Organizing for Power
From state to state, workers are organizing with AFSCME for a voice on the job. Here are some recent victories:
FLORIDA
It was déjà vu for more than 1,000 Florida university employees who found themselves with no union after Gov. Jeb Bush (R) broke the public university contracts by making each campus autonomous. So 391 blue-collar and clerical workers at the University of North Florida and 631 blue-collar, clerical and human services employees at Florida A&M got busy and won back their collective bargaining rights with a card-check campaign.
INDIANA
Indianapolis city workers are using their new rights under a collective bargaining ordinance to win a voice on the job through card check. Earlier this year, 70 Department of Metropolitan Development workers joined Council 62. More recently, 83 police department civilian employees and 14 fire department civilian employees have also been recognized by the city.
MICHIGAN
A unit of 18 paving foremen with Detroit's Department of Public Works voted 10 to 0 to go green with Council 25. In Flint, 16 part-time firefighters chose AFSCME to give them a voice at work.
MINNESOTA
At the Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis, management's anti-union campaign and harassment couldn't deter 330 workers from choosing Council 14.
NEW YORK
Thirty teachers, assistant teachers, aides and other staff members at New York City's Better Beginnings Learning Center joined DC 1707.
OHIO
Some 85 blue- and white-collar Tri-County Community Action Agency employees — working in Hocking, Athens and Perry counties — got the union message and chose the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME Local 4.
PENNSYLVANIA
When management doubled the monthly cost of their health insurance, 214 employees of Northampton County, Pa., chose Council 88 to represent them. The unit of custodians, clerical workers, fiscal analysts and 911 dispatchers joins more than 600 county corrections officers and nursing home staff who already enjoy AFSCME representation.
RHODE ISLAND
In Providence, a unit of 42 public-school substitute clerks voted 27 to 0 to become members of Council 94. Some 57 East Providence professional and technical employees have also said, "AFSCME, Yes!"
