In a statement, AFSCME President Lee Saunders said, “Public service workers do many different jobs, but they all have one thing in common: They are passionate about helping others. Every one of these occupations – from health care and public safety to school employees and transportation workers – is essential to the strength of our nation. This week, we are proud to honor the 1.4 million AFSCME members who keep America running.

“Across the country, public service workers are organizing their workplaces and raising their voice on the job, because being in a union means having the power to advocate for a better future for themselves and their families.”

We are proud that so many dedicated workers are building power and finding a voice through AFSCME and keeping our country functioning day in and day out.

Babbin-Disciullo grew up in nearby Kingston and has been serving Duxbury schools for 19 years. She has worked in all the town’s schools — including the middle school and the high school — and loves what she does because it’s all about the kids.

“I love making a positive impact in their lives,” she says.

That’s why she was so disappointed when, on Dec. 6, the Duxbury School Committee announced that it would explore the possibility of privatizing the custodial staff — that is, hiring an outside company to fill and manage those positions.

“My co-workers and I, we’ve given our all to this town, and we felt we weren’t being appreciated,” says Babbin-Disciullo, who is also a chapter chair in AFSCME Local 1700 (Council 93).

Privatization of public service jobs, often motivated by cost cutting, can have serious negative effects not just on the workers, who may lose their jobs or see their wages and benefits reduced, but also on the community. That’s because privatization almost always leads to lower-quality public services.

“These things almost always start out the same,” says Jim Durkin, legislative director for Council 93. “Management always uses the same talking points. They say this is just exploratory, no decisions have been made. ‘We’re just looking into this.’ But it’s a slippery slope. Almost invariably, those explorations lead to privatization. So, you have to act from the beginning as though it’s going to happen.”

Jason Hook, a custodian in nearby Hanover who is president of AFSCME Local 1700 and serves as the sergeant-at-arms on the Council 93 Executive Board, says that his first reaction upon hearing of the privatization attempt in Duxbury was that they had to act fast.

“We have to make every effort to stop it,” he remembers thinking.

And so, as soon as the school committee made its announcement, AFSCME leaders and members sprang into action. Babbin-Disciullo, and Hook and four different departments within Council 93 worked together, along with AFSCME International, to come up with ways to educate the community about the dangers of privatization and pressure the town administration to back off.

Babbin-Disciullo was able to get hundreds of people on social media to sign a petition against the privatization effort. Hook suggested that they go on WATD 95.9 FM, a popular local radio station, to warn about the dangers of privatization.

“When you’re replacing trusted, dedicated custodians … and you’re paying the contract crew low-wage jobs, you have this revolving pool of strangers coming in and out of your schools,” Durkin said on air.

Durkin also warned that cost savings attained through privatization are often short-lived, and that once a community loses the infrastructure to provide a public service in-house, it’s very difficult to bring it back.

AFSCME members, including the 20-plus custodians whose jobs were directly threatened, showed up to make their voices heard. They stood together, spread the word, and rallied outside school committee meetings.

The result was total capitulation by the committee: In April, the committee voted 5-0 to scrap the privatization effort and look for solutions with the workers through the collective bargaining process.

Babbin-Disciullo says she always felt confident they would win because the community was on their side. The support of the parents and the solidarity of union members is what made the difference.

“The idea of the school committee was to divide us, but we stuck together to fight,” she says. “And I think that was the most important thing.”

Hook, who has worked as a custodian in the schools he attended as a child, agrees that the key to success was highlighting the essential work that custodians provide and their connection to the community.

“Often a custodian is seen as a faceless position,” he says. “But these are the people who leave their own families during a storm, who work seven days a week. They are an integral part of our buildings. They care about the communities they serve.”

The April 18 announcement came in a public letter signed by 60 workers. When certified, Shedd Workers United/AFSCME will represent about 300 employees across the aquarium, including throughout its departments of Animal Care, Learning & Community, Guest Relationsand more.

“We believe that by joining together in our union, we can truly have a voice to advocate for our own welfare and for the welfare of the animals that bring us together,” employees wrote.

“In recent years, we have voiced concerns to management regarding work-life imbalance, financial struggles, and lack of communication, but received little tangible response. Together in our union, we can bring to light and work to resolve these inequities in order to better our own lives and — very importantly — those of the animals we work to protect and uplift.”

The union’s logo — hand-drawn by a Shedd employee — features a beluga, a shark, a plankton and Neptune’s trident, the staff wielded by the mythical god of the sea, which tops the aquarium’s dome.

Shedd workers invite the public to share their support for the union at afscme31.org/shedd.

In forming their union, Shedd employees join workers from the Field Museum, Museum of Science & Industry, Notebaert Nature Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago who have all recently organized with AFSCME.

“Shedd employees care deeply about their work, the aquarium, every creature that lives there and everyone who visits. We’re proud to include them in our union family and help them use their voice,” said Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch, who’s also an AFSCME International vice president. “We call on Shedd leadership to respect workers’ right to organize free from management interference.”

AFSCME represents more than 35,000 cultural workers across the country — more than any other union. The AFSCME Cultural Workers United (CWU) campaign has helped workers at more than 100 museums nationwide form unions and gain a voice in their workplaces.

The 38 workers, who provide educational programs, rehabilitate wildlife and protect the city’s only private nature preserve, voted 93% in favor of their union on Feb. 22, joining other cultural worker unions in the area, including Philadelphia Museum of Art Union, Penn Museum Workers United, and Please Touch Museum United.

Workers say they started the union campaign due to some issues common to other cultural institutions, such as low pay and poor benefits coupled with an expectation that employees should feel grateful for their employment.  

Nick Tonnetti, an environmental educator at the Schuylkill Center, said workers challenged the idea that if they love what they do, they cannot expect to be paid well.

“The biggest thing for people [was] wages, but I think related to that is just a feeling of security and sustainability,” Tonnetti said. “Everyone really loves the work they do, and I think everyone just wants to feel like this is something they could do for a long time. People just want to feel the security that I can do what I love while still getting what I need to survive.”

On top of that, management and employees rarely discussed workplace issues. Workers say their concerns about proper staffing were brushed aside and when certain employees pushed back, some were punished with undesirable work and even fired.

Workers pointed to one example when an educator who worked at the Schuylkill Center for nearly two decades was unceremoniously fired.

“She was not afraid to talk to parents about issues at the center, which made her a target of executive management,” said Tonnetti. “But she wasn’t speaking up because she disliked her work, she was vocal because she really cared and wanted to make it better for parents, kids, workers and everyone.”

Tonnetti said management treated her “like she was a criminal.”

“She was given five minutes to pack everything and get out of the center. They took away this person that was like such a huge part of the Schuylkill Center and greater community, and disrespected her on the way out, too,” he said. “Our unit was like ‘I can't believe they did this. This is exactly why we need a union.’ Once I saw that, I had this feeling that we're gonna win this.”

Tonnetti was right — workers voted in a landslide in favor of their union.

But Sky Templeton, another worker at the Schuylkill Center, knows this fight is far from over.

“For me, it's exciting in the sense of not when the race is over, but when the race has begun,” Templeton said. “I knew we could do it despite the fact that management said, ‘No, you can't, no, you can't’. It’s validating to prove them wrong.”

Templeton remarked that the victory shows that every worker should be part of a union.

“No small is too small. You matter. Even if you’re part time or just doing it because you care.  Well, that's enough to be defended in the workplace, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise,” Templeton said.

Templeton, Tonnetti, and the rest of Schuylkill Center staff are now a part of AFSCME Cultural Workers United, a national movement of cultural workers at libraries, museums and zoos joining together to negotiate for better pay and working conditions, demand equity, and fight for transparency in our workplaces.

AFSCME represents more cultural workers than any other union, including 10,000 museum workers at 91 cultural institutions in the public and private sectors, and more than 25,000 library workers at 275 public and private libraries. 

AFSCME corrections officers and staff in Minnesota are the latest to declare victory over private prison companies. They pushed hard for more than 15 years to pass state legislation that bans private prisons across Minnesota. And just last year, they finally won that fight.

In 2023, the Minnesota legislature passed and the governor signed a bill to outlaw private prisons. Under the law, the state Department of Corrections and local sheriffs can house inmates only in facilities that are owned and operated by state or local governments.

More than half a century ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) went into effect, a law propelled forward by labor unions and their allies. The law was instrumental in reducing fatalities, setting legal requirements for employers to prevent workplace injuries and deaths.

Although our country has made much progress, far too many workers continue to be injured, sickened or killed on the job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than 5,400 private sector workers died on the job in 2022, with an average of 15 workers killed each day in the line of duty.

“Under President Biden’s leadership, strides have been made on worker safety. A reenergized OSHA has stepped up enforcement — but the fact remains, even one worker death is too many,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement.

“We must continue to hold employers who skirt safety regulations accountable, because our lives are more important than their bottom lines. Study after study shows that the best way to improve worker safety is through collective bargaining and the protections of a union contract,”  Saunders added.

Everyone deserves the right to go to work and return home at the end of the day. Yet, thousands of workers are killed each year, and millions suffer from injuries and illnesses due to preventable exposures on the job.

Black workers face the highest job fatality rates in nearly 15 years and Latinos continue to face the greatest risk of dying at work compared to all other workers, according to an AFL-CIO report released Thursday.

Though job injuries and illnesses cost our society between $174 billion and $348 billion a year, the budgets of job safety agencies are scarcely enough to keep pace with inflation, according to the AFL-CIO report.

Public service workers are not treated equally under federal health and safety law, an injustice that AFSCME is working to fix at the federal and state levels.

In 27 states and territories, public service workers, including thousands of AFSCME members, are not protected by federal OSHA standards. State, local and municipal employees are not covered unless there is an OSHA state plan, passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor.  

In states where their laws do not protect public service workers, the union difference matters. AFSCME works hard to ensure that its members have needed health and safety protections no matter what. But that unequal treatment under federal and state law must end.

In addition to unequal coverage from state to state, current OSHA criminal and civil penalties are too low.

In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the average penalty was about $4,600 for a federal OSHA serious violation and just over $2,400 for OSHA state plans combined, according to the AFL-CIO report. These abysmally low penalties, combined with OSHA’s ability to allocate only about $3.93 per U.S. worker per year, and an inadequate number of inspectors to cover the millions of workplaces means employers are able to violate health and safety standards without accountability or oversight.

Driven by a commitment to worker justice, AFSCME, national unions and allies continue the fight for increased protections through stronger federal and state policies and collective bargaining.

In the coming weeks, Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio plans to introduce the Public Service Worker Protection Act. This bill would ensure nationwide OSHA coverage for millions of state and local government employees, regardless of whether their state has an OSHA state plan.

In addition, AFSCME  supports the Protecting America’s Workers Act, sponsored by Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney, which seeks to increase OSHA penalties and expand OSHA coverage for millions of state and local government employees.

In addition, AFSCME has been working to expand worker protections against heat illness, workplace violence, infectious diseases and chemical exposures.

For instance, in July 2023, members of AFSCME Local 1624 flew from Texas to Washington to join an all-day vigil and thirst strike on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand federal heat protections. AFSCME affiliates nationwide also bargain for safety protections in their contracts, bringing issues like staffing and training to the table.

The impact of worker health and safety hazards is severe, and it ripples across families and communities. As we honor the lives of those who have died on the job, AFSCME members recommit to continuing the fight to strengthen and extend workplace protections for all.

Around 500 members of AFSCME Council 5 rallied at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul earlier this month for a massive Day on the Hill lobby day. They were welcomed by Gov. Tim Walz, Secretary of State Steve Simon, State Auditor Julie Blaha, and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy.

Members met with key state lawmakers like House Speaker Melissa Hortman to advance key priorities for working families — expanded unemployment insurance benefits for striking workers, fixes to the earned sick and safe time laws passed last year, expanded government transparency laws, and fixes to Minnesota’s public pension system.

They also pushed back against planned closures of facilities that provide direct substance abuse and mental health treatment across the state.

Tarajee Goorhouse, a licensed practical nurse at C.A.R.E in Carlton said the facility is the state’s sole women-only chemical dependency treatment facility and the only addiction treatment facility for pregnant women. It’s currently slated to be closed.

 “It felt good to be able to advocate for the women of Minnesota and all of my co-workers,” said Goorhouse, a Council 5 member. “It was amazing to see and feel the support from the other locals.”

“I think it’s important for people to be able to advocate for themselves and others because if we don’t, nothing would ever change for the better,” Goorhouse added. “It’s for workers, our clients, the community and the state.”

However, even though the contract went into effect more than a year ago, workers say the museum is shortchanging many workers who are contractually guaranteed to receive longevity pay.

According to PMA Union (AFSCME District Council 47), employees are set to receive a raise for every five years of service.  However, just weeks after the strike ended, workers were shocked to learn that management only intended to give employees longevity pay if their work anniversaries fell within a certain time frame set by the museum.

Halcyone Schiller, the president AFSCME Local 397, the union for cultural workers across Philadelphia, condemned the museum’s action and said a grievance was filed immediately.

“The purpose of longevity pay is to reward full-time and part-time staff who have been working and contributing to the PMA for a long time,” said Schiller, a conservation technician at PMA. “But according to management’s interpretation, if an employee reaches their 10-year work anniversary outside of the time frame designated by management, they would not qualify for longevity pay.”

Schiller continued, "But if another employees’ five-year anniversary fell within the qualifying dates, how does it make sense that they would get longevity pay when it was denied to an employee that has worked at the museum for twice as long? [Management]’s logic does the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to do by further exacerbating issues of inequity.”

According to Schiller, the dispute affects one-third of the union’s bargaining unit and has resulted in only 6% of staff actually receiving longevity pay.

In addition to the grievance, workers launched a petition urging the PMA to honor their commitment and pay workers what they are owed. The petition garnered more than 4,000 signatures and gained the attention and support of community allies and some elected officials. Staff at the PMA also organized various actions during the museum’s all-staff meetings, including a demonstration during which workers wore signs highlighting their years of service at the museum.

“I was happy to vote for our contract at the end of [our] strike, partly because of how the longevity pay clause addressed historically low and stagnant pay rates with a modest increase for years of service,” said Sarah Roche, a label technician at the PMA. “This is important to us because it recognizes people’s genuine dedication to the museum, institutional knowledge and skilled labor.”

Roche added, “Although I have worked at the museum for 26 years, I am not in line to earn any longevity pay as the museum is currently interpreting the language. It is painful to not get the raise I expected, both personally and financially. It is bewildering that management’s strange position on longevity is actually making pay rates less equal.”

Members of the PMA Union and management expect to enter arbitration later this year. Roche and other workers in similar situations hope that things turn around soon.

These new union members made history in February as the first EMS workers to form a union with AFSCME Council 9 and the first AMR employees to unionize in Montana.

“We really love what we do, we want to be helping people,” said Chris Dooley, who left his career in human resources to become an EMT. “But we need to make enough money to get by.”

Their pleas to management for better equipment, like new ambulances that can safely transport patients in Bozeman’s mountainous terrain, also went unresolved.

 “We're supplied with very old clapped-out ambulances that frequently break — whether it's wheels falling off, axles breaking or brakes just randomly failing,” explained Tyler Holmes, an EMT in Bozeman. “It really impacts our basic ability to respond to calls and confidently be able to help people.”

Their organizing campaign began last fall when a group of longtime workers at AMR Bozeman began talking to their colleagues about the possibility of forming a union. After receiving many positive responses, this core group of EMS professionals began collecting union cards with help from organizers at Council 9.

“We needed to come together in a collective action and have more of a voice,” Dooley said.

But it didn’t take long for AMR management to catch wind of their employees’ push to form a new union.

“When word first started getting out to management, we had a number of meetings with legal PowerPoints that they would put together and [they were] telling us that forming a union was a terrible idea,” Holmes recalled.

Despite management opposition, EMTs and paramedics voted in unison. All 34 workers who voted said “yes” to create their new union with Council 9. The turnout for the election was extremely high for the group of some 40 eligible workers, including part-time employees.

“That certainly sends a pretty strong message that this isn't just a handful of people,” Dooley said. “We all landed on the same answer.”

Having elected new officers, these AFSCME members plan to use their strong voice at the bargaining table to fight for their top priorities as they get ready to negotiate their first contract.

Their message to other EMS workers who are considering whether to form a union? Do it.

“If folks are feeling like we did, like they just have no voice and they don't know where to go to start fixing things, I would say absolutely do it,” Holmes said.

Public safety professionals are increasingly turning to AFSCME to build power at work, and to advocate for safety on the job, better wages, good health care and a secure retirement. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response defend our freedoms and those of the communities we serve.

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved and learn more.

Carrying signs that read “Respect Those Who Protect,” Council 4 members and retirees took part in a rally on April 10 and held a press conference at the State Capitol building to ask their elected representatives to do just that.

“Staff assaults were up 56% in 2023 while the inmate population has been reduced,” said Officer Mike Vargo, president of AFSCME Local 1565. “We are being asked to do more without the proper resources and adequate preparation needed to minimize the rate and severity of assaults.”

Respect for these AFSCME corrections officers means passing a 2.5% wage and step increase to retain qualified professionals, creating more staff posts in facilities and restoring sanctions for inmates who assault COs and their fellow inmates.

“Stress, anxiety and trauma are taking a severe toll on our well-being,” said Officer Sherine Bailey, executive board member of AFSCME Local 391. “With the rigorous demands and risks we face, the base-level pay fails to reflect the gravity of our work.”

The Connecticut General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee plans to vote on the wage and step increase in the next few days.

Last week’s rally and press conference received widespread local media attention — and it’s clear that these AFSCME members will keep fighting alongside one another until safety and staffing issues are resolved.

Public safety professionals are increasingly turning to AFSCME to build power at work, and to advocate for safety on the job, better wages, good health care and a secure retirement. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response defend our freedoms and those of the communities we serve.

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved and learn more.

From his dispatch center in Everett, Piazza runs through a checklist he’s been trained on, keeping the caller calm, asking her questions to help him determine which emergency services he’ll send.

Meanwhile, he learns the husband is unconscious and not breathing. Without Piazza’s help, he’ll die. No time to waste: Piazza tells the wife to perform CPR. Meanwhile, Piazza alerts the fire department to send medical help to the man.

“I was able to meet that gentleman a few months later after he was out of the hospital and very much alive,” said Piazza.

That experience — knowing he was able to change the outcome and save that man’s life — was “mind-blowing,” said Piazza, who has been a dispatcher for six years.

It’s an extraordinary job — every day, dispatchers field multiple calls from people who may be having the worst day of their life. It’s a profession whose rewards can be as weighty as its challenges. This week, during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, we honor professionals like Chad Piazza, who save countless lives.

Piazza and his fellow 911 dispatchers may be the first of the first responders, but the essential work they do is far too often unseen. And no matter how much training they have in what Piazza describes as “being that calm voice in the storm to get [callers] to the other side,” their work also takes a heavy toll.

“It’s a unique stress,” Piazza acknowledged.

It’s hard not to take work home with them. For Piazza, his long commute provides a respite.

“For me, some nights, I sit in the car and listen to music and kind of let everything fall off my shoulders,” he said. “Other nights, if we’ve had a particularly bad call, it’s a quiet ride home. For me, that’s what I like to do be able to not take work home. I take some time to decompress and take some breaths on the ride home, then appreciate the time I have with my family once I walk through that door.”

Piazza and his fellow 911 dispatchers in Snohomish County also sought ways to improve their jobs by affiliating with AFSCME Council 2.

Members of AFSCME Local 829 (Council 57) who work for the Northern California city have won the largest contract gains in recent memory, securing cost-of-living allowances of 14% over the next three years and total possible pay raises of approximately 16.5%. The union’s previous one-year contract for 2022 included raises of only 2% — well below inflation in the  surrounding San Francisco Bay area.

Workers fought with city management for more than eight months until the Burlingame City Council finally approved the new agreement on Feb. 20. The contract will last until June 30, 2026.

During negotiations, union members filed multiple unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the city, including over allegations that former Mayor Michael Brownrigg stifled workers’ rights to free speech. As part of its settlement with the city, AFSCME agreed to withdraw its ULP charges to secure a new contract.

The foundation to the workers’ success was their engagement with contract negotiations over the past year. The local increased its membership rates from approximately 77% of all eligible workers before negotiations began to more than 91% today. Last December, more than 100 AFSCME workers staged a one-day strike to protest management’s actions — the first strike in the city since 1981.

“Although we have won the biggest gains in recent memory for AFSCME at Burlingame, not every worker is jumping up and down, since many Burlingame employees’ wages are still likely to lag behind other neighboring cities,” said Rich Stephens, a water quality lead worker in the Public Works Department.

AFSCME members and the city were able to break through an impasse in negotiations thanks to the valuable assistance of John Kagel, a state-appointed mediator with more than 50 years of experience during which he mediated hundreds of labor disputes.

“John Kagel was instrumental in bridging the divide that had existed with the city for so long,” said Joleen Helley, an administrative assistant in the Recreation Department.

AFSCME members and city officials will likely resume negotiations for their next labor contract in a little less than two years from now.

“Although it is disappointing that hard-working city employees had to fight so hard given how robust Burlingame’s finances are, I doubt the city will approach AFSCME in the same way when we negotiate a little over two years from now,” said Rod Palmquist, AFSCME Local 829’s business agent and the union’s lead negotiator.

On March 14, Gov. Janet Mills signed into law a “card check” bill for state, higher education and judicial branch employees throughout Maine. It builds on a 2019 law that granted card check — or majority authorization rights — to municipal workers throughout Maine.

According to the Maine AFL-CIO, card check laws require public employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers in a bargaining unit sign union cards rather than going through the lengthy and expensive process of holding a secret ballot election.

“Most importantly, it is designed to level the playing field between labor and management by limiting the ability of anti-union management officials to unduly and unfairly harass and intimidate workers into voting against unionization,” Jim Durkin, legislative director of AFSCME Council 93, told a Maine House committee in January.

Council 93 represents more than 2,600 public sector workers in Maine and an additional 43,000 in northern New England.

The 2019 card check law has already helped municipal workers in Maine form unions, and Council 93 has worked with several of those groups. 

“The process for us in Easton was pretty easy and straightforward,” said Jennifer Bray, an employee with the Easton, Maine, public schools. “We really felt that the choice to unionize or not was up to us, with little or no opportunity for management to try to intimidate us. We organized in 2023, and by February of this year we had our first contract. I would definitely want other public sector workers to have the opportunity to use this process since it worked so well for us.”

The 2024 card check law would provide even more workers across Maine the opportunity to come together to form unions to improve wages, benefits and working conditions — and advocate for the resources Maine communities need and deserve.

Adam Goode, the Maine AFL-CIO’s political and legislative director, testified in January that the new law not only expands the universe of eligible workers but also makes it mandatory for employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers chose it.

“Because the 2019 law only applied to municipal employees, public sector employers in the state, higher education and judicial branches are not required to honor their workers’ decision to form a union, even if 100% of employees demonstrate they want to have a union,” Goode testified.

Until now, employers rarely exercised their option of voluntarily recognizing unions, preferring instead to ask the Maine Labor Relations Board to schedule a secret ballot election, Durkin said.    

“It can take up to several months or longer before an election date is set, which not only delays workers’ efforts to secure better wages, benefits and working conditions, but also gives management a strong and unfair disadvantage over union proponents,” he said.

Most employers used that time to “do everything possible to dissuade workers from taking advantage of their legal right to vote in favor of forming a union,” according to Durkin.

Just a little more than decade ago, according to the American Medical Association (AMA), most physicians worked in private practice. They made the most important decisions surrounding patient care.

But today, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, the doctor’s office — run by a small group of physicians at most — is increasingly rare. The nonprofit Physicians Advocacy Institute estimates that between 2019 and 2022, hospitals and other corporate entities acquired 36,200 physician practices, resulting in a 38% increase in corporate-owned practices and accelerating a trend towards consolidation of the health care marketplace.

One of the consequences of such consolidation is that decisions concerning patient care and safety are being made in corporate offices rather than by doctors.

“The big thing that brought us all together wasn’t compensation, though that needs to be addressed because physician pay has not kept up with inflation over the past several decades,” says Dr. Sean Codier, an emergency room physician at Salem Hospital. “The big thing that brought us together were changes in our health care system, down to the local workplace environment, that we feel have changed the way we provide care to patients, and the changes have been mostly negative.”

Codier is one of 145 physicians at Salem Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham (MGB) system, who formed the Council 93-affiliated Salem Physicians Union.

“We seek to collect our voices to reassert our rightful place within the house of medicine, to impact positively our hospital, our patients, and ultimately, our health care system,” the Salem union’s mission reads.

Many of the concerns that Codier and his fellow union members have about their workplace began before the pandemic, but things have gotten significantly worse in the last few years.

“We went through this period of the COVID pandemic, this national crisis, that was an all-hands-on-deck type of situation,” says Codier, who began working at MGB in 2018. “But coming out of COVID, we faced a medical system that was understaffed and under-resourced, and we ended up with a situation where we didn’t have a voice or the power to influence how things were conducted in our own hospitals.”

MGB hires 80,000 providers who work in hospitals, labs, outpatient centers and more, and they spend $2 billion in research activities, according to their website. In an organization this big, says Codier, “the voice of a single physician is really small. Only together are we going to be able to address some of the problems we have in common in our health care system.”

Just 7% of practicing physicians in the United States were unionized in 2019, according to the AMA

To Codier, the novelty of organizing physicians is both a challenge and an opportunity.

“Trying to forge new ground and trailblaze a new path was definitely the biggest challenge to us,” he says.

But physicians are a group of professionals accustomed to engaging and helping each other, he adds, and thus unionization “is something that seems to come quite naturally, in the sense that we’re used to collaborating and working in a team environment, so it’s not a huge step to engage in the organizing process.”

Codier hopes that the victory he and his co-workers achieved is just the beginning of a trend of physicians coming together in unions. Since news of their success spread, Codier has heard from several groups of doctors who are also seeking a voice in the workplace.

“It is a very encouraging thing to see physicians across the country taking a proactive approach and starting to talk to each other and taking risks to really address these problems and speak up for each other and themselves,” he says. “The only way physicians in this country are going to be heard is if we’re heard together.”

On Tuesday, at a rally at Washington’s Union Station organized by the AFSCME-backed advocacy organization Care Can’t Wait Action, President Joe Biden emphatically voiced support for care workers and the services they provide.

“Care workers represent the best of who we are as Americans,” said Biden. “You’re the heroes to so many individuals. You represent so many people who do it out of love and concern. Not because of the pay, because you’re not getting the pay you need.”

Biden added, “I give you my word — I have your back! Care workers and care givers are critical to our families and the entire economy. That’s why as a candidate and as president, I was determined to turn things around. We’ve made progress, but there’s so much more to do. If we want the best economy in the world, we need the best care-giving economy in the world. The cost of care is too high and pay for care workers is much too low.”

Biden also acknowledged that the deck is stacked against many care workers.

“More often than not, from child care to elder care to lack of paid leave, it’s women who bear the brunt. Care workers are predominantly women of color and immigrants, who are overworked, overlooked and underpaid. It’s not enough to praise them for what they do; we have to pay them,” he said.

Biden has backed his words up with action. The American Rescue Plan that he signed into law invested $60 billion in the care economy, keeping hundreds of thousands of providers’ doors open during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That law was also the biggest investment in child care ever. And thanks to the White House’s tax credit expansions, nearly 300,000 child care workers are receiving financial relief.

It has been one year since the historic signing of the White House Executive Order on Care, the most comprehensive administrative step to strengthen child care, paid leave and aging and disability care in the history of the nation, including good jobs for care workers.

At the Union Station rally, AFSCME President Lee Saunders echoed the urgent need to support care workers.

“Care providers do the vital work that holds our communities together,” Saunders said. “You allow people to age with dignity in their own homes. You help people with disabilities lead independent lives. You provide a safe environment for children to learn and grow while their parents are at work.”

Saunders acknowledged that for too long, care workers have lived on the margins, even as the demands for their services have risen.

“But all that is changing,” Saunders said. “Care workers have been organizing, and it’s paying off. You are standing up and saying you deserve the rights and freedoms of a strong union — a voice on the job and a seat at the table. It’s about time you were treated like the front-line heroes and heroines that you are.”

Also speaking at the rally was Sabrina Bishop, a United Domestic Workers (AFSCME Local 3930) care worker from San Diego. She became a care worker after her mother fell and continues to provide care for members of her community, driven by a passion for the work. She has been an activist in her union to fight for providers like her.

 “I love this work and fighting for the people I care for and my members,” said Bishop, who is one of an estimated 53 million people who care for family members. “So, no matter what, I’m going to continue to lace up my boots, put on my green shirts, and fight for dignity, respect and a real livable wage for long-term care workers.”

The Tuesday rally was part of several days of action that included lobbying visits on Capitol Hill. Whether they are child care providers, home care providers, or others with jobs in the care economy, they called on lawmakers to support their profession and increase federal investments in the work they do.

But thanks to President Joe Biden, Gray is free of her college loan worries. On Feb. 23, she learned she owed nothing.

Gray is one of numerous AFSCME members who have had their student loan burdens erased or reduced. She told her story to Vice President Kamala Harris at a roundtable event in Philadelphia on Monday. AFSCME members were among those who participated in White House events to welcome additional measures the Biden administration announced Monday to relieve millions of Americans of their crushing student loan burdens.

Biden traveled to Madison, Wisconsin. Harris traveled to Philadelphia, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff to Phoenix and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to New York City to spread the word and meet with AFSCME members and other borrowers who have benefited from the administration’s student debt relief actions to date.

According to the White House, the new package of measures would do a number of things, including these of particular interest to AFSCME members:

• Automatically cancel debt for those who haven’t applied but are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and other forgiveness programs like Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE).
• Cancel debt for those who have been repaying undergraduate school loans for 20 years and graduate school loans for 25 years, and
• Cancel debt for borrowers experiencing hardships that will prevent them from being able to repay their loans.

“In total, when combined with actions the Biden-Harris administration has already taken, these plans would benefit over 30 million Americans,” the White House said. “To date, the Biden-Harris administration has cancelled over $146 billion in student debt for 4 million Americans through various actions.”

Many AFSCME members were among the 872,000 public service workers who have had their student debt forgiven by the Biden administration. Before Biden took office, just 7,000 PSLF-eligible borrowers had had their loans forgiven.

Gray told the vice president she was incredulous when she received a letter in February from her student loan provider saying her debt was forgiven and thanking her for her public service. A college loan for her daughter was also forgiven.

“I didn't believe it. I went on FAFSA website. It was all zeros. including my Parent Plus loan,” Gray said, referring to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid site. “And it's been off of my credit report for two weeks. So I just want everybody to know there is help out there. … I thought I would never, ever get any of this done.”

After the student loans came off her credit report, Gray also got approved for a home loan.

“It was just so much joy,” Gray told Harris. “If it wasn't for you guys, I'll still be renting.”

 In Phoenix, AFSCME Local 2960 member Kanika Jones took part in a roundtable discussion with Harris’ husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

A case worker for Head Start in Phoenix who helps struggling families get access to critical public services, Jones had applied to the PSLF. Then she received an email recently telling her that her debt was forgiven. She dismissed it as spam. But a co-worker posted on Facebook that her college debt was wiped out, which made Jones look at that email again – and then realized it was true.

Wisconsin AFSCME members Jim McLaughlin and Miranda Wales took part in the event with Biden in Madison.

Wales, vice president of AFSCME Wisconsin Local 1, accrued more than $200,000 in student loans, but didn’t think she’d ever repay it since she earns just $26 an hour at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. But now that she’s on the SAVE plan and on a path to loan forgiveness through PSLF, she said she can afford her monthly payments and one day pay off her college loans.

McLaughlin, a member of AFSCME Wisconsin Council 32, works for United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County after first working as a teacher following graduation. For various reasons, he said he didn’t receive full credit to qualify for debt relief under PSLF. And once he got married, his loan payments ballooned and he couldn’t save up to buy a home or start a family. But thanks to Biden, McLaughlin will get his loans forgiven next month, allowing him to pursue the American dream.

Our union’s Cultural Workers United campaign has inspired more than 25,000 library workers at 275 public and private libraries to come together. They are fighting for dignity, respect and a voice on the job to advocate for more resources for their communities and better working conditions.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said library workers are under siege.

“A steady stream of crises — from the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 to extremist book bans and staffing shortages — have put immense pressure on library workers. They are fighting back, using their voice on the job to keep these essential community centers open,” Saunders said in a statement.

Fighting efforts by right-wing lawmakers to restrict children’s access to books are also a continuing challenge for library workers. What motivates many of them is a core belief that they ought to protect everyone’s access to the books they need.

That was certainly the case with Kerry Auld, one of AFSCME’s newest library members. On March 7, Auld was one of 350 Jefferson County Public Library Workers who made Colorado history by becoming the first unit of county workers to organize a union under the state’s new collective bargaining law for county employees. The workers voted overwhelmingly to form a union with AFSCME Council 18.  

Auld, a page at the Columbine Public Library, sat down with AFSCME Now to discuss why she became a library worker and why she is excited to join her co-workers to make their voices heard at work.

Question: Why did you become a library worker?

Answer: When I was teaching in the public school system, I was actually volunteering here. And when I left the public school system, I thought maybe I could get paid for doing what I was volunteering to do. Here I am, 6½ years later.

Q: Describe a day on the job that you are most proud of.

A: The feeling of gratification at work comes from keeping the books in all sections of the library in proper order so that patrons can easily find them, and staff can easily find them as well when they need to. One of the things that makes me most proud to be a library worker is when I found out about the new law that allows us to unionize. I immediately volunteered to help with that because I've had some experiences and things said to me that I think would have been very helpful to have a union behind me.

Q: Why did you personally get involved with organizing a union at your workplace?

A: I enjoy working with my co-workers and personally I think that making minimum wage is ridiculous in this time and climate. We have gotten raises only when the Colorado minimum wage has gone up. JCPL has never given a raise to the employees. Surviving on minimum wage is impossible. I do it because I love the library and I enjoy the job. It keeps me busy. But I think of younger people that want to make a career of the library and they're stuck. They cannot provide for their family. They cannot pay for  an education if they want to continue in library science. You can’t even get a meal at McDonald's pretty much for under $15, which is our wage.

Q: What would be your union’s first priority?

A: Once bargaining begins, I think some of the co-workers' priorities — not only here at Columbine but throughout the entire county — is safety. Things are changing rapidly in the Denver metropolitan area and there have been incidents at almost every library where workers have felt unsafe. Me personally, I had a patron yelling at me last week and it was very scary. The entire library was watching, and I did what we were instructed to do, just turn around and go to the back.

Q: What’s your advice for other county workers across the state who are thinking about coming together to form a union?

A: Don't be afraid. It is easy to sign up. But it's nothing to be scared of, nothing to be ashamed of. And working with the employees of AFSCME has been wonderful. They are incredibly supportive. To have a voice in the workplace I think is especially important. Most of the employees at JCPL are the pages. We don't have any benefits, (are) making minimum wage and we keep the library running. If we were to stop, the library system would come to a halt. So, knowing that my colleagues here at the library signed up everybody but one person just shows how solid we are to support each other and to make JCPL a better place — not only for us but for the community that we serve.

AFSCME Locals 741, 901, 2006, 2626, 3090 and 3672 began negotiating with the city in August 2023 as a part of the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions, which negotiates benefits for all LA City employees represented by AFSCME, SEIU, Teamsters, LiUNA, LA/OC Building Trades and IUOE. Union members ratified the tentative agreements in March.

Coalition members negotiated a 22% cost of living adjustment (COLA) over the life of the contract, which will take effect immediately once the Los Angeles City Council signs off as expected. The five-year contract would be retroactive to 2023.

The contract would also allow members to cash out all of their unused sick time from their 100% sick time bank when they retire and hike the minimum pay of employees to $25 per hour by 2026. Covered workers would also receive 12 weeks of parental leave. Additionally, their unused personal leave will be cashed out at the end of each calendar year.

“I have been with the city for 20 years, and never have I had a contract of this magnitude,” said Larry Gates, president of AFSCME Local 3090 (Council 36). “In speaking with my members, almost all are overwhelmingly excited and grateful for the hard work and dedication of the negotiations committee.”

A massive show of union strength and solidarity was the driving force behind securing a strong contract. The Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions held more than a dozen rallies at worksites around the city and held a simultaneous strike authorization vote. These actions caught the attention of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who stepped in and made sure the city negotiated a fair contract.

“Mayor Karen Bass knew how crucial it was that negotiations wrapped up quickly. And after we spent hours and hours and hours in discussions with the City Administrative Office, there was a roar of applause and cheers when the TA was reached,” said Jonathan Diaz, president of AFSCME Local 741. “It was 2 a.m. and the room felt like it was a combination of happiness, pride and especially relief that we were able to reach an agreement so close to our contract expiring. Our hard work had paid off, a city-wide strike would be averted, and our members would have huge gains.”

More than 100 members of AFSCME Council 17 held a rally on Thursday the Louisiana State Capitol. They spoke about their experiences at work to urge their state lawmakers to oppose seven anti-union bills: HB 523, SB 292, HB 571, HB 572, HB 712, SB 263 and SB 264.

These bills, which are being debated in the Louisiana legislative session, would severely limit or eliminate workers’ freedom to speak up for the vital services they provide to Louisiana’s communities, push for their safety on the job and advocate for the taxpayers they serve.

Valerie Nordstrom, a probation and parole officer at the Office of Juvenile Justice in Monroe, said: “I'm concerned about these bills. They are an attack on a variety of rights for public workers that will affect public safety officers like me. This legislation won’t benefit our public sector employees, and it will negatively impact our communities.”

Zuri McCormick, a library associate for the City of New Orleans Public Library, said: “These bills are really attacking the heart and the soul of Louisianans. … If they take away our voice and our freedom, we will lose engineers, we will lose sanitation workers. And so that's why I'm speaking out.”

Legislation that limits the freedoms of public service workers will only exacerbate the chronic labor shortage and make it harder for state and local government agencies to serve the people. Public service workers provide the vital services such as caring for our sick, keeping our communities clean, and being on the front lines of crisis response.

When workers speak up for these services — whether it is nurses negotiating for better patient-to-staff ratios that keep us all healthy or municipal employees bargaining for the equipment they need to keep us all safe — they strengthen Louisiana’s communities.

Dr. King was in Memphis to lend his voice and moral authority to a group of extraordinary people taking a courageous stand, the city’s sanitation workers (represented by AFSCME Local 1733) who had gone on strike.

These 1,300 Black men had endured years of dangerous and degrading working conditions, earning poverty wages for backbreaking work, somehow turning the other cheek as they were called “boy.” They were essentially working in a modern-day plantation.

Finally, in February of 1968, they walked off the job — following a horrific accident in which two sanitation workers were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck.

The strike was not just about better pay, retirement benefits and safety standards; the workers were seeking recognition of their basic humanity. That was the root of their bold, defiant slogan: I AM A MAN.

Dr. King believed to his core that civil rights and labor rights went hand in hand, part of the same struggle. He was in Memphis to join the sanitation workers’ fight because he knew that racial justice and economic justice are fundamentally linked.

The night before his death, in a speech to sanitation workers and members of the community at Mason Temple in Memphis, Dr. King seemed to foreshadow his own fate. Here is a clip of Dr. King’s historic “Mountaintop” speech.

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place,” he said. “But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

More than half a century later, even with progress made on racial equity and workers’ rights, we still haven’t reached the promised land. So, on the anniversary of his death, we resolve to carry on his urgent work and answer his powerful call to action.

In her working years, doing IT for the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Taylor was one of the founders of her local union (Local 3707/AFSCME Ohio Council 8); later, she became its president (and is still getting calls for references).

When Taylor would put up a candidate sign on her lawn, people would come by to see who she was supporting. When she’d be out walking her dogs, shih tzus Chewie and Finnegan, she would talk issues with her fellow Akronites. She was always registering people to vote.

And this year, Taylor and her fellow Buckeye State AFSCME retirees will put their boots on the ground in a pivotal election. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of working people’s biggest champions, is running for a fourth term in a race that could tip the balance of power in Washington.

Brown continues to be the chief advocate for repeal of the Government Pension Offset-Windfall Elimination Provision (GPO-WEP), which cheats public service retirees out of Social Security benefits. As the architect of the Butch Lewis Act, he is responsible for protecting the pensions of more than 1 million workers. And he led the charge to expand health care to military veterans injured by burn pits in the Middle East.

Taylor’s activism goes beyond mobilizing politically for pro-worker candidates. About 10 years ago, when a friend asked her if she wanted to be a PEO, or a precinct election official — a poll worker — Taylor was intrigued.

“I asked what it entails. She said you go on a Monday and do some pre-set-up work, then you’re at the polls [on Election Day] from 5:30 a.m. to about 9 p.m.” And she’s been performing this important civic duty each Election Day since, including during last month’s Ohio primary.

Working at her local polls makes her an important part of the democratic process in the community she loves, says Taylor, now the secretary-treasurer for Ohio-West Virginia AFSCME Retiree Chapter 1184.

Poll workers belong to different political parties and support different candidates, but they share a commitment to making the voting process as smooth as possible for their neighbors.

“It’s rewarding to see some of the younger people getting out to vote. We have a lot of first-time voters,” says Taylor. “They come in and they give me their driver’s license. I ask, ‘Is this your first time voting?’ I explain the process — you go over the ballot box, then send it over to the machine. I always say, ‘Don’t forget your sticker.’ You want to make their first time a memorable one, so they keep coming back to vote.”

Stickers are an important part of the exercise, according to Taylor. For example, when parents with young kids come in, Taylor doesn’t let them leave without one.

Working the polls is an important job, but Taylor and her fellow PEOs try to keep it light too.

“We’re always cracking jokes and talking about stuff,” says Taylor of her fellow poll workers. “Every time we get together, it’s something new. We’re there for 14 to 16 hours a day — you kinda get to know the people. We try to make it as fun as possible.”

“She was very excited and happy to see me,” Akpabio recalled. “‘Thank you, Ms. A,’ she said to me.”

The young woman told Akpabio that the conversations they’d had — about taking control of her life, about not letting others influence her decisions and making the changes she wants to see in herself — had a positive impact on her.

“She used to talk to me about her anger issues, about some of the things and how a group of people she used to be around had influenced her life."

Now, said Akpabio, the young woman has a good job and a new son.

“Those are some of the rewards of the job,” Akpabio said.

“This is a victory for workers and our ability to organize. By having a strong union, we held the state accountable to what we won in the legislature,” said Michael Ahlmeyer, an AFSCME member and a maintenance repair specialist at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Passed in the 2023 legislative session, the AB522 law funded a longevity pay program for state employees with eight or more years of continuous service. The state announced in November that eligible workers covered under a collective bargaining unit would not receive the longevity pay award in AB522.

AFSCME members organized to put pressure on the state to follow the law in AB522 by going to court and signing a petition to hold the state accountable. The March 14 agreement to provide longevity payments to collective bargaining unit members would not have been possible without these member actions.

In addition to providing the longevity payments, the state also agreed that all state workers will receive the wage increases funded in AB522, which will be a total of 11% on July 1, 2024.

"We are stronger as state workers when we come together. The stronger we are, the more we can fight for and win, and protect those wins,” said Ahlmeyer.