One of America’s most revered and respected labor leaders, Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and a former AFSCME International vice president, heads home to San Antonio and a well-deserved retirement on September 21.

The daughter of cotton sharecroppers, Chavez-Thompson worked tirelessly for civil, human and workers’ rights and became the first woman of color elected as a top officer at the national AFL-CIO.

She rose through AFSCME’s ranks, as business manager of AFSCME Local 2399 in San Antonio and then as founding executive director of Texas State Council 42. In 1988, she was elected an AFSCME International vice president, serving in that post for eight years. Chavez-Thompson also was a member of AFSCME’s Judicial Panel.

Her life changed in 1994 when President McEntee asked her to become part of John Sweeney’s New Voice slate. She agreed and the next year, Chavez-Thompson was elected the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president.

Despite her retirement, Chavez-Thompson is not ending her four-decade commitment to the Labor Movement. She now becomes the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president emerita, and will also continue to chair the AFL-CIO Immigration Committee, and lead the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), and the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) regional organization for the Americas. In addition, Chavez-Thompson will be an advisor to state federations and labor councils.

Read more about Chavez-Thompson on the AFL-CIO Now blog and at AFSCME.org.

Two years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast ripping lives and property to shreds.

The storm also tore a gaping hole in our nation’s façade, revealing to Americans and the world the impoverished lives of some U.S. citizens and the Bush administration’s pitiful response to the disaster.

AFSCME member Michele Baker and her husband, Alex, survey the damage at their home after Hurricane Katrina.

Nearly two years later, AFSCME members and their families exemplify the plight of many Gulf Coast families who are still struggling in the wake of the Bush administration’s shocking neglect of public services and inept response to America’s greatest natural disaster. (See: “AFSCME Members Continue the Struggle to Rebuild” at AFSCME.org)

The Times Picayune reported yesterday that compared with two years ago in New Orleans:

• There are 42 percent fewer hospital beds available;
• There are only 50 percent as many schools open; and
• A shocking 80 percent of the levee system is still not meeting its original authorized height.

The AFL-CIO Now Blog rightly titles its post on the Katrina anniversary “Our National Shame.”

Should we start denying health care to kids because their parents’ paychecks aren’t big enough? Of course not!

George Bush doesn’t see things that way. He seems to think that extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which helps provide medical care to low-income kids, is a bad idea. So, he’s promising to veto it—even though both the House and the Senate recently passed initiatives to grant more funding and cover more children under the program.

Pres. McEntee has denounced the Bush administration’s offensive against uninsured kids. Read his latest Huffington Post blog here.

He writes: “In America today, 9 million children live without health insurance. Nearly 70 percent of the children without health insurance have at least one parent who is employed. This is just not right.”

Read the complete post here.

It’s simple: Our nation’s bridges shouldn’t collapse. But after the I-35W bridge fell in Minneapolis, Minn., AFSCME Council 5 members were on the frontlines of the relief effort. Highway helpers and commercial vehicle inspectors aided with traffic and crowd control. Medical team members at local hospitals saved lives and provided first-rate emergency care. Radio control and 911 operators took calls and dispatched first responders.

In recognition of their selfless labor and that of countless other AFSCME workers, the union ran this ad in the news section of Minnesota’s Star Tribune and Pioneer Press newspapers on Sunday, August 19. A reminder that whenever there’s a disaster –be it natural or man made, AFSCME members are there to help.

Statement by Eliot Seide, Director of AFSCME Council 5
The I-35W bridge collapse has horrified us. In America, bridges should not collapse. Today our union mourns the tragedy along with the families of those who are dead, missing and hurt.

AFSCME members were on the bridge when it collapsed and we’re making sure that our inspectors are safe. We already know that one inspector was injured and hospitalized for surgery.

Our members who work for the Department of Transportation are committed to moving commuters safely. We welcome federal disaster relief so we can help get 35W moving again.

AFSCME members are some of the everyday heroes who brought calm to this disaster. We saved lives as part of the medical teams at HCMC, took calls from motorists plunging into the river and dispatched first responders.

Today, more AFSCME members have been mobilized. Blood services are being provided by our members with the St. Paul Red Cross. Our state correctional officers will begin providing additional security at the disaster site. Our members are also part of a Crisis Incident Stress Management Team that will debrief first responders and provide psychological first aid to victims.

It’s premature to speculate about the cause of the disaster until the National Transportation Safety Board has completed its investigation.

American workers are renowned for working long hours. Unfortunately, we get no guarantee of paid vacation or holidays in return. According to a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, this is the case for one in four American workers. Furthermore, private-sector employees who do get paid time off get a mere nine vacation days on average.

Overall, American workers average only 12 vacation days a year compared to 28 days in Great Britain, 35 days in Germany and 37 days in France.

Why do workers in other countries enjoy more paid time off? Here’s a hint: Widespread unionization. As this article from In These Times magazine states, “unions in Europe and other rich industrialized countries—whose contracts cover up to 90 percent of the workforce—typically negotiate additional time off. Meanwhile, the standard workweek is slightly shorter in many European countries, and workers retire earlier with better public pensions.”

The key word here? Unions. After all, if it weren’t for the labor movement, American workers would not have an eight-hour workday, a 40-hour workweek or a weekend.

When we fight, we win. That was the theme of the last International Union convention. It was also a rallying cry for Rhode Island AFSCME members recently when they successfully stopped the privatization of dietary and housekeeping services at the Eleanor Slater Hospital and the Rhode Island Veteran’s Home.

The Rhode Island General Assembly voted to override Governor Donald Carcieri’s veto of a budget amendment to limit the State’s ability to sell off services to the lowest bidder. AFSCME RI Council 94 members led a full-court press of television ads, email, faxes, and face-to-face lobbying to win support for the anti-privatization measure.

While this was an important victory, Council 94’s President J. Michael Downey pointed out that it is part of a longer battle.

As Governor Carcieri picks out his next state service to privatize, one thing is for sure – Rhode Island AFSCME members will be there to stand up and fight back.

The 4th of July is a time of gathering with the family and friends but it is also an opportunity to celebrate what makes America great.

The commitment of public service workers like us is one of those distinct things that make our country unique. We drive the buses that get the children to school safely. We staff the public hospitals that provide vital health care. We drive the snow plows in the dead of winter. We are the men and women that put their life on the line in state prisons and county jails. We are AFSCME and, as you can see in this video, we make America happen.

And yet this commitment to America should also entail the desire of making it a better place to live in, a society where everyone has access to health care, enjoys retirement security and workers are free to join a union and bargain for a better future for their families.

As the political landscape shifts and the goal of taking back the White House for working families comes within reach, think about how you can help make this dream reality. Your commitment is the first step so that we can celebrate many more independence days in a country that is more fair and just… for everyone.

When it comes to the families of union activists, the fruit doesn’t often fall far from the tree. That’s especially true of Davida Russell, a bus driver and president of Local 744 of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE)/AFSCME Local 4. In the 1970’s Russell’s mom was a bus driver, too.

Last year, Russell enrolled at the George Meany Center’s National Labor College to pursue a bachelor’s degree, which she received this summer. As she learned more about the labor movement and how unions have made a difference in people’s lives, she recalled her own childhood experiences riding her mom’s bus through Cleveland, attending union meetings and watching her mom lead the fight when her co-workers at the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities got tired of being mistreated and decided to form a union.

Russell’s memories became the foundation for a book – “The Birth of a Union: The Legacy of Noridean McDonald” – which is scheduled for publication in July. Russell considers the work a tribute to her mom. We consider it one more example of the deep roots that support all working families.

Whether it’s inspecting highways, plowing snow, directing traffic, driving buses, or designing roads and bridges, AFSCME transportation workers keep America moving.

If only the Bush administration would see things the same way.

Over the last few years, transportation workers across the country have endured corporate takeaways, shrunken paychecks and terminated pensions. The present administration, which has never met a job it didn’t want to privatize or send abroad, has sat idly by as corporations do what they please.

It is time to tell the government and the privateers that enough is enough. In the spirit of solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the International Association of Machinists, thousands of union members and representatives will gather today at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for a “Transportation Day of Action.” Presidential candidates and labor leaders including President McEntee and Secretary-Treasurer Lucy will be speaking.

AFSCME alone represents nearly 140,000 transportation workers. We have an opportunity to show them and thousands of others in the transportation sector our support. Let’s make sure their message is heard in the White House and in the halls of Congress.