News

Dignity Health Foundation Workers United

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 

Paul Megia wasn't supposed to come into the office last week.

His plan was to work remotely, help with his children's online distance learning and have breakfast with his father on Wednesday.

But Megia left for work early that day, skipping breakfast with his father.

“He wasn’t even supposed to be at work. He was supposed to work at home,” Leonard Megia, Paul's father, told news reporters.

I wish I had better news for you today. But the mass shooting in San Jose yesterday was one of the toughest days of my career, and now the tragedy has hit home.

We are all deeply saddened by the mass shooting that took place today at a Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) facility in San Jose.

The VTA is a public agency staffed by essential workers, where many union members work, including those from our own AFSCME family.

It is a tragedy any time violence happens at the workplace. But this shooting hits close to home because the victims are our union sisters and brothers.

AFSCME Local 829 filed a wage theft complaint against Brius on Monday, claiming that the company has stolen more than $150,000 from dozens of essential workers who have been providing care to some of the community's most vulnerable patients.

Earlier this year, more than 150 brave members at the Burlingame Skilled Nursing Facility went on strike to call out the unfair labor practices being used by management at Brius as COVID-19 swept through the facility.

Workers Memorial Day 2021 arrives at a moment of the greatest urgency, when the front lines of the war against COVID-19 run through America’s workplaces.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started last year, everyone quickly learned how important it was to have personal protective equipment.

Workplaces throughout the country also realized how important it was to have custodians because cleanliness has been one of the main things keeping us all safe.

So when folks started talking about the need for essential workers to have PPE, the custodians at Oakland Unified School District thought they would be first in line to receive it. After all, they deal with people’s garbage, human waste, sweat and tears every day.

Workers in health care and social service industries are a big step closer to having safer workplaces.

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R.1195) by a bipartisan vote of 254 to 166. The bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a standard to prevent workplace violence in health care and social service assistance settings.

This article originally appeared in the Sacramento Bee. View the original story here.

Millions of California workers will get up to two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave to take time off to get vaccinated, isolate themselves from potential exposure to the coronavirus, or deal with the effects of COVID-19, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday.