News

The Maryland Classified Employees Council (MCEA), an AFT-Maryland affiliate, will hold its Statewide Advisory Council meeting April 26, 2014.  The Advisory Council meeting hosts representatives of all MCEA chapters and regions for an evaluation and assessment of the Association’s activities and a strategic planning session for future operations.

The meeting will start  at 9:00 a.m. at American Legion Post 137, 1508 DeSoto Road, the first MCEA Advisory Council meeting to be held in Baltimore City. State Senator Catherine Pugh and members of the Baltimore City Council are scheduled to attend.

For

Ernie Grecco, President of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council, AFL-CIO Unions has called for a boycott of Staples office supply stores. In calling the boycott, Grecco and the Council join the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) in an attempt to stop the privatization of post office services. The Postal Service has entered a contract that allows Staples stores to operate “postal counters” that offer stamps and other mailing services— activities normally performed by post offices. The NALC and APWU charge that these postal counters are

AFT-Maryland staff and affiliate members journeyed to Wichita, Kansas, March 9-14 for a week of intensive training in the AFT organizing model and to help the Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) identify potential activists and recruit new union members. The AFT-Maryland volunteers joined union members from Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, and Kansas in the joint organizing effort, which was launched as a part of the “Reclaiming the Promise of High Quality Public Services for Strong Communities,” an AFT national initiative."

AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson launched

AFT Healthcare-Maryland President Debra Perry submitted testimony in favor of Senate Bill 483 February 20th. That bill proposes additional protections for workers in healthcare facilities. Perry’s testimony documented numerous incidents of violence that had befallen healthcare workers in state facilities and requested that legislators pass the bill SB 483.

The bill calls for the creation of a committee to study workplace violence prevention measures and the establishment of specific procedures that greatly reduce the opportunities for a violent incident to occur in state healthcare facilities.

http://afthealthcaremd.md.aft.org/

While the official percentage of unionized workers in America is cited as 11.3 percent, the AFL-CIO says that the labor movement is much larger than that percentage reflects. 

The labor movement is not limited to union membership, AFL-CIO spokespersons say, and, in fact, an article in American Prospect magazine supports that view. According to the article, a new group of labor activists is emerging in America. Called “alt-labor” activists, these workers, include striking fast food workers, Walmart employees, day laborers, restaurant workers, home health care providers, taxi drivers, domestic

We know that AFT members are heroes who are reclaiming the promise every day, and we want to hear about them!

Do you know an AFT member who has made a difference in his or her workplace? Someone who has had a profound and positive impact on the community? Someone whose extraordinary contribution in his or her field of work, or to the lives of others, has been heroic?

Please nominate your Everyday Hero by filling out a brief form by Jan. 31, 2014, at www.aft.org/everydayheroes, and you will be entered to win a $250 gift card.

We will identify semifinalists from each of our constituencies: 

A $5,000 grant was recently awarded to Edmondson-Westside High School from the AFL-CIO, and will be used to raise awareness of unions. Every student in the school is involved in a trade such as Media Production, Carpentry, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, etc. Carla McCoy, BTU Board member, building rep, and a teacher at the school, says the grant will help the school bring unionism to the forefront of those programs.

McCoy says they plan to start the implementation of this program in January. Part of the program will include the students and teachers in the trades to work closely with the union