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Join business owners, union members, faith leaders and community activists on Tuesday, January 14th at 5:45 PM at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis to show your support for the higher minimum wage in Maryland that low-wage workers deserve. Join us!

We are fighting for a progressive bill:

• Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016
• Index the minimum wage to the cost of living
• Boost the pay of tipped workers from 50 to 70 percent of the minimum wage

JOIN THE FIGHT!
Tuesday, January 14th, starts at 5:45 p.m.
Lawyers Mall, Annapolis, MD

Sponsored by Raise Maryland    
RSVP at RaiseMD.org

Raise Maryland is a diverse

At its December 16th meeting, the AFT-Maryland Legislative Committee identified three major areas on which it will focus during the 2014 Maryland legislative session. The committee agreed that the Maryland pension plan, workplace violence prevention, and the Correctional Officers Bill of Rights will be its primary areas of concentration.

Committee members and AFT-Maryland legislative advocates will monitor the pension contributions to state employee pension plan and advocate that the state contribute at least $300 million to the plan for the fiscal year.

Legislative activists also will promote

The American Federation of Teachers, in cooperation with the First Book program, announced that it has distributed 1 million books to teachers, low-income students, community and civic groups. Those books included 400,000 books distributed in the Baltimore area.

Christine Curry of the AFT Paraprofessionals and School Related Personnel Department and coordinator of the book distribution effort in Baltimore called the program, “a huge success.”

AFT-Maryland and Baltimore Teachers Union members and staff helped to sort and distribute over 400,000 books in Baltimore earlier this month.

National and local union leaders spent time on Nov. 1 in two Baltimore City public schools that are turning an AFT Innovation Fund grant into food for thought—and laying the groundwork for constructive implementation of the Common Core State Standards in the process.

Under a grant announced this summer, the Innovation Fund is supporting teams of upper elementary and middle school teachers at Lakeland and Violetville schools. These educators are working with outside partners to develop deep, interdisciplinary investigations with a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) focus

AFT President Randi Weingarten will visit two Baltimore City public schools on Nov. 1, 2013 that are using an AFT Innovation Fund grant to develop project-based learning focused on the origins of students’ food, healthy food choices, sustainable urban farming and gardening. Joining Weingarten will be AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson and Baltimore Teachers Union President Marietta English, who is also an AFT vice president.

The AFT Innovation Fund grant was awarded in July to the Baltimore Teachers Union, which in turn selected Lakeland and Violetville elementary/middle schools for the

AFT-Maryland President Marietta English will attend the Civil, Human, and Women’s Rights Conference in Los Angles, California, this week. Sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the conference is being held October 3rd through October 6th.  The conference focuses on encouraging the Department of Labor and the Congress to create better policies for helping American families, extending the benefits of family and medical leave assistance, and promoting stronger and more effective family and medical leave benefits for women and working families.
 

The Maryland/District of Columbia AFL-CIO is joining the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in calling on the president and the Congress to end the shutdown of the federal government. The unions are requesting that their members and the public call their congressional representatives at 1-888-775-3148 and tell them to “Stop the Lockout of Federal Employees.” The unions also are asking that people call the White House at 202-456-1111 and tell President Obama to “Stand firm—don’t’ negotiate away federal employees’ pay and benefits.” For more information on the telephone campaign

Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) president Marietta English has called for a review and revision of the new Code of Conduct for Baltimore City schools. The new code allows students caught with weapons such as knives or guns to remain in school. Under the previous code, students who committed such infractions automatically were suspended or expelled. Rather than imposing such punishments, the new code requires school officials to impose community service requirements, deprive students of privileges, or to impose in-school suspensions. President English said that the teachers’ representatives on