The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the second- or third-largest labor union in the United States and one of the fastest-growing, representing over 1.4 million employees, primarily in local government and in the health care industry. Employees at the federal level are represented by other unions, such as the American Federation of Government Employees, with which AFSCME was once affiliated, and the National Treasury Employees Union.
AFSCME was founded in 1932 as the Wisconsin State Administrative, Clerical, Fiscal and Technical Employees Association (quickly becoming the Wisconsin State Employees Association) amid fears of the possible elimination of the civil service and a return to patronage jobs. Its driving force and first president was Arnold Zander.
It grew slowly over the next several decades, gradually changing from an association formed to protect civil service systems to a union interested in collective bargaining. It started growing particularly quickly in the 1960s under the presidency of Jerry Wurf. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis, Tennessee to support a strike by the black sanitation workers' union, AFSCME Local 1733.
AFSCME and the Partnership used the event to roll out legislation that would reverse many of the cuts to Medicaid health care and disability-assistance programs that were cut by Gov. Blunt in 2005.
AFSCME and the Quality Homecare Partnership also demonstrated their presence by convening a group of more than 200 workers at the capital to watch Gov. Matt Blunt’s State of the State address.
AFSCME will be working to see that the legislature delivers the largest possible increase to the largest segment of our represented state employees.
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