Community Services

DOWNLOAD the 2015 PA AFL-CIO Community Services Week of Action Toolkit

To revitalize American communities, workers must address massive economic shifts that have occurred in the last 20 years.  These economic shifts have removed the “ladder of opportunity” and replaced it with a deepening “well of dependence” where workers and their families must rely on the goodwill of others to survive.  Dedicated leadership and creative approaches are needed to bring forth a new labor vision within our communities realizing that each community has a unique combination of assets on which to build their future.

The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation.  To accomplish this mission we will build and change the American labor movement… (Read More)

AFT-PA President Ted Kirsch to Retire in June

From AFT-PA, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.  The officers of the State Federation thank President Kirsch on his many decades of extraordinary service to our movement. AFT Pennsylvania President Ted Kirsch announced today that he would not seek re-election after seven terms as head of the statewide teachers’ union. Read More

The Case of Two Mothers’ Days . . . & Your Union-Made Gift Guide

This Sunday, millions of us will come together and say happy Mothers’ Day to the women who nurture, raise and birth us.  The gift of life is an incredible thing, but the gifts our Mothers bring to our lives really only begin at birth.  Taking care of children when their sick, making sure homework gets done, keeping homes livable, dropping off and picking up from countless after-school before-school and weekend activities, and being an invaluable (even sole) bread-winner for their households, are only a few of the work of motherhood. Read More

Workers’ Memorial Day is here. So are the BLS workplace fatality numbers. . .

Pennsylvania Workplaces are less safe than they were. In 2017, 172 workers were killed on the job in Pennsylvania, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  That’s 3.0 fatalities per 100,000 workers, an increase from the previous year’s rate of 2.8.    Our Commonwealth has dropped five places, from 10th to 15th in the nation’s ranking of best to worst fatality rates.  This is unacceptable. Read More