The 89th national convention of the AFT was held in DC this month, from July 15-19, and AFT Maryland members were there, including delegates and guests from many of our Maryland locals. Represented for the first time at convention were our newest organized unions, the United Academics of Maryland-Community Colleges (UAMD-CC) and the University of Maryland Resident and Fellow Alliance (UMRFA). 

Over 3500 delegates and visitors attended the AFT Convention 2026, making it the largest convention in the past 15 years. AFT celebrated organizing 179 new units across the country, including the two new locals from Maryland - UAMD-CC and UMRFA. 

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This year, America celebrates 250 years of independence, a milestone made possible by those who dared to imagine a nation with ideals of liberty, justice, self-governance, and hope for a better future.

The freedoms we now enjoy were hard-fought by individuals who, 250 years ago, stood up to tyranny, to kings who would rather have kept them as subjects. These rights and freedoms should not be taken for granted and must be fought for and defended by each generation. 

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The past is always present in some way in our lives.

On June 19, 1865, Union troops rode into Galveston, Texas, and delivered the news that the last enslaved people in the Confederacy were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. That day, freedom finally became real for the last of the enslaved. Long-held dreams and prayers had become reality.

And that freedom brought meaningful progress...

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BALTIMORE—AFT-Maryland President Kenya Campbell and AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after two individuals were kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School property in Southeast Baltimore.

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Pride is the unwavering conviction that every person deserves to live, work, and love without fear. It is joy in defiance of those who would deny it, community in defiance of those who would isolate, and visibility in defiance of those who would erase. 

And at a moment in time when our LGBTQ+ community is once again under attack by policies that threaten their rights and lawmakers who use their lives as political pawns, we will not remain silent as we stand shoulder to shoulder in support of our queer friends, family, neighbors, and members.

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