AFSCME Across America: Organizing for Power
From state to state, workers are organizing with AFSCME for a voice on the job. Here are some recent victories:
Alaska
Approximately 700 members of the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with AFSCME. They include state troopers, wildlife troopers, airport police and fire officers, deputy fire marshals, court service officers, municipal police officers, dispatchers, EMTs and other law enforcement personnel.
Connecticut
In two separate and unanimous votes, 42 Fairfield Board of Education employees voted to join Council 4. They include 21 special education trainers and 21 information technology and systems workers.
Illinois
More than 700 state workers have joined Council 31, including 440 "Executive IIs" employed in a wide range of departments and agencies: aging, agriculture, corrections, children and family services, human services, public health, state police, transportation, veterans' affairs and others. Also, about 300 public service administrators working in a variety of state agencies won a 4-year-long battle to become members of Council 31. These previously unrepresented employees petitioned the state for union recognition in 2003 and demonstrated that a majority had expressed interest in joining AFSCME. It took a decision by the Illinois Labor Relations Board to make the administrators' wishes a reality.
Indiana
About 400 Indianapolis public school bus drivers, monitors and mechanics employed by First Student Inc., the second-largest school bus operator in North America, joined Council 62. Their Aug. 21 vote to build a union with AFSCME was nearly unanimous. Also, some 240 Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library employees joined Council 62, overcoming employer opposition that included a requirement that more than three-fourths of the workers vote in the union election.
Michigan
Fifteen custodian/maintenance/utility workers employed by Kellogg Community College voted unanimously to join Council 25.
Minnesota
More than 150 nursing home workers at the Edgewood Vista Care Center, an assisted-living facility just outside Duluth, have joined Council 5. The campaign was marked by management's unfair tactics, including captive-audience meetings and the hiring of a union buster. Also, seven Isanti County assistant attorneys joined Council 65 by card check.
New Jersey
Thirty-five clerical workers and crossing guards in the borough of Haddon Heights, near Camden, organized with Council 71.
New Mexico
A unit of 1,300 non-professional and technical employees at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque voted unanimously to join the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (NUHHCE)/AFSCME District 1199NM. Also joining 1199NM were 350 service and maintenance workers at St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe.
New York
Building a union with DC 1707 are 32 professional and non-professional employees of the East Bronx Day Care Center, 40 teachers and aides at Brooklyn Family Services (Project Chance), and 60 social service workers at two Catholic charities for developmentally disabled adults: Straus Residence and Golden Residence. Also, a 30-member maintenance unit employed by AvPorts at the Albany Airport voted to join Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 1000.
Oklahoma
Nearly 330 blue-and white-collar employees of the city of Edmond became the latest public employees to organize under a recently upheld collective bargaining law covering 10,000 municipal workers in Oklahoma.
Oregon
About 130 Portland Development Commission employees, including planners, financial coordinators, auditors and other professional and administrative support staff, have voted to join Council 75.
