With no clear signs that the Management Bargaining Committee recognizes the importance of the work that state employees do, union members are beginning to take more forceful actions to secure a fair contract.

In the sixth big win in the past year and a half for Chicago-area cultural workers organizing with AFSCME, employees of the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and its off-site collections facility won their union election.

The 90 employees of the public health department who formed their union with AFSCME in December 2021 have been at the bargaining table for more than a year.

The administrative staff of AFSCME Local 2887 and the building service workers of Local 2232 are spreading solidarity across campus, standing arm in arm to support each other’s fights for better working conditions.

The frost of winter has given way to a sea of green—the grass is growing, the trees have sprouted new leaves. In park districts across the state, AFSCME members are there to help shepherd the summer season in.

The Chicago City Council passed the AFSCME-sponsored Human Service Workforce Advancement (HSWA) ordinance by a veto-proof majority of 42-2 on March 15.

Nearly 300 employees of the Field Museum have won their union with AFSCME Council 31.

AFSCME members who care for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities in community agencies are ramping up for a wide-ranging, concerted effort to get wage increases through the state budgeting process.

They battled through a pandemic. Now, workers at the Logan County Health Department have won a new contract that rewards them for the good work they've done throughout the public health crisis.

Members of Local 3328 in the DuPage County Probation Department won a great contract where the smallest increase for each employee was $7,000, and the average increase for all members was 25% over the three-year life of the contract.

AFSCME members in state government are gearing up for contract negotiations for a new state of Illinois master contract, which covers some 35,000 state employees.

A security therapy aide at the state of Illinois’ Rushville Treatment and Detention Center nearly died in October after coming into contact with an unknown substance sent to the facility by mail.

Randolph County residents delivered an overwhelming vote to keep the community’s nursing home in public hands. A referendum to sell an unused portion of the nursing home passed with 67% of the vote.

Employees of the Field Museum filed union representation petitions with the National Labor Relations Board, triggering a union election in the coming weeks in which the employees can vote to formally certify their union.