After tragedy, AFT turns to supporting Newtown community
The AFT is mourning the deaths of 26 children and educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and has begun transforming our grief into comfort and support for the community, as well as advocating for saner national policies on guns and mental health services.
Spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion will hurt, unless Congress acts to stop sequestration
Sequestration used to refer to locking away valuable property for safekeeping while a dispute over ownership was resolved. But Congress has commandeered the term and applied it to the federal budget. We’re hearing more about sequestration now because of the threatened $1.2 trillion sequester—automatic cuts that will take place over a 10-year period—brought about by the failure of the so-called supercommittee (the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) to achieve the savings required by last year’s debt ceiling law.
Just Released! Thirteenth Edition of the AFT Public Employees State Employee Compensation Survey
This annual report shows that the recession continues to have a significant impact on state employees, whose wages are not keeping up with the rate of inflation. Average earnings have increased just 0.2 percent from last year. The report also reflects the continuing discrepancies between private and public salaries, with salaries substantially higher in the private sector. In addition, findings continue to show that jobs covered by a collective bargaining agreement have wages that are 35 percent higher than those not covered. This is the 13th year that AFT Public Employees has released its report comparing the salaries of state employees across the country. Download the survey.
Michigan community college faculty vote for the union
Part-time faculty at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan gave their overwhelming consent to union representation earlier in May, when they voted 162-38 in favor of certifying the KVCC Federation of Teachers as their collective bargaining agent. KVCC-FT is affiliated with AFT Michigan.
Weingarten Announces New AFT Leadership Team
Two longtime union activists and education reformers are assuming new roles in AFT's leadership, AFT president Randi Weingarten announced on Sept. 9.
New AFL-CIO site shows soaring CEO compensation
The AFL-CIO has launched its 2012 AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch site—now called CEO Pay and the 99%—which includes the most comprehensive data available on 2011 executive pay. All the data available is searchable by industry, by state and by the top 100 highest-paid CEOs.