Members from many of the locals of AFT-Maryland were in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the 2020 Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO 29th Annual Leadership Conference. The conference featured a number of important breakout sessions that members and leaders alike learned from. President Jermaine Jones addressed the body with his annual State of theUnion/Council Address. Maryland State and DC AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Gerald Jackson also delivered remarks.

The sessions included a Common Sense Economic session that explored the way daily economic challenges affect the lives of union members. There were

AFT-Maryland offered this statement of solidarity with state employees that have yet to receive the promised 1% COLA increase. Click to read the full press statement.

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With each passing month, we get closer to the most important election of our lifetime, the 2020 Presidential Election. In January, things get more complicated for the state federation with the start of the Maryland General Assembly Legislative Session. Despite all that’s going on, AFT-Maryland Political Coordinator Todd Reynolds convened the monthly political committee meeting. The diverse membership of the state federation was well represented with attendance from BTU, MPEC, AFT Healthcare-Maryland, and CUB.

The major focus of the meeting was the upcoming Congressional Special Election for the

Things are off and rolling in Annapolis for the 2020 Maryland General Assembly Legislative Session. In an effort to get the state federation on one accord, AFT-Maryland’s Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, Denise Riley, chaired the year’s first legislative committee meeting. Committee members in attendance came from the state federation’s two state employee locals MPEC and AFT Healthcare-Maryland.

Riley laid out the bills that will be on the state federation’s radar this session, including revenue expansion bills that will close tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, as well

2020 promises to be an important year for AFT-Maryland locals, politically. The most noteworthy election will be for President of the United States, however there are a number of other elections that will be on the radar for Maryland public sector unions. In anticipation of the upcoming elections, AFT-Maryland’s political committee gathered for their December monthly meeting. The meeting was attended by members from the Baltimore Teachers Union and the City Union of Baltimore.

AFT-Maryland’s Political Coordinator Todd Reynolds gave an overview of Baltimore City Council races and explained the

Members from the unions that make up AFT-Maryland joined with sisters and brothers of the AFL-CIO to pack boxes for union and community families in need this holiday season. The Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO annually packs boxes of food and provides toys for families of union members and to the greater Baltimore community. AFT-Maryland members worked side by side with members from across the region and in partnership with the United Way of Baltimore to help ensure that families would not go without this holiday season.

Over two days, members packed groceries in boxes and wrapped toys for