WASHINGTON –Come hell or high water – in this case, the latest in D.C.’s year of downpours – hundreds of unionists gathered on Capitol Hill on May 7 to campaign against “fast-track” trade legislation and the anti-worker trade treaties the measure would lead to. And after hearing a parade of pro-worker lawmakers denounce the pacts and fast-track, the crowd, exhorted […]

WASHINGTON —By a 13-0 vote, the Washington, D.C., City Council gave final approval on Dec. 17 to increasing the city’s minimum wage to $11.50 an hour by mid-2016, a hike in line with increases that the national capital’s two large Maryland suburban counties, Montgomery and Prince George’s, previously passed. The D.C. increase, which Mayor Vincent Gray (D) promised, reluctantly, to […]

On November 8, the American Federation of Teachers presented Gwendolyn Payton, principal of Anne Beers Elementary School and member of AFSA Local 4, the Council of School Officers in Washington, D.C., a $5000 award made possible by the AFL-CIO Adopt-A-School program. The program is designed to award 20 public schools across the nation a one-time grant of $5000 in commemoration […]

WASHINGTON—The chant rang out over and over again, despite pouring rain, interrupting speakers who enthusiastically urged them on. “We want to work!”  “We want to work!”  came the constant call. That came from hundreds of locked-out federal workers, members of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFSCME, the Service Employees, the Treasury Employees and other unions, who marched on Capitol […]

The former Unite Here member was one of more than 20,000 people – including thousands of unionists — who marched down the Washington, D.C., Mall on Oct. 8 to demand the U.S. House immediately pass comprehensive immigration reform. Bergmann says the danger to her friends is why she came to the protest.

Because members of Congress were unable to perform the most basic function that they were elected to do, and pledged to do when they were sworn into office, it is ultimately our nation’s students who may suffer the most.