities across the country, they made their voices heard, electing pro-worker candidates for state and local government and providing further evidence of growing political momentum for working people.