News

Federal funding to help vulnerable Americans in danger of getting cut

Federal money for programs and services that help millions of vulnerable Americans and employ many AFSCME members could be in jeopardy next year.

Congress has finally passed an infrastructure bill. Build Back Better should be next.

The House of Representatives has passed President Joe Biden’s transformational bipartisan infrastructure plan, which Biden will soon sign into law. The passage earned praise from AFSCME President Lee Saunders, who, in a statement, said, “We are turning a corner.”

Union 411: How and why we organize

As solidarity actions and strikes sweep the nation, workers are making history by organizing their workplaces for the first time.

When workers belong to a union, they have a unified voice to create safer, stronger and healthier workplaces. Organizing is our most effective tool to determine workplace dignity, hours, working conditions and quality of life. Workers aren’t stuck with dangerous workplace conditions with poor wages and benefits. They can improve them, together.

The union difference: Greatest wealth gains are for Black and Hispanic union households

We’ve said it before: Life is better in a union. 

Workers who belong to unions make more money than their nonunion counterparts. They have better health care insurance and retirement plans, more job security and safer working conditions. They’re happier.

AFSCME members honored during Community Change event

Photo portrait of Mr. Alpha Bufford

Alpha Bufford.

AFSCME supports lowering drug prices to help millions of Americans

When Fran Krugen’s late husband was first diagnosed with diabetes, his insulin cost about $35 a bottle.

But Krugen, an AFSCME retiree from Arizona, will never forget the day when she and her husband went to the drug store to pick up his insulin and the pharmacist told them it now cost $900 a bottle.

“This was medication he needed to live, and we had insurance,” she said at a press briefing earlier this month. “We looked at each other and had to ask ourselves: Do we make the house payment? Do we buy food? Or do we pay for his medication?”

A New Jersey member’s career grows thanks to the AFSCME Free College Benefit

The pandemic has led many of us to take stock of our lives and our goals. For AFSCME New Jersey member LaTrenda Ross, the pandemic ignited a long-held dream—starting her own life coaching business.

“I was thinking about revamping my whole entire life,” recalls Ross, a member of Local 2306. “I was looking out for things I want to do, things I haven’t been going after.”

To honor those who died on the job, give every worker a voice in the workplace

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.

Mayor Pumps Brakes on Extensive Use Of Retirement Incentive