News

Telework Arbitration Victory

Three agencies continued to misapply the current SEBAC Telework agreement (DOT, DSS, and Office of the Attorney General).  Although we had already prevailed in arbitration on the issue of an

We Carry on Dr. King’s Fight

MLK Memorial 2019 I AM | Be The Change | AFSCME Video

Fifty-one years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to help rally the community around 1,300 AFSCME sanitation workers who had gone on strike.

To Close the Gender Pay Gap, First a Voice on the Job

In the 1980s, I was living and going to school in Minnesota when women who worked for state government won a big victory. They got the state to increase the pay of women in “female dominated jobs” by passing a pay equity bill. In other words, they put a dent in the gender pay gap. As a student, I researched and wrote about the process of crafting, passing and implementing that legislation. And I learned something that I have never forgotten: the union made it happen. And not just any union. Our union: AFSCME. 

The Numbers Are In: AFSCME Members Are Sticking with Their Union

Our union gained more than 9,000 dues-paying members and nearly 19,000 dues-paying retirees in the last year, suggesting that billionaires and corporations are failing in their effort to “defund and defang” public service unions.

Council 4 Supports Veterans OASIS at MCC

Council 4, a union representing 30,000 workers across Connecticut, has donated $2,000 to support Veterans OASIS (Operation Academic Support for Incoming Service Members) at Manchester Community College.

Sandy DeCampos of AFSCME Local 991 (Town of Manchester), a member of the Council 4 Veterans Committee, presented OASIS Program Coordinator Michelle LaBelle with the donation from the union’s Veterans Committee.

Training Our Members To Be Union Advocates

Training union members to be strong advocates for their co-workers and defenders of their contractual rights and freedoms is a critical part of the AFSCME mission.

“Our union is only as strong as our activist core,” said Council 4 Education Coordinator Joe Aresimowicz. “That’s why we’re dedicated to providing training that meets the needs of our union members.”

Council 4 Officer Election Results

The election of Council 4 AFSCME officers took place on March 15, 2019 at our union headquarters in New Britain, CT.

The results are as follows:

Executive Director
Jody Barr, 17,725 votes
Charles DellaRocco, 3,735

President
Bernie Bombardier, 17,544 votes
Ian Shackleton, 3,169 votes

Judicial Vice President Seat
Dana Beecham-Brown, 17,120 votes
Sotonye Otunba-Payne, 2,625 votes
Charles Marino, 983 votes

Victories Against Anti-Worker Laws in Missouri, New Mexico Show Momentum

Workers in Missouri and New Mexico have chalked important victories against anti-worker laws that would have robbed them of their voices and the right to bargain collectively.

In Missouri, two separate anti-worker measures, HB 1413 and SB 1007, were halted by state courts last week.

SEBAC Unions Reject Pension Cut, Committed to “Win-Win”

Feb. 19, 2019: Leaders of the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) issued this response to Gov. Lamont's proposal to reduce future pension benefits: