News

Release: AFSCME Local 454 Announces Intent to Strike

City workers with AFSCME Local 454 have notified the city leadership of their intent to strike.

Release: AFSCME Local 454 Negotiations Update

AFSCME Council 65
Contact: Amanda Metsa
Labor Representative
Email: [email protected]
Cell Phone: 218-290-0822

February 18, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

City Workers United Despite Job Cuts and Threats to Reduce Benefits.

Virginia - City workers remain united in opposing City Council threats to cut benefits to cover budget mismanagement. The Council created a budget shortfall last fall by refusing to pass a levy that would fund city operations. As a result, six positions represented by AFSCME Local 454 have been cut, despite existing staffing shortages. Now, the City Council is threatening to cut overtime pay and other benefits.

The Council has notified AFSCME leaders that it will stop paying overtime to workers when they’ve had a sick day, vacation day, or a statutory holiday during the work week. If the city moves forward with this change, workers will not receive any recognition for extra time away from their families when asked to put in extra hours.

“They are asking us to bear responsibility for their own mismanagement.” said Jesse McIntyre, Vice-President of AFSCME Local 454. “We will always need to put in extra hours to plow our roads, respond to emergencies, and staff big events. This is what residents rightfully expect of our city. Yet, they’re demanding we work the same hours for less pay instead of making sure we have enough staff to reduce overtime costs. All this just to fix a budget problem they created.”

AFSCME members have already borne the brunt of the budget shortfall. Job cuts to departments represented by AFSCME saved the city an estimated $400,000. In 2020 and 2021, members saved the city $127,474.69/year* by agreeing to a new health insurance plan. Still, the Council is now proposing more reductions in healthcare contributions. This would cost employees with family coverage $3,652.29/year*.

The negotiating team hopes to resolve these issues when they meet with their employer on Wednesday, February 21. However, without meaningful progress leaders may notify the city of the union’s intent to strike. A strike could start ten days after such notice. The City’s release incorrectly stated the union had already filed an intent to strike.

AFSCME Local 454 represents City of Virginia workers in the following departments: Library, City Hall (Police Admin. Staff, Finance, and Engineering), Public Works, and Parks and Recreation (including Iron Trail Motors Event Center).

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Release: Local 454 Negotiations Update

AFSCME Celebrates Law Enforcement Week

Members of AFSCME’s law enforcement community take countless risks to keep our communities safe. When those brave heroes make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, our obligation is to never forget them.

National Police Week is a time to honor fallen law enforcement officers, as well as a time for the law enforcement community to stand in solidarity with each other.

Protecting Nurses During National Nurses Week

During National Nurses Week, we celebrate the heroes who, with skill and compassion, care for the sick. This year, we’re honoring their hard work and dedication by supporting the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, a bill that seeks to raise the bar on safety standards and protect nurses from preventable incidents of violence at work.

Injured on the Job, Corrections Officer Links Safety with Collective Bargaining Rights

Safety Through Collective Bargaining Rights: Kelvin's Story

The day after he was released from a hospital, a bruised and swollen Kelvin Chung told a state Senate committee that state employees like him need collective bargaining rights to advocate for safety on the job. “I want you to see my face. We need a voice on the job, so this doesn't happen again to anyone else,” said Chung, a corrections officer.

NJ Librarian Praises Fast Access to Disaster Relief Grant with the Union Plus Credit Card

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast of the United States, causing billions of dollars in damage across 24 states. The hurricane quickly became known in the impacted region as “Superstorm Sandy.”

Shileen Shaw knows firsthand how the storm got that name.

“We had never seen anything like it,” says Shaw, recalling the damage her East Orange, New Jersey, home suffered at the time.

We Can Do More for Worker Safety

Workers Memorial Day is this Sunday, April 28, when we honor workers killed or injured on the job. On this day in 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed.

For almost half a century, OSHA has been charged with helping to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for men and women across this country. But under the Trump administration, OSHA is failing us. As we observe Workers Memorial Day, it’s clear that we can do more – much more – for worker safety.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness: A Broken Promise

Megha Desai is a public defender in Multnomah County, Oregon. In a given week, she might work upwards of 60 hours. Right now, she has about 145 open cases.

“It's like a conveyor belt. Every day you work on your assigned cases, new ones roll in,” said Desai, a member of Local 2805 (Council 75). “There's a joke in the office: If you don't come in on the weekends, you’re screwed for the next week.”

The first weekend of April was an exception: It was her wedding. 

AFSCME Celebrates National Library Workers Day

All-knowing sources of information. Tour guides to the highways and byways of history. The friendly voice of a morning story time. If that’s all you think of when you think of your library staff, you’d do well to meet some of AFSCME’s library workers, whose reach goes far beyond their libraries’ walls.

Today is National Library Workers Day, when we honor those professionals who keep our libraries running: librarians, technicians and other staff, including custodians, security and maintenance workers.

We Carry on Dr. King’s Fight

MLK Memorial 2019 I AM | Be The Change | AFSCME Video

Fifty-one years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to help rally the community around 1,300 AFSCME sanitation workers who had gone on strike.