In recent years, reductions in city personnel deteriorated public services. Just a few years ago, 13 sanitation trucks served local residents.  Now, only five do.

But city workers who are members of Local 2388 stood up to this latest attack on their community’s wellbeing and rallied immediately in support of protecting public services and their contract. They pointed out major contract violations and convinced Summersgill and Mayor Jamie Mayo to reverse their union-busting position. Today, city government is more willing than ever before to speak directly with workers.

AFSCME workers are fighting to increase city personnel and for an across-the-board $1-an-hour raise. They want all workers to make at least a living wage of $10 an hour.

“Now that we’ve protected our rights, we can do anything,” said Robert Johnson, president of Local 2388. “We’ve doubled the size of our union since this fight began. We’re always stronger if we stand together on behalf of the community and the workers.”

The state-conducted study concludes that CalPERS, the California public employee retirement system, creates more than $30 billion in economic growth each year.

When workers save for retirement, they are ensuring they will have money to spend at local businesses in later years.  California’s retired workers spend enough to add $30.4 billion to the state’s economy. The study estimates this spending is responsible for creating more than 100,000 jobs. That’s in addition to the $20.7 billion the CalPERS portfolio invests in local businesses.

When people like San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed talk about dismantling California retiree benefits, they’re not just threatening the livelihood of retired public servants. Pension “reform” is a danger to jobs and growth in every part of the economy.

Saunders gave the 23rd annual Philip Murray Memorial Labor Lecture this week at Penn State’s School of Labor and Employment Relations. The audience included students, faculty members, AFSCME members and members of other unions.

The lecture is named for Murray, the first president of the United Steelworkers of America, who was also the second president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It brings labor leaders together with members of the university community to talk about the role of the labor movement in a democratic society.

Saunders said the sanitation workers were risk-takers whose bold strike “upset the social order” and challenged the status quo. He also talked about the labor movement’s role as the last line of defense for people who are beset by student-loan debt, low wages, disappearing retirement security and other financial pressures. He reminded the audience of the labor movement’s achievements and said unions are the key to an economy that works for everyone.

Unions are more important than ever at a time when there is a tremendous gap between the very wealthy and the average working family, he said.

“Look, we aren’t bashing the rich. This isn’t about income envy,” Saunders said. “What we’re saying is that our nation isn’t going to get any stronger economically if money keeps flowing out of workers’ pockets and into Donald Trump’s.”

There is another problem with tremendous income inequality, he said. “When so much wealth and power rests with so few people, they exercise outsize influence on our political system, drowning out other voices.  They rig the system.”

Unions are the answer, he said, because they “play a role in lifting up all workers whether or not they’re in unions. The contracts we bargain put pressure even on non-unionized employers to increase wages and benefits. In areas where there is a union, you get paid more. Not just if you’re in the union. All of you get paid more.”

Saunders mentioned the walkouts by workers in fast-food chains, as well as the recent move by football players at Northwestern University to join a union. In 2014, he said, “people view joining a union as radical.”

“Learn about and become part of the American labor movement,” he said. “Be a disrupter, just like the sanitation workers of Memphis were in 1968.”

The workers are members of AFSCME Local 3577, Council 8, and they are protesting what they see as unfair treatment on the part of the county government. They are employed at the Mahoning County Child Support Enforcement Agency, or CSEA.

“We are not asking to be rewarded,” said Local 3577 Pres. Jeannette Droney. “CSEA employees are only asking to be treated the same as other Mahoning County employees.”

In 18 other county agencies, including the county commissioner’s office, all affected employees received a cost-neutral pay adjustment that makes up for the increase in individual pension costs. The so-called “pension flip” places the full pension contribution costs on the employee and ends the county’s past practice of covering a significant portion of them.

“We’re not against paying our share of pension costs,” Droney said. “We just want to have the county make up the difference to our members like they did with everyone else, including CSEA management.”

David Arquilla, vice president of Local 3577, said it was an issue of fairness.

“We want to know why our members are singled out,” he said.

Weaver, a retired Wisconsin Department of Transportation construction inspector and member of AFSCME Local 758, Council 24, spoke at the “We Are Not Wisconsin” forum held in Middletown, Conn., and sponsored by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), of which AFSCME Connecticut Council 4 is a member.

Despite its name, the forum is meant to bring home the reality that Connecticut, like any other state, could lose its union rights if right-wing lawmakers gain control of the Statehouse and the governor’s mansion.

Weaver noted that Wisconsin was once a union-friendly state. Then elections in 2010 turned the tables on workers, bringing in a right-wing governor, Scott Walker, and tipping the balance of power in the Legislature to favor anti-union forces.

“That is all this is – politics,” Weaver said.

Weaver told his Connecticut sisters and brothers that though workers in Wisconsin “may have been knocked down, we’re fighting every day. The war is long from over. It never ends.”

Dawn Tyson, president of Connecticut AFSCME Local 538, Council 4, was among those impressed by Weaver’s message. A processing technician for the Department of Social Services, she said Weaver’s comments “really brought it home for me. They made me feel energized. But they also awakened me and made me realize the threat is very real. It is an ever-present danger.”

HB 1770, sponsored by Eric Burlison of Springfield, stalled this week after nearly a third of House Republicans voted against it in a procedural vote.  But Speaker Tim Jones says he’ll do whatever it takes to get the votes he needs to pass the bill.  Why?  Because big national donors like the Koch brothers and fiscal radicals like Grover Norquist issued their marching orders, and House leadership isn’t about to disappoint the people who help pay their bills.

Many members of the Legislature know that “right-to-work” isn’t right for Missouri, and Missouri’s workers don’t support it. Republican John McCaherty says he voted against it because he knows that “right-to-work” will hurt his constituents. If HB 1770 were to pass, he says, “here in the St. Louis area we undoubtedly would see a drop in wages.”

But concern for the people you represent is no way to get ahead in a political climate that’s all about out-of-state money.  One Republican representative, Ron Hicks of St. Louis, found himself hounded by interest groups who smeared his name and even sent robo-calls to his home phone number following his “No” vote.

“I understand right-to-work is a big issue across the nation, but I think I should still be able to vote the way my constituents want me to vote,” he told the Washington Post. “This one time I’m going outside the box to stick up for my constituents and all the sudden I’m a RINO [Republican in name only]?”

If the bill passes the Legislature, the measure will appear on a statewide ballot in August, where wildly misleading ballot language will obscure the real intent of the law.

But Missouri voters should make no mistake: “right-to-work” isn’t about your rights at all. It’s simply an attempt to sow division among coworkers and drain union resources so that workers can’t bargain for better pay and conditions.

In doing so, more than 600 center employees, who are members of AFSCME Locals 2254 and 3680, District Council 52, cemented their desire to preserve a long collective bargaining history.

Workers at the JCMC were subjected to undue intimidation and harassment, and several union leaders were terminated and disciplined. These unprecedented attacks did not deter our sisters and brothers from the fight to protect their collective bargaining rights. They voted to authorize strikes and filed charge after charge of illegal activity with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, which sided with AFSCME members.

“By approving and signing their contract, workers at JCMC made clear that bully tactics and illegal acts will not silence the workers,” said Rich Gollin, executive director of AFSCME District Council 52. “They stood strong, preserved 40 years of collective bargaining rights and sent a clear message that workers’ rights cannot be bought and sold.”

Having survived the million-dollar union-busting attacks, Locals 2254 and 3680 will rebuild to strengthen their resolve to prevent future ones. With the help of DC 52 and AFSCME International, workers at JCMC will continue to have a strong voice in their workplace.

According to a recent report, more than two out of three Americans “are actively engaged with public libraries.” And even those who aren’t regular users recognize the value libraries provide to the community.

Despite this, funding for libraries has declined in recent years, and like other public service workers, library employees’ benefits are under attack. In Detroit, for example, library workers are facing serious threats to their retirement security after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder pushed the city into bankruptcy.

Local and state decision-makers across our country should heed citizens’ calls to support library services. Public libraries remain central to the life of their communities.

AFSCME is proud to represent more than 25,000 library workers and trusted helpers nationwide, more than any other union. We are also a leading advocate for equitable pay for library workers and for full funding for public libraries.

On National Library Workers Day, April 15, we extend a special thanks to our sisters and brothers who are employed in public libraries for the valuable services they provide. And we encourage everyone, during National Library Week, April 13-19, to visit your local library, check out that book you’ve been meaning to read, and thank the library employees.

“I’m immensely proud to be governor of a state that so quickly rallies around those in need, and to work with employees who care so deeply for the people they serve,” Gov. Jay Inslee recently said in a statement of appreciation to Washington state employees who are helping in the recovery effort. “Keep doing what you’re doing – it matters.”

More than two dozen state agencies are involved in the recovery effort.  While workers with the Department of Transportation are clearing roads and monitoring safety conditions, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is transporting personnel and equipment at the scene, and the Department of Social and Health Services is working to coordinate the delivery of food aid and mental health services to the people affected.

But these first-line services are only part of the story. State workers with the Department of Revenue and the Office of the Insurance Commissioner are helping people who lost homes and property to find financial assistance. The Department of Licensing has set up an on-site station to help people replace identification documents that were lost in the mudslide. And the Department of Early Learning is working with child care providers to make sure they are prepared to respond to these kinds of emergencies.

Our AFSCME sisters and brothers in Washington are earning well-deserved praise for the valuable services they provide at times of emergency. But it’s important to remember that they help strengthen their communities through their work not just when disaster strikes, but year-round.

The Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda is a set of guidelines for responsible public-private partnerships developed by In the Public Interest, a group that advocates for public control of public services. By adopting these principles, governments pledge not to enter into contracts with private companies unless those companies pay their employees a living wage and make their financial records open to the public. The agenda also calls for competitive contracts that can be canceled if corporations fail to uphold their promises to taxpayers.

California is the largest jurisdiction to pass the agenda so far.  Even though the resolution is nonbinding, it sends a strong message to corporations that see public services as an opportunity to turn a profit on the taxpayer’s dime.  In recent years, the Golden State was targeted by corporations trying to buy up everything from its universities and prisons to its water resources.

Many of these outsourcing projects replace quality programs that employ highly-skilled civil servants with shoddier services that pay workers less than a living wage.  It's a bad deal for workers and for the public.

“We believe the civil service system is the way to provide the best quality services at the lowest price for California’s taxpayers, and the pathway to a sustainable economic future for our state,” said AFSCME California Political and Legislative Dir. Willie Pelote.

“This is another example of Governor Martinez pandering to the ultra-right wing at the expense of working families and their legal rights through collective bargaining,” said AFSCME Council 18 Exec. Dir. Connie Derr. “The governor’s statement that no one should speak against her ideas was an ill-advised attempt to bully and intimidate public employees. She is very much out of touch with state employees and the services provided.”

Several New Mexico senators are saying the governor’s focus should be on more important issues such as job creation, lack of transparency in state agencies, education reform, and water conservation and preservation.

“New Mexico has a strong history of respecting worker and union rights,” said State Sen. Michael Padilla in a statement. “The governor’s desire to limit those rights is the wrong direction for New Mexico.”

Padilla points out that New Mexico lost 40,000 jobs since Governor Martinez took office. “How is she planning to address that, other than promoting the tax cuts she’s given to large corporations?” he asks. “The Legislature, through the Jobs Council, has created a solid plan to create 160,000 jobs, over the next 10 years, targeted at high growth industries to get our state back on its feet.”

Immediately following Governor Martinez’s malicious statement against working families, AFSCME Council 18 began circulating a petition urging New Mexico residents, families, union members, and friends to urge the governor to abandon her divisive tactics.

Walker, who is now the state’s governor, and the Milwaukee County Board, which carried out the dismissals, are named in a lawsuit AFSCME filed recently in federal court. The suit seeks a court order to end the ill-conceived and illegal subcontracting that followed the layoffs. It also demands the custodians who lost their jobs because of Walker’s unconstitutional actions be rehired, and be given back pay for their lost time.

The former custodians unsuccessfully fought to be reinstated and lost their rights to seek preferential treatment for other county job opportunities in December 2012.

“Our union believes the secret e-mails that recently came to light showed Walker and his county government advisors routinely sought to punish workers for their membership in and association with the union,” said Milwaukee District Council 48 Exec. Dir. Boyd McCamish. “We have seen that some politicians, like Scott Walker, are willing to use any illegal and unconstitutional tactics to interfere with citizens’ rights. Our union will fight any governmental interference with the right of free association.”

AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders led the rallying cry at the event, held inside the Capitol in Washington, DC. He called on all legislators to do the right thing by American families and vote to raise the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour.

“Nobody who works every day should live in poverty,” Saunders said. “Nobody who works every day should struggle to put food on the table. Nobody who works every day should have to choose between keeping the lights on and feeding the family. We are better than that! The workers who get up early, go to bed late, and sometimes go straight from one job to another deserve better than that!”

Speakers at the event were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, Ruben Jones, a wage worker who makes $8 an hour, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Anna Hovland, a server at two restaurants and a member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, California Rep. George Miller, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Liz Shuler, Gina Shaefer, co-owner of a group of independent Ace Hardware stores and a member of Business For a Fair Minimum Wage, and Minnesota Sen. Al Franken.

AFSCME co-sponsored a Minimum Wage Bus Tour led by Americans United for Change that traveled to 11 states with a simple message: Give America a raise!

Senator Harkin and Representative Miller introduced legislation to give America a raise. Their bill would increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015, adjust the minimum wage each year to keep up with the rising cost of living, and raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is at $2.13 per hour.

Help us give America a raise by calling on your representative in Congress. Dial 888-851-1916.

The GEO Group operates 59 private prisons across the United States, making it the nation’s sixth-largest prison system.  Last year the group turned $115 million in profits and paid its CEO nearly $5 million. But they didn’t get there through healthy competition or better business practices. 

When State Rep. John Kavanagh, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, drew up this year’s corrections budget, he didn’t listen to the Department of Corrections, which did not request additional funds this year.  Instead, he turned to the advice of GEO’s lobbyists.  The result was a $900,000 handout.  Kavanagh’s generosity toward the corporation may have something to do with the fact that they were the top donors to his most recent campaign.

The $900,000 budget item was removed by the Senate following a public outcry.  However, GEO Group continues to benefit from sweetheart deals in the state of Arizona.

GEO Group has contracts with the state of Arizona that include lockup quotas of 95 to 100 percent.  This is an exceptionally high rate among private prisons.  Lockup quotas are guarantees the state will provide a prison with enough inmates that the operator can meet its bottom line.  Unsurprisingly, this practice comes with some unintended consequences.

In GEO’s case, this includes hundreds of cases of abuse and neglect in chronically understaffed prisons, all while costing Arizona taxpayers $3.5 million more per year than state-operated institutions.  But then again, why bother providing a quality public service when politicians are willing to prop up corporate profits no matter what?

“I am proud that Connecticut is once again a leader on an issue of national importance,” said Gov. Dannel Malloy, who signed the bill into law. “Increasing the minimum wage is not just good for workers, it’s also good for business.”

Unfortunately, legislation at the national level appears to be stalled by partisan politics. In an effort to push congressional opponents, members of Congress, labor unions and community groups are taking their message directly to the people. Americans United for Change launched a national bus tour, holding rallies across the country to talk about need for income equality. Their message is simple “Give America a Raise.”

Using Philadelphia as an example, a living wage for a worker in Philadelphia is $20,988. Yet, current minimum wage only covers $15,080, forcing many to take second and third jobs just to get by. If the minimum wage were increased to $10.10, Pennsylvania’s 1.1 million minimum-wage workers would see their wages rise to $21,008.

Using the authority afforded to him, Pres. Barack Obama recently signed an executive order increasing the federal minimum wage for contract workers to $10.10. The administration asserts that 28 million workers will benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage for all workers in America.

AFSCME leads the way, throughout the country, to fight for a living wage for all workers, attempting to bridge the gap of income inequality. To lend your voice, call your legislators at 888-851-1916 and tell them to “Give America a Raise.”

Karl Stark contributed to this piece.

But amid the destruction, there was a glimmer of hope: the incredible response from the surrounding community as people pulled together to search for survivors and support the families of victims.

One AFSCME member was hit especially hard by the tragedy. Darren Bowerman, a corrections officer with Local 1221/ WFSE, lost six family members in the mudslide. WFSE established a fund to collect donations for the Bowerman family in this difficult time. If you would like to contribute, you can write a check to the Foundation for Working Families with a note that the donation be disbursed to the Bowerman family. The check can be mailed to:

Foundation for Working Families
Bowerman Family
314 First Ave W
Seattle, WA  98119

In addition, the Washington Combined Fund Drive started collecting donations from state employees who want to help support the victims of the mudslide.  In the very first day after the fund was established, employees donated more than $7,000. It has now collected nearly $60,000.

The victims of the disaster will remain in our thoughts as the recovery process continues.

But the tables were turned when AFSCME and other unions, and millions of Ohioans, voted to repeal the law. Now, those same union members vow to “Remember in November” and vote Kasich out of office.

The repeal of the law made history back in 2011, but now the focus is on reminding Ohioans that Kasich’s efforts to gut labor unions should not be forgotten, when voters head to the polls in the fall.

To launch this “Remember in November” campaign, AFSCME members joined with other union members at 11 phone bank parties across the state to call fellow workers and share the memories of 2011’s repeal.

"I asked people if they remembered what happened three years ago today, March 31, 2011, when SB5 was signed, and how it affected them,” says Gean Ford, president of Local 840, AFSCME Council 8, representing Toledo City School food service workers. “People remember going to the rallies and marches and were proud to share their stories with me when I called.”

Ford says voters need to remember which politicians support working families, and he encourages like-minded Ohioans to get involved so there aren’t any future anti-union bills.

"We're asking them to support our issues and candidates in November,” Ford says. “We have been getting a very positive response and signing up a lot of volunteers."

What would you tell Congress if you had the opportunity to testify? Pam Wells, president of Local 100A CSEA/VOICE, recently had that opportunity and made the most of it.

Wells is a family child care provider in Hudson Falls, N.Y., and one of 20,000 CSEA child care providers statewide. She urged Congress to increase funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) by $807 million to maintain the number of children cared for with federal assistance. Additional funding is also needed to improve quality and prepare for new requirements included in draft regulations and legislation, and to improve provider payment rates.

“Every day my child care colleagues and I see how invaluable child care assistance, through the CCDBG, is to families struggling to make ends meet,” Wells said. “Without CCDBG assistance, many parents would not be able to afford child care at all and could not go to work.”

Child care is an enormous expense for most families. Wells explained that many parents would not be able to afford child care and could not go to work without subsidies made possible through CCDBG. However, a lack of funding means not all children who are eligible for assistance receive it. Currently, only one in six eligible children receives a subsidy. Wells also warned that draft child care regulations and pending legislation could force states to redirect child care assistance funds to fulfill other requirements. Without additional funding, some 20,000 to 50,000 children in New York could lose assistance.

To cultivate and sustain a system of high-quality child care programs, it is essential to pay child care providers a living wage, Wells stressed. But the median income of child care providers is only $19,512, so low that many of them are eligible for federal assistance, and New York just dropped their rates below the recommended level. Hardworking child care providers deserve better than poverty wages.

You don’t need the opportunity to testify before Congress to make your voice heard. Please join Wells and AFSCME in our efforts by urging your member of Congress to help low-income families afford child care and increase CCDBG by $807 million.

Call your representative toll-free today at 1-855-712-8590. Urge him/her to help low-income, working families by supporting an increase in child care funding.

Thanks to the gender pay gap, this happens to many women every pay day.  When they open their paychecks, they see wages that are 23 percent lower than their male counterparts’. That’s 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.

In fact, today – Equal Pay Day – marks how far into the year a woman must work for her wages to catch up to what a man earned in the previous year.  The result is thousands of dollars of lost wages each year that limit a woman’s ability to purchase day-to-day necessities, support children, go to school, or climb out of poverty.

Perhaps most troubling, during the course of a 40-year career, the pay gap contributes to the loss of more than $460,000 in wages, making it nearly impossible for a woman to adequately save for retirement.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of women age 65 and older are “economically vulnerable,” and two-thirds rely solely on Social Security income. Older women are more than twice as likely as men to be living below the poverty line.  With so many women from the Baby Boom generation retiring or nearing retirement, this problem is only going to get worse.

In a country founded on the belief that hard work should be rewarded, we have an obligation to act now to change this fundamental inequality.

The Paycheck Fairness Act was introduced in Congress in 2009 and 2011 but failed to garner enough support to make it to President Obama’s desk. This law would make it easier for employees to share salary information, harder for employers to retaliate, and it would strengthen the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits wage discrimination based on gender. It is a common-sense solution that levels the playing field and gives millions of women the opportunity to work their way toward financial security.

It’s time for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Laura Reyes is Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME.

Many pundits predicted doom for public pensions and governments played along by cutting funding for retirement systems or shifting to riskier defined contribution plans.   But the truth is the so-called “pension crisis” isn’t caused by public employee benefits – it’s what happens when greedy lawmakers raid retiree savings.

The real numbers show that pension systems are recovering nicely from the financial crisis, and workers ought to be able to count on those funds to plan their retirement.  It’s time to challenge the conventional wisdom about retirement savings and start standing up to politicians who would rather leave retirees out in the cold.

Holleran, who died at the age of 66, worked for AFSCME from 1982 until 2005. During her career, she wrote for AFSCME WORKS magazine as an assistant editor in the Communications (then Public Affairs) Department. She was honored in 2005 by the International Labor Communications Association with their prestigious Max Steinbock Award for her AFSCME WORKS story, “Health Care on Life Support.”

Before coming to AFSCME, Holleran was a founding member, in 1974, of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and was elected to its first National Executive Board. In 2007, she received the CLUW’s Clara Day Award for her volunteer work, including writing articles about role models and working on the organization’s cervical cancer prevention project.

In 2006, she testified before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to support the human papillomavirus vaccine to fight the sexually transmitted disease.

Born to parents who were trade unionists, Holleran also was a founding director of the United Labor Agency and coordinated the first national conference on pay equity. This led to the creation in 1979 of the National Committee on Pay Equity.

In 1980, Holleran co-wrote a one-woman play, “Silkwood,” with Jehane Dyllan. It told the story of the life and death of safety and health activist Karen Silkwood, who was also the subject of a 1983 film based on a screenplay by Nora Ephron.

Holleran’s dedication to telling the stories of hard-working women and men fighting for their rights in the workplace inspired other writers who knew her. We follow in her footsteps.

Protesters urged retirees to reject the city’s proposal to cut General Retirement System pension checks by up to 34 percent and the Police and Fire Retirement System pension checks by up to 14 percent. With a proposed end to cost of living adjustments, the cuts are even more severe, coupled with dramatic cuts to health care benefits for retired and current city workers. It was among the largest protests yet by pensioners and came as Kevyn Orr ramps up pressure on retiree groups and unions to accept the cuts or risk even steeper reductions.

The protest also came a day after Orr’s bankruptcy team filed an amended bankruptcy restructuring plan that calls for a major overhaul of pension fund management, including appointing trustee boards to oversee each of the retirement funds.

Ed McNeil, special assistant to the president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, spoke against the proposal that also would get rid of union appointees to pension fund boards.

“The state’s goal from the beginning was to take over the pension funds and gain control of its assets,” McNeil said. “Retirees and city workers are bearing the brunt of the cuts in bankruptcy, and they’re the ones who least can afford benefit reductions.”

Vermont's HowardCenter, which provides health care services to more than 15,000 people every year, is one of the largest employers in the Green Mountain State. With the prospect of a united workforce, management is doing anything and everything it can to prevent employees from joining AFSCME Local 1674 and having a voice on the job.

According to law, HowardCenter management isn't allowed to contact workers to discourage them from joining a union, though HowardCenter Director of Operations Lorraine Jenne disagrees. She sent out an all-staff email urging workers to ignore their union-member co-worker's attempts to sign up new members.

The law also requires management to provide equal access to employee contact lists, though Jenne again has a different view. She refused to provide Local 1674 with equal access to the email lists.

Faced with management's union-busting tactics, HowardCenter workers are refusing to back down. Filing with the National Labor Relations Board, AFSCME Local 1674 is claiming unfair labor practices (ULP) on the part of HowardCenter management.

One result:  Within days of the ULP filing, HowardCenter Exec. Dir. Todd Centybear announced his retirement.

AFSCME Local 1674, Vermont’s Green Mountain union, won’t back down, won’t allow management to intimidate the hardworking employees of the HowardCenter, and our union will only grow stronger. In just the last four months, Local 1674 membership nearly tripled – imagine what the next four will bring.