Posts tagged AFSCME
Opinion — Medicaid Is A Slush Fund For Labor And The Left
June 10, 2025 // Stripped of this Medicaid-funded, taxpayer-underwritten war chest and forced to support their failed candidates and causes solely through voluntary donations from people who actually agree with them, unions and their pet politicians would face an even bleaker future than the one already confronting them. The law has always intended for Medicaid payments to be made directly and in full to Medicaid providers, but government unions have figured out a way to use it as a slush fund for Left-wing politics. President Trump has the ability to end this scheme by implementing a rule change to uphold the integrity of federal Medicaid laws and stop the diversion of Medicaid funds to unions.
Former CA labor leaders charged with wire fraud to buy luxury clothes and shoes
June 9, 2025 // Two former leaders of a public sector labor group appeared before a federal district court in Los Angeles on Thursday to face wire fraud charges that involved using union credit cards to purchase clothes and shoes from designer labels such as Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton. In an April indictment federal prosecutors alleged that Shukimba Carlis and Sofia Herrera collectively embezzled $270,000 from AFSCME Local 2620 through a fraudulent scheme, which included suspending a trustee from the union who became suspicious of their activities.
‘We’re losing doctors every day’: As Mass General Brigham primary care doctors vote on union, effort is slowed by Trump
June 2, 2025 // The health system says the NLRB regional director in Boston erred by allowing 237 primary care doctors at 29 practices to vote on whether to form their own union. In fact, MGB says, as many as three-quarters of those physicians were ineligible to vote under NLRB rules because they work in practices that are integrated into acute-care hospitals with other kinds of doctors. Under the rules, MGB contends, the proposed union would have to include all physicians at those hospitals, an argument the regional director previously rejected.
The Crucible workers are unionizing
May 22, 2025 // O’Neill was also part of the safety committee, an elected faculty representative, and a lead organizer with the union. They had been raising the alarm about safety issues at The Crucible due to insufficient staffing. The Oaklandside reviewed numerous emails from employees sent to the board and Steward during the past few months that cited ongoing safety and staffing issues. “Over the past year, The Crucible has struggled against financial hardship, affecting faculty and staff,” a letter sent to the board and signed by 74 employees stated. “The financial peril we have navigated has resulted in extreme cuts to the overall budget, reductions to already slim staffing, materials ordering and scarcity of supplies, unsafe studio maintenance, lack of proper training, development opportunities, and more.”
EMS workers in Detroit Lakes vote to unionize
May 12, 2025 // Emergency medical staff at Essentia in Detroit Lakes have voted to form a union. St. Mary’s Essentia Health Medical Service Staff is joining AFSCME Council 65. EMT Logyn Saewart says the vote was an overwhelming majority to join. As a privately-owned service, he says they don’t get the state funding other departments do. He says this will help address the labor shortage in his field.
City of Everett Employee Slams AFSCME Union and City With Labor Board Complaints for Illegal Dues Seizures From Paycheck
May 6, 2025 // “I exercised my constitutional right to stop my hard-earned money from going to the AFSCME union or its officials, but neither my employer nor the union is respecting my freedom” commented Davidsen. “I’ve made it clear that I don’t support the AFSCME union. Union bosses shouldn’t get to hold onto my money simply because my managers violated the law by continuing to take it after I demanded a stop.”
Salt Lake City librarians officially unionize, but likely referendum to determine next steps
May 5, 2025 // Ninety-two percent of Salt Lake City librarians voted to unionize, joining AFSCME Local 1004. A new state law, HB267, bans public sector collective bargaining agreements. A likely referendum on the bill will determine the future of public union negotiations in 2026.
Clark Atlanta launches labor institute to develop Black strategists for a renewed union movement
April 29, 2025 // Clark Atlanta University has partnered with national labor rights group Jobs With Justice to launch a first-of-its-kind academic center for training young Black and Brown labor movement leaders, on the belief that the South is the front line for revitalizing the US labor movement as a force in political democracy. The Labor Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists is housed within the historically Black university’s W.E.B. Du Bois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy.
Over 1 in 3 Illinois government workers reject AFSCME Council 31 membership
April 24, 2025 // The union claims to represent more than 90,000 state and local government employees in Illinois. Yet not even 60,000 of those workers are members of the union, according to the union’s annual LM-2 report to the federal government. That means more than 1 in 3 workers have rejected membership in the union that is supposedly representing their interests. It could be because just 21 cents of every dollar the union spends is on representing workers – what should be its core priority. It could be the millions of dollars AFSCME Council 31 spends on politics, or the exorbitant six-figure salaries it pays its bosses. And it could be the union’s questionable spending on restaurants and hotels.
Salt Lake City reaches budget agreement with police union before new bill kicks in
April 22, 2025 // Groups opposed to the new law say they've gathered over 320,000 signatures to put it up for a referendum on next year's ballot. As of Friday, at least 33,000 of the signatures have been verified toward the qualifying requirement of about 141,000 signatures, which also includes a certain number of signatures in 15 of the state's 29 Senate districts.