Each December gives us the chance to reflect upon the positive contributions we’ve made to the lives of our family, friends and ourselves. But this year, we have an opportunity to celebrate the contribution we made to the entire nation.

In 2006, AFSCME members changed America. Come January we will have the first pro-worker Congress in over a decade.

And we made it happen. When asked to tell why they voted overwhelmingly for change in the November elections, AFSCME members by the hundreds responded. The short responses varied widely in their content and reflected the great diversity of our membership. Some were humorous and gleeful, some were angry and passionate, but nearly all of the responses conveyed a sense of empowerment – a sense that our members had taken action and succeeded in a first step towards a more worker-friendly Congress.

To show their appreciation for our work, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently paid a visit to AFSCME’s Washington, DC headquarters. Pelosi and Reid answered some important questions that AFSCME members submitted online, and they vowed to enact an ambitious legislative agenda that helps working families. During the first 100 hours of the new Congress, Speaker-Elect Pelosi vowed voted to:

• Make college more affordable by cutting the interest rates for student loans in half;

• Lower the cost of prescription drugs by directing Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies as part of Part D;

• Repeal tax breaks and other multi-billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil and invest in alternative sources of energy, and

• Raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour

This is the agenda of lawmakers who share the values of everyday Americans, not corporate CEOs. And AFSCME members made it happen.

In 2006, we changed America. And that’s something to celebrate

Michigan has nearly 40,000 family child care providers. Most providers in the state started caring for children in low-income families when welfare reform demanded that many people leave welfare for work. The federal and state governments helped ease the burden by subsidizing child care for these newly employed parents.

But that was 10 years ago – and subsidies in Michigan haven’t budged. These providers care for children up to 12 hours a day, and are paid less than two dollars an hour and receive no health insurance. It’s a disgrace that in this country these providers are treated so poorly for the important work they do helping to raise our children, according to AFSCME President Gerald McEntee.

That’s why, in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post, McEntee was pleased to announce the big news that these child care providers have made the historic decision to unionize under Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM), a joint organizing effort between AFSCME and the United Auto Workers.

It has been a month since the Democrats took back Congress, but you don’t see House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pounding their chests or making partisan proclamations about their newly acquired political capital. Instead, they’re championing a consensus legislative agenda geared toward helping middle-class families that have been left behind by the GOP, notes AFSCME President Gerald McEntee.

According to McEntee, AFSCME played a huge role in delivering victories on Election Day, and now he describes in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post the formation of a new grassroots campaign committed to passing Pelosi’s ambitious “Hundred Hours” agenda.