News

11/3/2022

General Unit and Attorney’s Unit: 

Both of the contracts have settled in the last year and both settlements go back to 2020. Anyone that has left the city that was working an AFSCME job in the Attorney’s unit or General unit any time from January 1, 2020 to September of 2022 are probably are owed backpay.

The city did not reach out to these people. So, if you think you are owed backpay you should contact your last supervisor and request the backpay and give them an address to send the check.

If you know someone that left the City of Minneapolis by retirement or other reasons please let them know. They earned it and they should get it.

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The last few years have seen a rise in worker momentum, with unionized workers raising their voices to demand higher pay, safer working conditions and more.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders praised the White House’s announcement Thursday that the Biden administration will forgive student loans for an additional 78,000 borrowers — including many AFSCME members — under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders congratulated Nicole Berner, a longtime labor lawyer and general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), on being confirmed to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Mr. Montoya goes to Washington

Photo: Nicholas Voutsinos/ AFSCME

In this year’s State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden highlighted his administration’s achievements over the past three years and vowed to continue fighting for working people.

AFSCME applauds his accomplishments and strongly supports the Biden-Harris administration’s vision for the future, which includes defending our nation’s democracy, protecting a woman’s right to choose and making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, among other things.

The public sector has finally recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of last year, there were 22,000 more public service jobs in the nation than in February 2020, just before the pandemic started.

This is cause for celebration for everyone in our communities, but especially for workers of color, who have been historically overrepresented in state and local government jobs.

Connecticut Rep. Jahana Hayes recently introduced a resolution calling on Congress to affirm its support for providing living wages, good benefits and fair working conditions to paraeducators, classroom assistants, bus drivers, custodial workers and others who are vital to our public education system.