We begin this new year feeling positive, optimistic, upbeat and ready for the challenges ahead. 2020 promises to be a year of opportunity for working people, and it is up to us as AFSCME Council 57 to seize the opportunities that present themselves.
It is fair to say that, this time last year, the future was uncertain: our membership was divided, we were anxious and we were concerned.
Since then, we recommitted to each other. We have rebuilt and strengthened our union:
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.
A large group of hospital workers have formed a new bargaining unit with AFSCME Local 315, expanding our membership further in the Eastern Sierra.
About 250 patient care, technical, service and business office employees at Northern Inyo Hospital District recently decided to join our union to have a stronger voice at the bargaining table and stand up for better patient care at the hospital district’s medical facilities.
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.
LaVerne Washington, an executive board member and steward of AFSCME Local 101, is on her way to retiring free of credit card debt. LaVerne has been an AFSCME member for over 18 years. As she started planning for retirement from her job as a paralegal, she researched ways to reduce her bills and high-interest credit card debt.
If you ask John O’Connor, he’s nobody’s hero. As a longtime BART employee who loves his job and his family, his only goal every day is to do the best job possible.
But after he rescued a man who fell onto the tracks just moments before a train was pulling into the Coliseum BART station this month, O’Connor has been getting a hero’s welcome everywhere he goes.
Election Day 2019 was a big victory for working families. In states and cities across the country, they made their voices heard, electing pro-worker candidates for state and local government and providing further evidence of growing political momentum for working people.
