Thousands of public service workers—members of AFSCME and our allied unions in the We Are One Illinois coalition—gathered in Springfield on Nov. 13 to demand lawmakers fix the broken and unfair Tier 2 pension system.
A new report published by AFSCME Council 31 confirms what IDOC employees have long been saying: Drugs have increasingly become a massive problem in Illinois prisons, and management’s inaction has had serious consequences for staff and individual
The 60 employees of the Urbana Free Library (UFL) voted unanimously to form their union, which was certified by the Illinois Labor Relations Board on Nov. 6.
The UFL has been Urbana-Champaign’s public library since 1874.
There’s yet another crest in the historic wave of workers forming unions at Chicago cultural institutions: Employees at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium have formed their union with AFSCME Council 31.
Members of AFSCME Local 2811 who work for the Illinois State Board of Education started bargaining a new contract for their 45 members while negotiations for a new State of Illinois master contract were already well underway.
AFSCME Local 3236 at Illinois State University has secured two strong new contracts for its clerical and healthcare bargaining units that can both point to a chalking action as their contract campaign’s turning point.
Members of AFSCME Local 1787 at the Quincy Veterans Home took to the picket line on Sept. 4 to call out the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) for not taking the necessary steps to foster hiring at the facility.
For more than two years, AFSCME has been working to end the Illinois Department of Human Services’s (DHS) reliance on temporary agency staff in residential centers for people with developmental disabilities.
William “Bill” Lucy, who served as secretary-treasurer of AFSCME for nearly four decades and was one of the most respected and revered Black labor leaders in the world, died at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 90 years old.
The five richest men in the United States are now referred to as centibillionaires, meaning they are each worth more than $100 billion. That’s not a typo, though it is a travesty. And there’s more: The ranks of billionaires are steadily growing.
When confronted with management inaction in the wake of serious assaults on staff at their facilities, AFSCME members at Menard Correctional Center and Ludeman Developmental Center both took their fight for safe workplaces to the picket line.
Standing together in our union, we win strong contracts with good pay and benefits. We defend our rights and defeat those who would take them away. Voting together, we can elect leaders who share our priorities.
For more than a decade, AFSCME members and allies have been fighting to rebuild the network of city-run mental health clinics that were shuttered, neglected or ignored by the administrations of mayors Daley, Emanuel and Lightfoot.
Members of AFSCME Local 963, which represents nearly 170 building and food service workers at Northern Illinois University, kept their foot on the gas pedal throughout a year-long contract campaign, taking vigorous action every step of the way.
As they began bargaining a new contract in early 2024, Rockford Public Library workers’ biggest priority was to expand health and safety procedures and secure a stronger voice for workers in the creation of those procedures.
The 52 school bus drivers and monitors from the Illinois Central bus company near Peoria have seen what AFSCME has accomplished for other school bus drivers in their region.
On June 11 and 13, hundreds of AFSCME members from Locals 1866 at Stateville Correctional Center and 2073 at Logan Correctional Center made their voices heard at two Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) community hearings on the state Department of Corrections’ proposed
What’s at stake in the election this November? A lot, actually. The media chatter is all about candidates’ personalities or their personal lives—not so much about their policies or political goals. And that’s where Project 2025 comes in.
