The numbers are in, and it’s clear that 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,” AFSCME reports, “suggesting that billionaires and corporations are failing in their effort to ‘defund and defang’ public service unions.” This means that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling, AFSCME retained 94 percent of workers it represents; analysts had projected a loss of up to 30 percent. Union leaders credit the “AFSCME Strong” campaign for the union’s success. "We remind our members that this is their union," AFSCME Council 20 Executive Director Andrew Washington told Union City Radio. "We listen to them, find out what their issues and concerns are, and make sure they know they're empowered." It's working: out of more than 6,000 members, Washington said, AFSCME Council 20 has had just three drop out of the union since the Janus decision. On today’s labor calendar, tune in at 1p today for this week’s edition of “Your Rights At Work,” when our guests will be Nalishha Mehta, on labor and meditation; American Prospect editor Harold Meyerson with labor news headlines, and Vasu Reddy, Senior Policy Counsel at the National Partnership for Women and Families, on Equal Pay Day. For the latest on local labor events and actions, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had been supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of this tragedy, riots broke out in many cities, including Washington, D.C. Today’s labor quote is from the first edition of The Labor Review, a "weekly magazine for organized workers," published on this date in 1907 in Minneapolis. “Without blare of trumpets, beating of tom-toms, flourish of banners or parade of pretensions, Labor Review is launched today as the only publication in Minnesota owned and controlled in every department by organized labor. It has but one purpose – to faithfully represent the organized artisans of this community.” Edna George, a cigar packer in Minneapolis, won $10 in gold for suggesting the name “Labor Review,” which has been published continuously since then, currently as a monthly publication. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’ve got Spring Break on your mind, fuel your getaway with a car rental discount. Union Plus gets you up to 25% off at Avis, Budget, Hertz and more. Visit unionplus.org/carrental.
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