The holidays are a time to be cheerful, loving, appreciative, and giving. The Thanksgiving holiday was a perfect kickoff to a season of gratitude and reflection. A number of religious and spiritual holidays occur at the end of the calendar year and collectively they encourage us to be resolute in our commitments to one another. They invite us to center kindness, community, and appreciation as we reflect on the previous year. Thankfully these are tenets of the labor movement which we practice daily. We have consistently demonstrated our solidarity with other labor unions, community initiatives, and most importantly within our own state federation. Our collaborations have produced victories at the bargaining table and in communities across Baltimore and throughout the state of Maryland.

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Independence Day and the celebration of our country’s founding is a beautiful metaphor for the labor movement. In forming the country, various interests and people were forced to collaborate around a united idea to birth what has become the United States of America. Farmers from western Massachusetts had to align their interests with merchants from Pennsylvania who themselves had to join with southerners who made their money trading on people and land. Each had their own unique issue with the mother country, yet none alone could stand up to the world’s strongest empire at the time.

The labor movement, much like the original thirteen colonies, can only demonstrate its power in unity. 

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The AFT Maryland 2024 Triennial Convention has concluded. It was a day of deep labor engagement among delegates representing the more than 15,000 members who make up the AFT Maryland. Attendees heard from our state federation president Kenya Campbell, as well as remarks from the keynote speaker, Metro Baltimore AFL-CIO President Courtney Jenkins. The day-long convention was held in AFT Maryland’s new facilities in Windsor Mill, Maryland.

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The thaw of spring is promising to all of us who found ourselves hibernating during the shorter winter days. Plenty of work was done during the winter months, but the extra daylight and warmer temperatures invigorates us all with an added boost of energy. It is natural at this time of year to feel renewed. In just over a week, the legislative session in Annapolis will wrap up, and our members working in Baltimore city schools (as well as students and education professionals across the region) are currently on Spring Break...

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The state federation continues to grow with the recent addition of more classifications of state employees, education professionals at the Maryland School for the Deaf, and higher education professionals from community colleges across the state. The additional members give events such as our annual Lobby Night more people, demonstrating more power and better positioning public employees to have their voices heard. AFT Maryland took two full buses to Annapolis to meet with legislators to advocate for the state federation’s legislative priorities. More members drove themselves and met us there to display the full power of our collective unions. 

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After over a year of bargaining, faculty have secured a tentative agreement addressing the critical issues that drove organizing over a year and a half ago.