AFSCME Leads AFL-CIO in Growth for 2009

March 17, 2010

AFSCME, the AFL-CIO’s largest and most powerful union, demonstrated last year that its organizing strength is still unmatched, recording the greatest growth among all the federation’s 57 national and international labor unions compared to 2008.

“The AFL-CIO’s announcement that AFSCME led the labor movement in membership growth for 2009 confirms that we are on the right path with our plan to build strength through organizing,” says AFSCME International Pres. Gerald W. McEntee. “We’re proud that public service workers are choosing to join with AFSCME to have a voice on the job and to improve the vital services they provide in states and communities around the country.”

The net growth figure – 43,851 – represents increased membership from organizing wins plus new hires in existing AFSCME units, minus layoffs, retirements and losses from decertifications.

For 2009, AFSCME’s non-retiree membership was slightly more than 1.4 million (1.6 million with retirees). The second-largest AFL-CIO union, the American Federation of Teachers, followed AFSCME with a net growth last year of 29,286, for a total of just over 1.1 million members.

In an effort to increase union strength by building its membership base, delegates to AFSCME’s 35th International Convention in 2002 passed a resolution asking councils and affiliates to dedicate 30 percent of their budgets to organizing.

Then, at the 37th Convention in 2006, AFSCME delegates adopted its Power to Win initiative, a three-tiered strategy to make the union bigger, better and bolder by winning new organizing rights for public service employees, strategic organizing in the private sector and increasing membership in the emerging workforce.

Over the past five years, AFSCME membership grew by a net average of 20,653 per year.

AFSCME’s 2009 organizing victories include:

• 2,600 family child care providers throughout the state of New Mexico, who voted to join Child Care Providers Together (CCPT)/New Mexico, an affiliate of AFSCME Council 18.
• 500 Illinois state public service administrators who joined AFSCME Council 31. They had actually cast their votes in 2008, but their votes were delayed pending  the resolution of challenges to the composition of the bargaining unit.
• 400 Salt Lake County employees who voted for representation with Utah AFSCME Local 1004.
   

Organizing victories continue this year with nearly 100 Automated Finger Imaging Systems operators whooverwhelmingly voted to join New York’s DC 37.

Read more about AFSCME’s continued growth here. Learn more about AFSCME’s organizing philosophy here.