Public Employee Press

Political Action
AFSCME activists send a message to Congress

DC 37 members and leaders joined public workers from around the country in May to press Washington on health-care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and public services.

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

With America facing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, dozens of DC 37 activists joined 700 AFSCME members who were energized for action at the union’s Legislative Conference in Washington, May 11 through 14.

“Activism makes AFSCME the most powerful union in the labor movement,” said President Gerald W. McEntee. “This is one of our largest and most ambitious legislative conferences.”

The conference, organized by DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, sent a strong message to Congress: Enact real health-care reform, pass the Employee Free Choice Act, invest in public services and infrastructure and create union jobs that will strengthen the middle class.

Citing the importance of union jobs in sustaining the middle class in the United States, Vice President Joe Biden said the proposed Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field between anti-union employers and workers who want to organize without fear of retaliation. “Labor built this country and labor should get a fair share of the benefits,” said Biden, who thanked AFSCME for its Herculean effort to elect Barack Obama and give Democrats majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Union jobs sustain middle class

Other guest speakers included Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Using their cell phones simultaneously on May 13, participants urged their Congress members to enact health-care reform without taxing benefits as income, which Republicans want, and to include the public health insurance option that could save the country $10 trillion over the next decade.

Later that afternoon at a news conference, President Obama pressed for his health-care plan and indicated that it may pass as early as this summer. “I really think the stars may be aligned here,” he said. “If we don’t get it done this year, we’re not going to get it done.”

The AFSCME activists also pressed Congress to support the president’s initiatives to strengthen working families and help the nation recover from the mess Bush left behind: a $1.2 trillion deficit, two costly wars and collapsed banking and housing sectors. In the last eight years, the average U.S. family lost $2,000 in annual income while the wealthiest Americans gained 34 percent.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, President Veronica Montgomery-Costa and Political Director Wanda Williams led the large DC 37 contingent of local leaders, members and staff that climbed Capitol Hill and lobbied lawmakers to use stimulus funds to protect public-sector jobs in New York City and nationwide.

“We are the people to lead the way to change,” said AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy.