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AFSCME President Lee Saunders praised the White House’s announcement Thursday that the Biden administration will forgive student loans for an additional 78,000 borrowers — including many AFSCME mem

AFSCME President Lee Saunders congratulated Nicole Berner, a longtime labor lawyer and general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), on being 

The new year brings good news for millions of working Americans. Nearly 7 million of them are in line to get pay raises this year thanks to state and local minimum-wage hikes.

As a public librarian for the Philadelphia Free Library, Sheila O’Steen embodies what we think of when we imagine a public service worker. Every day, she interacts with members of her community. Whether her patrons are young or old, affluent or impoverished, O’Steen shares knowledge and information with everyone she serves.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act worked. In the years and decades that followed its implementation, the law helped minority voters make their voices heard, especially African Americans who had been discriminated against at the polls. As a result, our democracy became stronger.

But in 2013, despite bipartisan reauthorization of the law by Congress, the Supreme Court gutted it, ruling 5-4 that a key provision was no longer necessary because the Voting Rights Act had worked and the problem was fixed.

For nearly a decade, AFSCME member LeeShun Fryson has been an exemplary employee at the Department of Economic Opportunity in Tallahassee investigating cases of fraud and making sure that people who need assistance receive it. But on March 13 of this year, the senior program specialist walked into work and was abruptly fired without just cause and immediately sent home. 
 
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Despite high levels of stress on the job, many state and local workers say they highly value serving the public and their communities and feel generally satisfied with their jobs.

This finding, from a national survey commissioned by the National Institute on Retirement Security, will not surprise many AFSCME members, who work in state, county and local governments and never quit on their communities.

AFSCME members who work in health care and social services jobs face workplace violence daily. Now they are closer to having it.

Last Friday, State employees sat down at the bargaining table with the State of Florida to discuss what the future will look like for nearly 49,000 dedicated public service workers who have not seen a significant pay increase in years. Workers on the bargaining committee proposed a 5% across the board pay increase and a 2% cost of living raise to be implemented in the 2020 State Budget.