News

AFSCME to Duval County School Board: $12/Hour is not enough to live in Florida

The hardworking men and women who clean Florida’s Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) earn poverty wages of $12 an hour.

‘Nothing Is Going to Change Until You Join’

When Darryl Lamar started working for the City of Jacksonville as a code compliance officer a year and a half ago, one of the things he missed about his previous jobs with Bell South and AT&T was his strong union voice through the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Florida’s workers and services hurt by corporate tax dodging

AFSCME Florida Op-Ed - Florida’s workers and services hurt by corporate tax dodging

Florida’s workers and services hurt by corporate tax dodging

Unions: Reversing the Dyson Effect

Spoiler Alert: the Florida Legislature isn’t even considering using this year’s budget surplus to invest in state services and state workers. Another non-surprise, recent research by WalletHub ranks Florida as one of the least fair tax systems; helping the rich get richer while overtaxing 99% of Floridians whose actual wages continue to decline or stagnate.

Big Win: More Time with Family

Just a few minutes’ drive from the banks of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, Indiantown was founded as a trading post by members of the Seminole tribe living in the surrounding Everglades following the Third Seminole War.

While the railroad and horse racing changed the community when it was incorporated into the new Martin County in the 1920s, Indiantown remains a small town. But it is a small town with a big AFSCME voice.

AFSCME Expresses Doubt on Miami-Dade Private-Public Partnership Plans

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Gimenez pushes privatization of county’s transit future

By Douglas Hanks

Saying “I don’t want to operate anything,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is touting the benefits of tapping private operators for new transit systems that could include a light-rail system he wants to traverse two bridges between Miami and Miami Beach.

Having a Union Means Never Being Alone

What is the feeling you get when you show up to work one day and you are called into an unscheduled meeting in the conference room? You walk in and see management sitting across the table with expressions that indicate this meeting is not going to go well.

It is a feeling of fear for what’s about to come next, a feeling that you may have to be fighting back against something you don’t fully understand.

Unified Locals AFSCME Strong with New Contract

For the hardworking members of AFSCME Locals 1328 and 1781, it was not a question of how they were going to vote on their new contract but when they could do so. The two north Florida locals, which represent 2,400 clerks, LPNs, maintenance, PCAs and other professional and critical staff at UF Health Jacksonville, overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract.

When the two days of voting concluded, more than half the units had voted, and not a single no vote was cast.

AFSCME Relaunches State Council to Focus on Growth and Activism for Florida’s Working Families

In a move designed to both better reflect the breadth and depth of workers represented across the state and to better the position the union for future growth, Florida leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) voted to rename their state council.