Members Network in Special Caucuses

July 01, 2010

From left, JoAnn Burk from Wisconsin Child Care Providers Together/Local 373 (Council 40) shares ideas with New York’s Carolyn Cox of Local 95 (DC 1707) at the Early Childhood Education caucus. (See more caucus photos in our Convention photo gallery.)

AFSCME members doing similar jobs met Wednesday in 21 simultaneous sector caucuses to discuss common issues and concerns. They also examined the media onslaught against public services and strategized how to set the record straight about public employees and their jobs.

Some of the myths that were dispelled yesterday include:

• our salaries are bloated (AFSCME members earn, on average, $45,000 a year);
• we have too much influence in politics (corporations outspend unions five to one in political contributions);
• and our pensions are bankrupting governments (the average AFSCME member earns, after a career of service, approximately $18,000 a year in benefits).

From left, JoAnn Burk from Wisconsin Child Care Providers Together/Local 373 (Council 40) shares ideas with New York’s Carolyn Cox of Local 95 (DC 1707) at the Early Childhood Education caucus. (See more caucus photos in our Convention photo gallery.)