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AFSCME Council 18 Endorsements - Colorado

As people in public service, we know what a difference it makes when we elect leaders who have our backs.

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.

AFSCME Council 18 Stands in Solidarity with Essential Grocery Store Workers

December 16, 2021

Todd Broderick - President, Denver Division Albertsons / Safeway Stores, Inc.

President Broderick: 

The members of AFSCME Council 18 stand with the essential grocery workers at King Soopers, City Market, Safeway, and Albertsons in their struggle for a just and equitable contract. Essential grocery workers have kept our communities fed and healthy during an unprecedented pandemic. Furthermore, their working conditions are our shopping conditions, and their struggle for a safe workplace free from violence and with every protection possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 affects us all. 

As worker that keep our communities thriving, we know that workers deserve--at a minimum--a living wage, affordable healthcare, and the retirement security of a fully funded pension. It is unacceptable that your companies are making record profits and have chosen to siphon that money out of our communities and into the pockets of millionaire CEOs and investors via bonuses and stock buybacks while workers get sick and die.

We stand in solidarity with essential grocery workers and demand that King Soopers, City Market, Safeway, and Albertsons sign a contract without delay that provides:

•        Safe Workplaces

•        Reliable Schedules

•        Living Wages

•        Affordable Healthcare

•        Full-time jobs

•        A Sound Pension Benefit

•        Equal Pay for Equal Work (No Two-Tier)

•        Hazard Pay

We commit ourselves to support the struggle of essential grocery workers. We will respect any established picket lines both at stores and online and will encourage our communities to do the same.

Sincerely,

Connie Derr - Executive Director, AFSCME Council 18

Honoring the anniversary of America’s first pay equity strike

Striketober and Strikesgiving are over, but worker strikes are still going strong. As I write this, Kellogg’s workers are holding the line in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Memphis. Alabama miners are heading into their ninth month of standing up to Warrior Met Coal. And the wave of worker actions demonstrating power and the fight for fairness continues to rise.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders joins signing ceremony of historic infrastructure bill

AFSCME President Lee Saunders on Monday joined President Joe Biden and members of his administration, as well as a bipartisan group of lawmakers, for the signing ceremony of the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

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.

Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act Introduced

The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act was introduced today in the House of Representatives by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). The bill, which currently has 144 cosponsors, would set a minimum nationwide standard of collective bargaining rights that states must provide. It would empower workers to join together for a voice on the job not only to improve working conditions but to improve the communities in which they work.

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.

Report: Cultural institutions took federal money but still let go of workers

Some of the nation’s largest cultural institutions accepted more than $1.6 billion in federal help to weather the coronavirus pandemic, but continued to let go of workers – even though the assistance was meant to shore up payrolls and keep workers on the job, according to a report released by AFSCME Cultural Workers United.