Category: City of Chicago / Cook County

More than 300 employees of the Art Institute of Chicago are forming a union, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU), with AFSCME. The announcement came Aug. 3 in a public letter signed by 60 employees.

Last week AFSCME members got a big boost in their “mailboxes”—the largest-ever tax cut for working families in American history is the newly expanded child tax credit, part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

After months of bargaining, 4,000 Cook County employees secured a new union contract with significant pay increases.

In a win for the labor movement, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act on March 9. The PRO Act reforms labor laws to give power back to workers so they can freely organize unions.

Get answers to your questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. Watch this Feb. 4, 2021, virtual forum and Q&A with AFSCME staff and union members.

Getting vaccinated can prevent getting sick with COVID-19 and spreading the virus to your co-workers and loved ones.

School closings have kept kids at home and, as a result, many parents—mothers in particular—are struggling to meet the needs of both their children and their jobs.

President Trump said on Tuesday, October 6 that he would halt all negotiations for a coronavirus relief bill with Congress until after the election.

Congratulations to three children of AFSCME members—Rachel Ashley, Mary Hicks and Edward McMillian—who were awarded AFSCME Council 31’s 2020 Larry Marquardt Scholarship.

Tens of thousands of AFSCME members have been at their worksites daily throughout the pandemic in cities, counties, universities, school districts, and nonprofit agencies all across the state, performing work deemed essential.