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.

What would you do for $12,800? How hard would you work for it? What would it mean if you had it taken away from you?

These are all questions that Deloris Wells had to answer during the last four years because her supervisor was not completing the annual evaluation form. And without a completed form she didn’t get a wage increase, year after year.

But, as this 12-year employee of Miami-Dade County said, “I knew this wasn’t right because my job involves dealing with payroll benefits so I knew there had to be something I could do.”