Our Issues

Working people deserve the same freedoms as corporate CEOs and millionaires. That means not just making ends meet, but having the ability to take a loved one to the doctor or retire with dignity after a lifetime of hard work.

But the rich and powerful are chipping away at the freedoms people in unions have won for us all.

To combat this trend, AFSCME supports policies that include expanding collective bargaining rights, like the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. We believe in raising the minimum wage to a living wage and the rights to paid sick and family leave and equal pay for women.

Health care is a right, not a privilege. Among other policies, AFSCME supports strengthening the Affordable Care Act to reduce costs and increase access to health care, and opposes any effort to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

We support cutting the cost of prescription drugs by negotiating with drug companies. We also support strengthening Medicare and Medicaid so that seniors and the most vulnerable have access to comprehensive, quality care.

Anybody who works hard their entire life should look forward to retiring with dignity. But when it comes to retirement security, too many retirees are stuck in a race to the bottom as 401(k) plans have replaced guaranteed pensions.

AFSCME supports policies that break this spiral, including promoting well-funded pensions, consumer protections against high-fee Wall Street 401(k) retirement funds and protecting and enhancing Social Security.

Public service isn’t just a job, it’s a calling. Unfortunately, even as AFSCME members are working to improve our communities, special interests are lobbying to rob our neighborhoods of the resources needed for high-quality public services.They are privatizing essential services like SNAP benefits and job training and placement.

Among the policies AFSCME supports are fully-funded, quality public services, ending reckless privatization schemes that let corporations take control of public services from taxpayers and making sure the wealthy pay their fair share to fund public services for all.

Labor rights are civil rights. From Dr. King’s march with striking sanitation workers in 1968 to AFSCME’s involvement in today’s civil rights movement, AFSCME is committed to policies that promote social justice, making it easier – not harder – to vote. AFSCME supports restoring the full power of the Voting Rights Act. AFSCME works to end the poisonous influence of billionaires and corporate special interests in our political system and restrict corporate money in our elections.