News

State Employees' Reopener, Recruitment and Retention Agreement Approved by Appropriations Committee

Agreement will continue efforts to protect and expand our communitie

The regular election of AFSCME Council 4 Executive Board members took place on April 6, 2024 at our union headquarters in New Britain, CT.

The results are as follows:

COUNCIL 4 EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIPS

To recognize the extraordinary efforts of our members and to foster unionism, Council 4 is offering continuing education assistance in th

COUNCIL 4 EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIPS

To recognize the extraordinary efforts of our members and to foster unionism, Council 4 is offering continuing education assistance in the form of a $2,000 per year scholarship for up to four years (max $8,000) to dependents of Council 4 members and retirees. 

Each year, the Council 4 Scholarship Committee selects two students to award a $2,000 scholarship paid to the school of the winners.  Winners are eligible for up to four consecutive years by doing a brief presentation to the executive board.

The last few years have seen a rise in worker momentum, with unionized workers raising their voices to demand higher pay, safer working conditions and more.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders praised the White House’s announcement Thursday that the Biden administration will forgive student loans for an additional 78,000 borrowers — including many AFSCME members — under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders congratulated Nicole Berner, a longtime labor lawyer and general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), on being confirmed to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Mr. Montoya goes to Washington

Photo: Nicholas Voutsinos/ AFSCME

In this year’s State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden highlighted his administration’s achievements over the past three years and vowed to continue fighting for working people.

AFSCME applauds his accomplishments and strongly supports the Biden-Harris administration’s vision for the future, which includes defending our nation’s democracy, protecting a woman’s right to choose and making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, among other things.

The public sector has finally recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of last year, there were 22,000 more public service jobs in the nation than in February 2020, just before the pandemic started.

This is cause for celebration for everyone in our communities, but especially for workers of color, who have been historically overrepresented in state and local government jobs.