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In 1886, the organziation that would become the American Federation of Labor (AFL), set out to help workers across the United States to gain better working conditions.

1968. Memphis, Tennessee. The heart of the racially segregated South. Black sanitation workers faced poverty wages and degrading, dangerous conditions on the job.

March 8, 2023 is international women's day! We want to thank all the women who make AFSCME Council 81 Happen.

Today, following President Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the United States Supreme Court, AFSCME President Lee Saunders issued a statement praising the historic selection.

AFSCME mourns the loss of Mildred Wurf, a beloved member of our union family, a pioneering District Council 37 educator and the widow of former AFSCME president, Jerry Wurf. Mildred Wurf died on Dec. 29 at the age of 95.

Striketober and Strikesgiving are over, but worker strikes are still going strong. As I write this, Kellogg’s workers are holding the line in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Memphis. Alabama miners are heading into their ninth month of standing up to Warrior Met Coal. And the wave of worker actions demonstrating power and the fight for fairness continues to rise.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders on Monday joined President Joe Biden and members of his administration, as well as a bipartisan group of lawmakers, for the signing ceremony of the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The House of Representatives has passed President Joe Biden’s transformational bipartisan infrastructure plan, which Biden will soon sign into law. The passage earned praise from AFSCME President Lee Saunders, who, in a statement, said, “We are turning a corner.”