District Council 33 & AFSCME News

LAS VEGAS – Corrections workers have become the first group of state workers to ask to be recognized as AFSCME in contract negotiations since Nevada adopted a law in June giving state employees the right to collectively bargain.

The corrections unit filed for recognition Friday with the state’s Government Employee-Management Relations Board after majority of the staff asked to be represented in contract talks as AFSCME Local 4041.

This year’s winner of the Gerald W. McEntee Scholarship is someone who defends workers' rights, supports her community and is deeply involved in her union. 

The 19 presidential candidates who participated in the AFSCME Public Service Forum on Saturday disagreed on a range of topics, but they all agreed on one issue – our country needs a federal law that expands and protects collective bargaining rights for all public service workers.

The work Joe Martinez does for the Los Angeles County Fire Department is emblematic of countless AFSCME members: he’s never in the spotlight and he’s always under pressure while lives are on the line.

After years of debate and delay, Congress has finally passed a bill to ensure that first responders who suffered health problems after responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will receive health care and other compensation for as long as they live.

With former Vice President Joe Biden confirming his participation on Tuesday, the AFSCME-sponsored presidential candidate forum on Aug. 3 will be the biggest event of its kind in our union’s history.

Today, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to repeal the Affordable Care Act will unfold at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, where oral arguments in Texas v. Azar will be heard. The case threatens the future of the ACA, which provides health care to millions of Americans.

AFSCME is on a roll. We are notching victories coast to coast – at the bargaining table, in the organizing trenches and in state capitals.