Anti-worker extremists in Congress are proposing cuts to Medicaid that would devastate our communities. That’s why thousands of AFSCME members are standing up and speaking out.
Many are coming to Washington to make their voices heard in the halls of Congress. Stephanie Teachman and Jeanne Weaver are two members who went to Capitol Hill this week to talk to their elected representatives.
Watch a short video of these two members.
Teachman works for the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. She is an administrative assistant and president of Local 607 of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000).
Teachman says if proposed cuts to Medicaid become law, her local hospital may have to close.
“I live in a rural area of New York,” she says. “We have very limited access to health care. The closest hospital to me is 20 minutes away.”
Federal funding cuts could lead to loss of health care jobs and the closure of the hospital nearest to her and her neighbors. That means in an emergency they would have to drive much farther away.
“It could be the difference between life and death,” Teachman says.
Weaver is the president of AFSCME Chapter 13 Retirees in Pennsylvania. Though retired from her work at a facility caring for people with intellectual disabilities, she is still looking out for others in the work she does now.
Weaver says if proposed cuts to Medicaid become law, the lives of the people she cared for could be at risk.
“It will be disastrous,” she says. “I don’t know where they’ll end up. I worry about that every day.”
Other members have done what Teachman and Weaver did this week. More AFSCME members plan to do the same. Their message is the same in every instance: Don’t cut Medicaid to pay for billionaire tax cuts.
AFSCME members are making their voices heard throughout the country, not just in Washington.
They are standing up against federal budget cuts. They are fighting to protect public services and their communities.
Join the fight. It’s time to Get Organized – it’s time to GO.