Posts tagged AFSME
Commentary: To Unions, Organizing Time Is Fine When It’s on the Taxpayers’ Dime
June 29, 2023 // Despite public sector unions, and particularly teachers’ unions like Weingarten’s American Federation for Teachers, facing mounting scrutiny for their role in school closures and broader left-wing political activism, the practice of release time has garnered little attention.
More Than 700 City of Portland Workers Form New Union
June 9, 2023 // What has now officially become the CPPW union began collecting signatures as early as January in an attempt to establish the new union. It submitted a petition in May with 39% of employees’ signatures, breaking the 30% threshold that allows a potential union to call for a vote. Three hundred eighty-five ballots—representing a 54% turnout—were cast by potential union members, with 306 votes in favor of unionization.
Secret ballot vital in union elections
February 17, 2023 // Consider one example from the public sector. In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that public employees can’t be forced to join unions or pay union dues. The Commonwealth responded by passing legislation that allows public employee unions to agree to different terms for union members and non-members, giving unions the sole right to negotiate lesser pay and reduced benefits on behalf of the non-members. The law also promotes tried and true intimidation tactics by giving unions access to employees’ personal information, including home addresses; work, home, and personal cellphone numbers; along with work and personal email addresses. Anyone in Massachusetts public policy circles knows the Commonwealth’s unions aren’t interested in using that information to augment their holiday card lists.
Union: NM calling state employees back to in-person work without much of a plan
January 17, 2023 //
Maryland public defenders overwhelmingly vote to unionize
December 20, 2022 // Employees at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to unionize, the culmination of a more than two-year organizing effort that required a change in state law. One unit consisting of administrative and support staff voted 45-1 to make the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland Council 3 its exclusive bargaining representative. Meanwhile, another unit covering assistant public defenders, intake staff, social workers and investigators voted 233-8 in favor of a union.
Supermajority of TAM workers organize for union representation
November 15, 2022 // On Oct. 17, TAM’s board of trustees received the workers’ letter requesting union representation. In the letter that TAM Workers United sent to the board and leadership, they expressed that their “efforts have been undermined by un-livable wages, unsafe working conditions, no opportunity to provide input on policy, few avenues for review and advancement, a lack of accountability and transparency, as well as fear of retaliation when we raise concerns.” AM Workers United
‘Workers are winning’: Colorado law hailed as important victory for public sector workers
June 13, 2022 // The bill, although a compromise from a previously proposed bill that would have granted the right to strike to about 250,000 public sector workers throughout Colorado, was hailed as one of the most significant expansions of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in recent years. It goes into effect next year. “All across the nation, workers are fighting tooth and nail to get a seat at the table, and they’re winning. We see it in Starbucks coffee shops. We see it in cultural institutions, and now we’re seeing it in Colorado, where county workers will have the freedom to negotiate to improve their lives and strengthen the public services they provide,” said the AFSCME president, Lee Saunders, in response to the bill’s passage. Brittany Williams, El Paso county, Colorado, Jared Polis, Collective Bargaining for Counties bill, Lee Saunders, AFL-CIO, AFSCME Local 1335,
More than 1,000 Pennsylvania workers quit AFSCME union in 2021
March 28, 2022 //
The vaccine mandate for Philadelphia city employees keeps getting delayed due to labor disputes
January 21, 2022 // The city’s 3,300 nonunion employees have been subject to a vaccine mandate since December, and the city has seen 99% compliance with the rule, the mayor’s office said. The city’s four major unions each sought separate agreements with the administration over how the vaccine mandate would be managed, delaying its implementation until the labor disputes are resolved.
STOP THE SPREAD: HOW THE BBBA SEEKS TO REPLICATE WASHINGTON STATE’S UNION-DOMINATED HCBS MODEL NATIONWIDE
November 3, 2021 // One of the most expensive elements of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, which congressional Democrats are seeking to pass unilaterally via the budget reconciliation process, is a vast expansion of Medicaid funding for home and community-based services (HCBS) that provide in-home care to, and prevent the institutionalization of, adults with functional disabilities. Such services are provided via state-designed-and-operated programs operating within federal parameters.