4-25-18_arizona_aft_recommends_school_funding_plan.pdf
April 25, 2018
PEORIA, Ariz.—The Arizona American Federation of Teachers offered a realistic plan today to pay for additional school funding and much-needed pay raises for teachers and other school staff.
Can You Hear Us Now?
Colleagues,
NTU Members,
The AFT-Maryland held their Triennial Constitutional Convention the weekend of April 20th. The convention celebrated the theme Standing on the Shoulders of Labor Giants: Fighting for Our Future. It featured remarks by labor leaders in and around Baltimore, including Donna Edwards, President of the Maryland State and D.C.
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Notes from the latest board meeting 4-16-2018
April 23, 2018 - Bow, NH
The legislative session is drawing to its inexorable conclusion, with May 3 the final date for either the House or Senate to act on bills and either pass, kill, or amend legislation. If a bill is amended, the other chamber must either accept the amendment, reject it and kill the bill, or ask for a committee of conference to resolve differences. All action, including committees of conference, must be concluded by May 24, so there is not much time remaining. Enough time, though, to still do significant damage.
HB 1415- Line of Duty Death Benefit for School Employees This past week, we were very disappointed to see the Senate Finance Committee vote 4-2, along party lines (Republican majority) to recommend that the entire Senate defeat HB 1415, providing for a death benefit to the survivors of education personnel killed in the line of duty. On Friday, there was another school shooting in Ocala, FL, but here in New Hampshire, there are senators who still see no reason to provide any sort of benefit to the grieving survivors of school-related violence. We have been fortunate in not having such incidents so far in New Hampshire, but provision of a $100,000 death benefit would be, in the words of one House member, “a means by which the State could express sympathy and support” for the devastated family. We hope the Senate as a whole will reverse this recommendation, pass the bill and administer the rebuke the four senators justly deserve. If Governor Sununu then vetoes the bill, let him take ownership and bear any consequences. Truly sad.
Take Action on HB 1415. To find out who is your senator, click this link Who's My Senator?
Once you determine who your Senator is, click here Senate Roster to find out how to contact them via email. Please ask them to overturn the Senate Finance Committee recommendation and pass HB 1415.
Four WFNHP RN’s—Libby Gabriel, Kitty Schroeder, Jorja Doherty and Pat Geiger--were among more than two dozen AFT nurses and health professional members who traveled to the Virgin Islands last week on a humanitarian mission to perform vision and hearing screenings for all the public school students on the islands.
The effort was part of AFT's comprehensive recovery assistance that it has been providing since hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the islands last September. The volunteer nurses were hosted by members of the St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers and the St. Croix Federation of Teachers.
Kitty Schroeder, a registered nurse at the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, pictured performing a hearing test, shared her experience stating,
On April 11th we notified our members of our Union’s great concern regarding Ascension’s proposal to eliminate medical and surgical inpatient units at St. Joe’s Hospital and, more broadly, rumors of other cuts. Because of our concerns, we held meetings with Mayor Barrett and other elected officials, and also joined in the creation of a broad based coalition led by some amazing northside community organizations along with Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Nate Gilliam, our organizer, was also part of a meeting with St. Joe’s administration where the planned changes were aggressively challenged.
We knew that by joining together with the community to stand up and preserve quality jobs and health services we would be stronger and have a greater chance to fight back against negative changes from Ascension. Our coalition--Save St. Joe’s--immediately put up an online petition, and now has a dedicated website. There is no question we got their attention.
