“When it mattered the most, we had no voice, we had no say — and COVID was the kicker,” said Bridgett Bonar, an acquisition data specialist at Dartmouth College’s main Library.

Ninety library workers formed a union — AFSCME Local 603 — through Council 93. Negotiations on a contract began in February 2024. Members of Local 603 ratified their first contract this spring. 

The rough road   

The path to unionizing was long. For nearly three years, library workers at the Ivy League institution in Hanover, N.H., organized through the pandemic. They kept at it despite remote-work schedules, departmental silos, and rising living costs — all while contending with sudden changes, unequal work standards and unequal pay.  

“Most of us can’t afford to live in town,” said Daniel Abosso, an eight-year research librarian at the main library. “We had to organize on Slack, email, in socially distanced hallway conversations — whatever it took. And we made it work.”  

“The administration wouldn’t budge. They came to sessions with nothing prepared, struck down entire proposals without real discussion, and almost never countered,” said Bonar. “The strategy was to wear us out.”  

But that didn’t work on a crew that never quits. With a seven-member bargaining team, strong unit support, and a shrewd negotiating team from Council 93, the workers stayed united. They relied on various academic library contracts and negotiating tactics, research, and constant communication with colleagues to build power at the table.   

Victory!   

On May 7, the workers ratified their first contract.   

“We aimed high and stood our ground,” Abosso said. “We knew we were setting a foundation-for today, and tomorrow’s contracts.”  

The contract wins include 22 days of vacation for all staff, a $22/hour minimum wage, signing bonuses, paid parental leave, expanded bereavement leave, professional development time, and the first-ever codified workplace standards.  

“Even things we didn’t get in writing have started changing,” Abosso noted. “That’s the power of a union — we set expectations.”  

The Dartmouth College library workers union is another example of cultural workers building power through AFSCME.    

AFSCME Cultural Workers United is leading the largest organizing movement for workers at the nation’s museums, libraries, zoos and other cultural institutions. CWU represents 45,000 workers at cultural institutions, more than any other union.     

So she knows just how much Ohio’s children and families rely on Medicaid, federal food assistance, and other public services.

And she knows just how badly communities in Ohio’s 15^th Congressional District will suffer because their representative, Rep. Mike Carey, voted for the big, ugly budget bill.

Carson spoke at an event Thursday in Columbus where working people called out their members of Congress for supporting for the bill.

“Congressman Mike Carey has made a choice, and it’s the wrong one,” she said. “(He) chose to side with billionaires and CEOs over the working people in Columbus, in Zanesville, in Lancaster, in Circleville and across the 15^th District who are just trying to take care of their families.”

As AFSCME President Lee Saunders said, the bill is a betrayal of working families nationwide.

In a cruel irony, Carey and other anti-worker lawmakers rushed to pass the bill by the Fourth of July. But it won’t free millions of Americans from having to worry about their health care, their next meal or their retirement. Instead, it will make massive cuts to essential programs and make working people and retirees suffer — or worse — to enrich billionaires even more.

In Ohio, more than 400,000 residents could lose lifesaving health care, and 263,000 could lose critical food benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Carson and others also talked about the more than 44,600 jobs from SNAP and Medicaid cuts that this handout for billionaires has put at risk in Ohio.

Union leaders from education, health care, and the building trades also spoke alongside AFSCME members about how this budget bill attacks working families, children, seniors, and entire communities.

“Congressman Mike Carey’s vote means that students in my schools, who already face numerous barriers, will come to class hungry, sick, or without the stability they need to succeed. And the same is true for schools in small towns across Ohio,” Carson said. “I’ve seen firsthand how poverty and lack of health care hold back our children. When families struggle, our schools, our communities, and our entire state suffer.”

Escalante, a member of United Domestic Workers, is holding Valadao accountable for supporting a budget bill that will make devastating cuts to Medicaid and health care. Those cuts will directly harm the people Escalante cares for in California’s 22nd Congressional District — the district Valadao represents.  

It will also put the jobs of home care providers like her at risk. 

Escalante has been a caregiver her entire life. First for her grandmother, who had both legs amputated due to diabetes. Later, she became a caregiver for her husband, who became a quadriplegic after an accident. Now, she cares for a client who is 35 years old and suffers from an autoimmune disorder and is unable to care for herself. 

“I don’t remember not being a care provider. I help my clients with the day-to-day activities of living. I provide a clean, healthy environment,” Escalante says.  

Medicaid is a true lifeline for Escalante’s clients. It helps fund the work that Escalante and caregivers like her provide.  

Escalante can’t understand how lawmakers like Valadao are serving their constituents by supporting legislation that will not only make deep cuts to Medicaid and health care, but also to nutrition assistance, Medicare and public services. 

She can’t understand why anyone would make cuts to these critical programs to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. 

Escalante asks Valadao: “How do you plan on helping your constituents after these cuts are made? You need to show up and answer the questions that your constituents have. You have failed to do that time and time and time again. Your position as a representative in our district is severely at risk.” 

Escalante is frustrated by the fact that lawmakers like Valadao have chosen to side with billionaires, who will rake in trillions of dollars of tax cuts from this budget bill, while working families like hers — and the people she serves — will be harmed.  

Though she is angry at her representative and the administration, she is also determined: “Hopefully, we can make a change.” 

To hold lawmakers accountable, sign up to Get Organized.  

CO Rob Beamon is the president of AFSCME Local 391 (Council 4). The local represents COs at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, the state’s largest prison, where the incident occurred on June 28.  

He said drug smuggling is making corrections jobs more dangerous. And that’s a problem happening nationwide. 

“It makes the prison population less safe, it makes the officers less safe,” Beamon told NBC Connecticut. “Correctional environments are supposed to be controlled environments.” 

In response, AFSCME President Lee Saunders said our union’s members will hold every elected official who supported the bill accountable for their betrayal of working families.  

“To satisfy the greed of their mega-donors, anti-worker elected officials voted to rob working families of their health care and life-sustaining public services to hand over trillions in tax cuts to the richest people on earth,” Saunders said. 

The bill makes sweeping, dangerous cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance and other essential programs Americans rely on. It also triggers a massive cut to Medicare. 

Children will go hungry, seniors will lose access to long-term care, and 17 million Americans — including veterans and their families — will lose health care. Because of this bill, people will die from preventable causes and hundreds of thousands of workers will lose their jobs. 

Saunders described the chaos that will ensue as this bill’s provisions are implemented. 

“This debt-exploding budget will wreak havoc,” he said. “States, cities, towns and schools will face a fiscal crisis due to these extreme cuts, putting all public services on the chopping block. Hospitals and nursing homes will close, depriving entire communities of care, especially in rural areas.” 

While the wealthiest Americans will grow even wealthier, this bill will deal a severe financial blow to working Americans. Health care costs for families of four with employer-provided coverage will increase by $2,000. And cuts to clean energy investments will kill good union jobs and raise energy bills.  

“During a time of rising costs, this budget doesn’t just fail the middle class; it pushes families out of it, trapping millions in cycles of poverty,” Saunders warned. 

AFSCME members will continue organizing with even greater purpose to defend our jobs, our dignity and our safety at work.  

“And we will organize to hold every elected official accountable who voted to betray working families and hurt our communities,” Saunders said.  

But this year, as we gather at barbecues and kick back with family, we face a hard truth: our jobs, livelihoods, and freedoms are in danger. The budget just passed by Congress is an all-out assault on the public services our communities count on – and the workers like us who provide them.

Let’s be clear about what’s inside this so-called “big beautiful bill." While billionaires and big corporations enjoy debt-exploding tax cuts, working families get hit with a one-two punch in the form of higher health care costs and grocery bills. That’s because it includes the largest cuts to Medicaid, affordable health care, and food assistance in American history – ripping coverage away from over 17 million people and leaving as many as 3.5 million Americans at risk of going hungry.

But the consequences don’t end there. These devastating cuts will create painful shortfalls for our states, cities and towns. For AFSCME members, this means layoffs, understaffing, stagnant wages, weaker contracts, less workplace safety, and the threat of more privatization. For our communities, it means fewer nurses in our hospitals, fewer staff in our schools, fewer first responders answering calls, and fewer public service workers on the job.

Our union fought this budget relentlessly through our Get Organized campaign. AFSCME members, retirees, and activists flooded congressional phone lines, packed town hall meetings, and traveled thousands of miles to Washington, DC, to speak out.

Nurses, caregivers, and other public service workers met with lawmakers to detail the threat posed to our local hospitals, nursing homes, health centers, schools, and all essential services. Make no mistake: our voices were heard in this fight. Despite strong anti-worker majorities, Congress only managed to pass this deeply unpopular bill by the skin of their teeth.

As state and local governments brace for the impact of these cuts, we know that AFSCME members will face a much tougher time providing services to our communities and negotiating at the bargaining table. That is why our task now is to do everything we can to keep protecting public services.

If there was ever a time to get organized, this is it. If there was ever a time to grow our union and build our power at the bargaining table, this is it. If there was ever a time to talk to co-workers and ask them to join our family, this is it. 

We know the billionaires slated to benefit from these tax cuts are the same billionaires who want to privatize public services and take away our seat at the table.

But we are not powerless. Our power comes from the freedom to organize – a freedom at the very heart of our democracy. And the best way to defend that freedom is to use it, every single day, to build a union that’s strong enough to fight the battles ahead.

This July Fourth, let’s celebrate the democratic freedoms we all hold dear – including our freedom to form a union, sit down at the bargaining table, and hammer out a contract that gives an honest day’s work the respect it deserves.

Michigan’s special agents take on some of the hardest cases, like public corruption and white-collar crime. They have a unique role in law enforcement, but they’re often forgotten about. 

That’s because the job of a special agent isn’t usually like TV crime dramas. 

“A lot of the work we do is in the background,” said Agent Michael Swiercz. “It’s so important that this work is being done, but the public isn’t realizing who’s actually doing it.”  

Now, special agents in Michigan are coming together through our union to make their voices heard. 

90% of them have become members of the Michigan State Employees Association (MSEA), AFSCME Local 5, within the last few months. 

Swiercz said special agents are being left behind while other law enforcement professionals are getting double-digit pay increases. Winning a strong pension is also one of their top goals. 

“Without the union, we would have no voice,” he explained. “We want to be brought back into the conversation and have the same opportunities and benefits as other law enforcement officers.” 

These union members already started using their collective strength. 

Michigan’s special agents are meeting with state legislators, and MSEA is planning to launch a media campaign to show the public what they do to protect the people of Michigan. 

These special agents have a strong working relationship with state Attorney General Dana Nessel and senior managers. But Swiercz said more needs to be done at the state level to win the fair pay and retirement security they deserve. 

Public safety professionals are turning to our union to build power. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response are proud to protect our freedoms and our communities.   

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved. 

Breidenbach has spent the last 17 years working with people she considers “like my children, like my brothers and sisters.”

But much of the funding for the center is under threat. That’s because of the cuts to Medicaid in the so-called “big, beautiful bill” making its way through Congress. The hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid will hit the most vulnerable Americans the hardest. That includes her clients at Hunterdon.

Breidenbach, a member of Local 2220 (AFSCME New Jersey), is already concerned about staffing and resource shortages at the center. She says the direct care workers (“we call them living angels”) sometimes have to work double shifts. If funding for places like the center dries up, she says, the quality of life of her patients will go down.

“A lot of them will die,” she says.

Breidenbach’s own member of Congress, Thomas Kean Jr., voted for the bill when it was moving through the House of Representatives.

When asked what she would say to Kean, Breidenbach had a question for him.

“Of all the things that can be cut,” she asks, “why is it that all the focus is going toward the vulnerable population? Is it because they cannot talk for themselves? Because they cannot answer back?”

Anti-union lawmakers want to gut Medicaid and other essential services to pay for tax breaks for their billionaire buddies. But as Breidenbach points out, “The rich already have enough money to live for generations” while for her patients, the care they receive at the center “is the only thing they have.”

Breidenbach says her work “has nothing to do with a political party. It has to do with empathy.”

She wants Kean and others who voted for the bill the first time around to discover their empathy when the bill returns to the House for final passage. The Senate has made many changes — many of them worse than even what the House proposed.

To help defeat the bill, text GO to 237263. Join the fight and Get Organized.  

AFSCME President Lee Saunders slammed the 50 senators who voted for it.  

“We are deeply disappointed by the Senate’s decision to pass a dangerous budget that tears health care away from more than 20 million people, leaves millions of people without food assistance, and saddles all working families with higher costs,” he said. 

While billionaires will walk away with trillions of dollars in tax cuts, the rest of us will pay a steep price. That includes caregivers who rely on Medicaid to keep their loved ones at home, hardworking parents who will struggle to afford groceries, and nurses worried about their patients losing care. 

For months, AFSCME members have urged Congress to reject the bill that Saunders called “morally bankrupt.” But a narrow majority of senators voted to gut the health care, food assistance and public services our communities count on. 

“Their distorted priorities will not only increase costs for working people but also ignite a fiscal catastrophe that will force states, counties, cities and towns to slash funding for local schools, hospitals, nursing homes, emergency response centers, colleges and other basic services or shut them down entirely,” Saunders warned.  

But he said the fight is not over. As the budget bill moves back to the House for final passage, AFSCME members will keep organizing to protect our communities.  

To defeat the bill, text GO to 237263. Join the fight and Get Organized.  

That’s why Sharon Sherman and other public service workers like her held an event in Northglenn, Colorado, last week to call out Evans for his vote. 

Sherman and other members of AFSCME Colorado said Evans supported a bill that would essentially rob the poor of lifesaving benefits to reward the ultra-rich with tax breaks.  

“These cuts are a choice, not a necessity,” said Sherman, a bilingual patron experience associate at a public library. “Health care and nutrition assistance for seniors, people with disabilities, children and low-income families isn’t waste, fraud and abuse. It’s what keeps our communities strong and healthy.” 

A study by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing shows that nearly 1 in 3 people who live in Evans’ district are covered by Medicaid. That means 214,218 people — including 8,997 people with disabilities — could lose their health care if this budget is passed.  

Nearly one-third of Colorado’s total revenue comes from federal funding. Much of that money supports Medicaid for children, people with disabilities, veterans and senior citizens.  

Evans may get another chance to do right by his vulnerable constituents. The Senate on Tuesday passed the House-passed bill. This bill needs the House’s approval before it moves to the president to sign it into law.  

Working people urge Evans to vote no the second time around. 

Holding Nevada’s governor accountable 

AFSCME members held a similar accountability event in Nevada last week. 

The purpose of that event was to show how Gov. Joe Lombardo is doing virtually nothing to prepare Nevadans for the pain they will feel if the budget bill becomes law. They also called on Las Vegas’ congressional delegation to help lead the fight against public service cuts. 

Members of AFSCME Local 4041 and other unions urged Lombardo to act quickly. More than 27% of Nevada’s revenue comes from federal funding, especially Medicaid.  

The workers warned that the budget bill will destroy essential public services ranging from education to health care to infrastructure, hurting all Nevadans.  

Rosina Barrientos, a developmental specialist and member of Local 4041, said the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP “are a direct attack on hardworking families, retirees, children, and people with disabilities.” 

“The people of Nevada are being asked to give up health care and nutrition to hand piles of money to billionaires. We say to Congress: Nevadans are not ATMs for the super-rich,” she said. “Stop the cuts.” 

Just ask Willis Washington, president of Local 3535 (AFSCME Florida).  

Washington and his fellow members ratified a new three-year contract earlier this month. It gives the workers a minimum 6% cost of living adjustment as well as annual pay raises of at least 4%. Also, the pay for the lowest and highest steps in each grade will rise by 20% to make up for a history of low wages.  

Now for the uncertain part.  

With this new contract, the 106-member-strong local has to abide by the mandates of SB256, an anti-union law rammed through the Florida Legislature by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023. The law requires at least 60% of a bargaining unit to be dues-paying union members to avoid recertification elections every year.  

There was some concern about Local 3535 members’ ability to survive a recertification election. But that fear proved unfounded. Washington and other leaders won enough support for recertification while working with members to fight for a fair contract.  

“Over the years we have made sure that the contributions we make to this part of the Sunshine State are well known and, more importantly, we have shown that we are a united team when it comes to the issues we are facing on the job,” said Washington, a lead utility worker for the city.  

“It really helped for the members to see that this union is not just fighting to help them make ends meet but to get ahead in a part of the country that is facing extreme income inequality challenges,” he added.  

This solidarity and a couple of other provisions in the contract “made us ready for first fight with SB256,” Washington said.  

Under the union-busting law, dues deduction is banned. So unions have to switch their members from payroll dues deduction to electronic dues payment. The law also imposes costly financial audit rules and more paperwork requirements on local union officers and individual members.  

Soon after voting on their new contract, Local 3535 members voted unanimously to recertify their union. They are transitioning their dues from paycheck deduction to the secure UPAY system.  

This marks the latest in a long line of recertification election victories in Florida. AFSCME members have voted yes in 21 of 23 recertification elections over the past two years, reinforcing that SB256 has failed in its union-busting goal.   

It’s no different at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — known as Angola — where hundreds of corrections officers and employees work every day to serve the public. 

Angola has a painful history. The prison was built in the 1800s on former cotton plantations, and for decades, it used forced labor from mostly Black incarcerated people. In the 1960s, it was called the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Today, it’s the largest maximum-security facility in the United States. 

But for the people who work there, having a strong union voice is one of the best ways to make progress. 

“There have been several administrative changes over the last few years that have not been kind to the employees,” said Shirley Coody, president of AFSCME Local 3056 (Council 17). “A lot of employees are working an extreme amount of overtime and don’t feel like people care about them.” 

She explained that there are more than 200 vacancies at the facility. Persistently low staffing levels makes it harder for staff to keep each other and the inmates safe. 

He relayed those concerns to members of Congress when he made a trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. His goal was to urge lawmakers to protect Medicaid, Medicare and other lifesaving programs.  

It’s an urgent mission because the budget bill, which passed the House, is now in the Senate’s hands.  

Birttnen met with House leadership to share his story and to urge lawmakers to vote against the cuts to public service in the bill. Among those he met was the staff of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota congressman.  

“It’s important for them to hear me in person,” Birttnen said. “If they’ve got a face sitting in front of them, they can see that it’s personal. … But this isn’t just about me. These cuts affect everyone. This is about all the employees of the nursing homes, the physicians, the people and the patients there.”   

Senior citizens have many worries about the bill, including that it would wreck Medicare. In fact, the House-passed bill will cut $500 billion out of the government’s health care program for retirees.  

As a cancer survivor, the 76-year-old Birttnen credits Medicare for saving his life. Without the program, his cancer treatments would have driven him to bankruptcy. His treatments have totaled more than $88,000 this year alone. Thankfully, he has only had to pay $10 out of pocket this year because of Medicare.  

But what if Medicare is cut? Then what? That’s a question that keeps many seniors up at night.  

Cuts  to Medicaid also worry seniors. That’s true in Minnesota and elsewhere. Nearly 1.2 million children and adults were enrolled in Minnesota Medicaid as of May 2025. Of these, two in five are children, two in seven live in a rural area, and one in seven have three or more chronic conditions.  

Medicaid covers 34% of all births and — importantly for seniors — more than half of all nursing home residents.   

During his career as an eligibility specialist in Washington County, Minnesota, Birttnen helped people access Medicaid and the food assistance program known as SNAP. He helped especially vulnerable groups like foster children and those in subsidized adoptions.  

Today, he helps retired public service workers nationwide navigate retirement and access programs like Medicare. He is also the Retiree Council representative to AFSCME’s International Executive Board.  

During his Capitol Hill visit, Birttnen highlighted the disproportionate burden that states, families and retirees like him will bear if the budget bill’s cruel cuts become law. He hammered home the fact that Medicaid cuts will hurt seniors already in nursing homes and those who want to move into those facilities.  

Birttnen pointed out the human cost of weakening safety net programs like Medicaid and Medicare. He warned that Congress is playing a dangerous game of life or death with millions of Americans.  

It’s cruel to make people suffer just so billionaires can have bigger tax cuts. And that’s a message Congress needs to hear from all of us.  

AFSCME and five other unions filed a lawsuit on April 3 challenging President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order, which ended collective bargaining rights for about 950,000 federal employees the unions collectively represent.  

The administration cited national security as the reason for the executive order.  

But the unions argued that the order was unconstitutional retaliation to punish them for engaging in activity protected by the First Amendment, including expressing opposition and filing legal challenges to the current Administration’s policies.  That was the basis on which the Court granted the unions their preliminary injunction. 

The unions also argued that the administration violated the Fifth Amendment by voiding collective bargaining agreements without due process of law. And they alleged that the administration exceeded its authority by applying the national security exemption to employees whose primary functions are clearly unrelated to national security. These include workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Food Safety and Inspection Service, and several other departments and agencies. 

The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFSCME, National Association of Government Employees (NAGE-SEIU), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), National Nurses United (NNU), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  

“This is justice for the federal workers who were unfairly retaliated against and had their freedom to collectively bargain ripped away for standing up to illegal executive actions,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders.  

“This executive order is a direct effort to silence federal workers’ voice on the job — an essential freedom that helps maintain the integrity of our democracy,” Saunders added. “Federal workers serve every community and targeting them through political retribution threatens the freedom of all working people to fight for fair treatment. We applaud this ruling as a critical defense of our communities and our rights at work.” 

Martinez has deep roots in Taos. He was born and raised there, and his family has lived in Northern New Mexico for 11 generations. 

“It’s more than just enforcing laws. It’s about serving the community and protecting those who can’t protect themselves,” he said about his career in law enforcement. “Each one of us chose this profession because we really do care about the community and making a difference here.” 

Despite their dedication, the pay for Taos police officers is lagging — and it’s hurting recruitment and retention.  

Earlier this year, Martinez and his colleagues decided to organize with AFSCME Council 18. They formed their new union with unanimous support.  

“We realized we should’ve done this a long time ago,” he explained. “Getting competitive pay would help us recruit and retain more officers, which means we can be a more effective police department.” 

As the 15 members of the unit get ready to negotiate their first contract, their top priority is setting up a competitive pay scale with training incentives. 

“The more trained an officer is, the better they are at handling anything you throw at them,” Martinez said. “The community benefits from that. They’re getting a better quality of work, which builds on that trust and accountability.” 

 Public safety professionals are turning to our union to build power. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response are proud to protect our freedoms and our communities.    

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved. 

2024 was the hottest year on record since we started keeping track. While some of us escaped the heat indoors, many AFSCME members across the country were outdoors in their communities doing their essential work. Whether they are sanitation workers in Baltimore, highway workers in Pennsylvania or parks workers in Texas, extreme heat puts their lives at risk.  

Studies show that extreme heat is linked to adverse health conditions, including cardiovascular and kidney failure and mental confusion, which can greatly increase the risk of workplace injury and death. But the solution is simple: what is needed to prevent heat-related illnesses is water, shade and rest.   

In the past 25 years, heat-related deaths have more than doubled in the U.S. And yet the federal government has failed to develop an occupational heat standard. Anti-worker politicians and their business allies argue that providing rest breaks, free water, shade, reliable first aid and written safety plans place an undue burden on employers. Workers, legislators and activists continue to advocate for heat standard regulations because the consequences of inaction are injury and death.      

We can learn a lot from California, which led the way in 2015 when it revised and strengthened its 2006 heat standard and is a groundbreaking case study on the impact of state heat standards. 

Research examining Centers for Disease Control data compared the number of outdoor worker deaths in California to deaths in neighboring states without heat standards. The results are stunning: California’s heat standard was associated with a 43% reduction in deaths.  

The study documenting the impact of the California heat standard was conducted by academic researchers Adam Dean and Jamie McCallum. Their results bolster the efforts of advocates to create heat standards in other states and to keep the pressure on for a federal heat standard.  

This vital research was made possible through the Jerry Wurf Memorial Fund, administered by the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School with guidance from AFSCME. The fund was established to reflect former AFSCME President Jerry Wurf’s ferocious commitment to public employees’ collective bargaining rights. His legacy lives on in the Wurf Fund’s mission to support academic research and writing to strengthen public sector unions.    

The research makes it crystal clear: state legislation saves workers’ lives, and we must take urgent action to encourage more states to follow California’s lead. Across the country, union members, environmental activists, legislators and health care providers are beginning to mobilize to create or strengthen state and local workplace heat regulations.   

Arizona formed a task force to propose a statewide heat standard. New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau is collecting data and input on a newly proposed heat rule. Legislation has been introduced in Colorado, Illinois, and New Jersey. Pro-worker heat standards are currently in effect in Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. 

While many states are stepping up, anti-worker legislators in Florida and Texas have put workers at risk by banning the creation of heat standards at the municipal level. In Dallas and Austin, Texas, that means existing workplace heat standards cannot be implemented.   

In June, AFSCME shared the California heat standard research at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) public hearing on the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings rule. Despite the Trump administration’s antagonism to federal regulations and workers’ safety, there is hope. AFSCME’s testimony laid out the impact of heat standard regulations and reiterated demands to strengthen worker protections. It also added powerful worker stories to the public record to encourage the next pro-worker Department of Labor to institute a federal heat standard.  

But this issue demands immediate action. Heat-related deaths are preventable, and we know how to prevent them. To honor Ronald Silver II, the AFSCME members we have lost, and the many other workers who have died needless deaths, we can and must take action. We can organize our communities, mobilize co-workers and educate elected officials to pass state and local workplace heat standards so that every worker returns home safely to their families.   

In a stirring speech at the UNISON national delegate conference this week, Saunders also reminded members that unions do have the power to fight back.

Saunders outlined the attacks on working people, public services and millions of vulnerable people in the United States by the White House and its allies. And he said unions and pro-worker allies didn’t do enough to educate and mobilize people to defeat anti-worker politicians in the last election.

“Let this be a cautionary tale to all of you,” Saunders said. “If it’s happening in the United States … it will happen here as well.”

“Very much like the Reform Party in the UK, the so-called MAGA movement in the U.S. wins by serving working people a toxic cocktail of misinformation. Every single day. They talk about economic populism, anti-immigrant vitriol, and it is, make no mistake, a potentially strong strategy, that could work if we don’t get our acts together,” Saunders said.

To a wave of cheers and applause from the UNISON delegates, he asserted that the U.S. labor movement, and its friends and allies in communities across the country, are coming together to fight.

Saunders ended by urging UK activists to learn from AFSCME’s experiences.

“I challenge you to be fearless. I challenge you to call out lies and disinformation. I challenge you to speak plainly, boldly and unapologetically about who you are and what you stand for,” he said. “You’ve got to do that every single day. I challenge you to make the case that public service workers’ professionalism and commitment to the rule of law is absolutely vital to democracy itself.”

UNISON is similar to AFSCME. UNISON’s more than 1.3 million members work for public and private employers and provide a range of public services across the UK.

UNISON described Saunders’ address as one of the most powerful speeches its delegates have heard in recent years. To read UNISON’s full report on Saunders speech, go here.

Members of AFSCME Texas Corrections Employees Council 907 made lots of progress in the Texas Legislature this year. They worked closely with legislators from both parties to secure wins for all corrections workers in the Lone Star state. 

These wins include: 

• Double-digit pay increases for all correctional and parole officers; 
• $739 million to cover health insurance premium increases; 
• A guarantee that comp time will revert to vacation time if correctional officers (COs) are unable to use our earned comp time in a 24-month period; 
• A new leave pool to give more union members the chance to visit their representatives and advocate for what we need at work; 
• The Jovian Motley Act, which will give COs more training for de-escalation, crisis intervention, and behavioral health. This law was named after our fallen union brother who was killed in the line of duty in 2023. 

The legislative session ended on June 2 in Texas, but Council 907 members’ work isn’t over. 

More than 1,300 corrections professionals have joined Council 907 since the year started — including hundreds of new employees. 

Council 907 members say they will continue fighting against anti-worker bills that would weaken their collective voice and make it harder for state correctional employees to join their union. 

Members will also keep up the pressure to secure mental health leave for COs who experience traumatic events on the job. 

Public safety professionals are turning to our union to build power. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response are proud to protect our freedoms and our communities.   

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved. 

The White House wants a man named Jonathan Berry to be the next solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor.  

This job calls for someone to fight for workers’ rights, but Berry’s record inspires zero confidence that he will do that.  

Berry served as the Labor Department's acting assistant secretary for policy during Trump’s first term. He’s now in private practice.  

But his biggest claim to infamy is that he wrote Project 2025’s section on labor.  

The Economic Policy Institute says that section calls for “weakening the federal minimum wage, limiting overtime eligibility, and undermining workers’ right to a union by forcing secret ballot elections.” Project 2025 also calls for the use of child labor among teens in hazardous occupations.  

Project 2025 is a 900-page blueprint for attacking working families and public services. Read more about this roadmap from hell here.  

Berry’s confirmation hearing will take place Wednesday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. If confirmed, Berry will be the Labor Department's chief legal officer. His job will include going to court to enforce more than 180 federal labor laws.  

In a letter to the HELP committee, AFSCME blasted Berry and urged senators to reject him.  

“Jonathan Berry has clearly demonstrated that he lacks both the values central to workers’ rights and the legal judgement to serve as Solicitor of Labor,” the letter says. “The proposals that he advanced in Project 2025 would cost workers their lives, wages, benefits and basic freedoms.” 

That’s not true. Virtually every American will see the impact of these cuts on their own care — not just millions of the most vulnerable Americans who are Medicaid recipients.  

AFSCME nurses serve on the front lines of care in our hospitals. They understand how different pieces of our health care system are interconnected.  

Several AFSCME nurses traveled from Michigan to Washington, D.C., last week to explain to Congress how Medicaid cuts would harm the health care system as a whole. A New York medical professional also joined them on their visit.  

Rachel Chapin was a single mother who relied on Medicaid to for care for her family as she worked her way through nursing school. A member of Local 875 (AFSCME Michigan 925) said anyone who goes to a hospital will feel the pain of Medicaid cuts.  

“If you come into the emergency room,” Chapin said, “there's going to be more patients. Your wait times are going to be longer. It’s going to be less safe. And you're not going to have as many nurses to take care of more patients.” 

Kelly Indish, the president of Local 875 and an AFSCME vice president, pointed out that hospitals are likely to close as the result of these cuts.  

“We're going to see layoffs, we're going to see cuts to our ancillary staff, we're going to see cuts to non-bedside nursing, and we may also see hospitals close,” Indish said.  

“If they cut Medicaid,” said Erica Place, another Local 875 member, “we're going to see an increase in all sorts of patients because they're not going to have the resources they formerly did through their primary care.”  

Price summed up how nurses feel about Medicaid being cut by billions of dollars if the Senate passes the House-approved budget bill. “We're going to be overrun. We're already struggling here.” 

Join the fight to stop the budget bill in the Senate. Text GO to 237263 to get alerts and learn how you can join the fight and Get Organized.   

Members of AFSCME Local 4041 spent months making phone calls, writing letters and lobbying lawmakers. Their persistence paid off last week as Gov. Joe Lombardo signed AB596 into law. This bill provides funding for collective bargaining agreements and state worker contracts for 2025-27.    

But, for many AFSCME members, the victory was bittersweet.  

They wanted lawmakers to provide 3% raises for state workers, as an arbitrator recommended. Instead, they received 1% raises and retention bonuses to help cover rising costs of living. 

“While the wins here will make a difference for our members, and we are thankful to the elected officials who have stood by us during this fight, it is still disappointing,” said Latasha Hill-Burrell, a family services specialist at the Nevada Department of Welfare and Supportive Services.

“We keep critical services running for Nevadans everywhere,” she said. “After years of low investment in us, we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.” 

Michael “Sparky” Ahlmeyer, an equipment mechanic at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, said workers will continue to struggle — despite the modest raises and bonuses.  

“We were asking for the bare minimum with our 3% raise to keep up with rising costs of living and PERS contributions,” he added, referring to the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System. “While the 1% raises and retention bonuses will help offset these costs, we’re still taking a pay cut when you count it all together.” 

“Governor Lombardo’s own reckless spending put us in the budget situation that we’re in now,” he added. “State workers should be the priority in budget discussions, not an add-on at the end of the budget talks.” 

While AB596 didn’t give state employees everything they wanted, it proves that standing together benefits workers in a powerful way.

“This is our union in action and making a difference in our lives,” Hill-Burrell said. “These wins are directly due to our advocacy work together, and only certified units with a contract will see these benefits this year and next.”