Click here for this week's update!

In this issue

1) Negotiations Update

2) EWA Stipend

3) How to stay informed over summer!

And More!

Attached you will find the link to the Newlsetter for July, August and September 2019. Remember, just click on the link ending in .pdf to view.

http://unit47.ct.aft.org/sites/default/files/article_pdf_files/2019-06/julaugsep19.pdf

Following the legislative session in Annapolis, state lawmakers have an opportunity to walk the streets in their districts to get an on-the-ground sense of just what is going on. For Delegate Pat Young, that meant a visit to Spring Grove Hospital Center. He sat down for a candid conversation with members of AFT Healthcare-Maryland and AFSCME.

In one way or another it can be said that all politics are local. That means that whether engaging with county, state, or federal elected officials, members of BCFPE are ensuring those conversations provide tangible benefits for Baltimore county employees. The union took a trip to Capitol Hill to meet with legislators about bills that would reclassify 9-1-1 operators.

Maryland Professional Employees Council (MPEC) hosted two lunch and learns at the Glen Burnie MVA and  the Department of Labor Licensing and Regulations. Shop stewards Davene Johnson (Glen Burnie) and Michelle Roberts (DLLR) did a great job turning out members to hear what AFT-Maryland organizer Aaron Ray had to share.

A handful of important items:

A push to raise the state's minimum teacher salary has become a bipartisan effort, but it appears to not be enough to ensure a key piece of Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal will make it into the final version of the spending document.

Three UHP employees recently volunteered in the Virgin Islands, helping provide hearing and vision screenings for more than 10,000 public school children in areas still recovering from the 2017 hurricanes.

The General Assembly adjourned the 2019 legislative session sine die at midnight on Wednesday, June 5th. The so-called "long session" was a very successful one for working families and the Labor movement. After years of austerity budgets and dwindling pro-worker majorities, Labor advocates were able to take advantage of the 2018 election results and pass major legislation including HB 5004 which raises the minimum wage to $15 per hour and SB 1 which enacts a paid family and medical leave insurance program.

HB 6935, legislation giving public sector unions and public sector workers new protections in the wake of last summer's U.S. Supreme Court's Janus v. AFSCME decision, died in the Senate.

Read more in this recap from the Connecticut AFL-CIO.