Category: Municipal Employees

After unanimously authorizing a strike, members of AFSCME Local 2464 at Jackson County in southern Illinois won a new union contract with fair pay and affordable health care.

Union members mobilized to win the right to use sick time to care for family members plus a pay increase retroactive to May 2017.

AFSCME member and state employee Ty Ellison received a letter in the mail from the IPI, professing to want to improve his life by helping him quit his union. He isn’t having it.

The nearly 5,000 county employees in 14 AFSCME local unions voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract, capping more than a year of very challenging negotiations.

The IPI suddenly claims to be incredibly concerned about the well-being of Illinois workers. But why would an organization that’s been beating up on public workers since its founding now decide to champion their rights? Something doesn’t smell right.

“Nobody in this office chose this career to get rich. But we do want to be compensated fairly, to be able to feed our families and go home to live a comfortable life. We want to be able to make ends meet.”

The US Supreme Court’s majority sided with the super-rich in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 on June 27. But AFSCME members know that our freedom to have a strong voice on the job is under assault—and they’re pledging to stick with their union.

Two more longtime AFSCME members are speaking out against the Rauner-funded IPI for misusing their images in its anti-union campaign. "I don't support what they're doing and I think they're defaming my character," Velma Henderson says.

Imagine being a longtime union activist, then seeing your image stolen to promote an anti-union agenda. That's what happened to AFSCME Local 2806 President Darneice Cooper.

In favor of billionaire CEOs and corporate interests in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that fair-share fees in the public sector violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.