March 16, 2018 — Early voting on the UW-Madison campus begins Monday, March 19. See here for details.

March 16, 2018 - Bow, NH

What a crazy week!  The snowstorm on Tuesday really tossed a monkey-wrench into our established schedule for town meetings and voting, illustrating like last year the need for greater flexibility in adjusting voting/meeting dates when there is seriously inclement weather.  One might also make a valid case that having had this problem two years in a row offers pretty good reason why NH should consider advance voting or opening up the use of absentee ballots.  But so long as our current Secretary of State, Bill Gardiner, remains in office, no such changes will be forthcoming.  

Colleagues,

Click here for PDF version of this update

Your Union in Action: what was going on at NTU this week?

1) DYFS – Attached is information on NTU’s Child Abuse Neglect Prevention and Protection Program.  Please review this document!  It could save your career!  We have been seeing a large number of DYFS cases every week.

Here is your source of information about the 2018 Legislative Session. See the LFT's goals for the session, catch up on our Weekly Legislative Digest, and check out the list of bills supported and opposed by the Federation.

Charter educators at Summit Academy Community School - Parma look forward to bargaining a first contract and having a voice in school decision-making.

STATE CAPITOL, MARCH 15, 2018--UHP President Bill Garrity was back at the Legislative Office Building today to testify before the Labor and Public Employees Committee over SB 461, "An Act Omitting Certain Pay From a State Employee's Final Average Salary Calculation on or After July 1, 2021."

Read his testimony. 

What does your union do for you?

See this update from AFT Secretary-Treasurer Loretta Johnson on this new benefit!

Come join with your sisters and brothers in Labor April 2, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. for Union Night in Annapolis at Lawyer’s Mall.

Bus will leave from AFT-Maryland, 5800 Metro Drive, 21215, at 5:15 p.m. and return from Annapolis at 9:00 p.m. Food and soft drinks will be served on the bus.

After the mass labor rally, we will lobby our legislators on important issues facing public employees, teachers, and PSRPs in Baltimore and across the State of Maryland.

Some of our issues include:

• Education Funding & the Kirwan Commission
• Ending Wage Stagnation and instituting competitive pay for Public Employees
• Fighting proposed conversions of the Teacher and State Employee Retirement System from a Pension to a 401(k) plan
• Solving the staffing crisis in state governmental agencies
• Defending the right of public employees to unionize and participate in their unions

TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT:
Contact Todd Reynolds at treynolds@aftmd.org 
or call (443) 320-4719 

For an event flyer, click here.

As a federation of public sector labor unions, the AFT-Maryland is committed to fair wages for all of its members. That commitment extends to the entire collective of Maryland workers. That’s why the AFT-Maryland has signed on and supports the Maryland Fight for 15. This call to raise the minimum wage for all workers to $15.00 per hour.

Maryland Professional Employees Council members and staff were in Annapolis to lobby on behalf of their membership. They came to the state capitol to discuss ensuring Maryland state professionals were priorities in the state budget. President Jerry Smith and chief steward Ronnie Myers had meetings in both houses of the General Assembly.