American Federation Of State, County, And Municipal Employees history

And sure enough, in January, 1933 a Democratic senator introduced a bill in the state legislature that would dismantle the state's civil service system.

Zander began promoting the idea of a national union of state, county, and municipal employees and by 1935, state employee associations had emerged in several states.

Reaction to the discontent was swift and by the end of 1947, eight states passed laws which would penalize striking public workers.

At conventions in the mid and late 1950's, AFSCME members began stressing public workers' rights and collective bargaining as a means to improve their working conditions.

At a time when enrollments in most American unions were declining, AFSCME became one of the fastest-growing unions in the country, with membership increasing from 100,000 in 1955 to more than 1,000,000 in the early 21st century.

In 1958, responding to pressure from AFSCME, New York City Mayor Robert Wagner signed an executive order which granted collective bargaining rights to unions representing city employees.

Militancy had helped AFSCME grow but, as the 1960's drew to a close, AFSCME members' demands for fairness were met with a growing resistance by employers.

In 1961, President John Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, which legitimized collective bargaining for federal employees and helped create a favorable atmosphere for similar demands from all public employees.

In 1964, Jerry Wurf defeated Zander as the union's international president.

In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis, Tennessee to support a strike by the African-American sanitation workers' union, AFSCME Local 1733.

By 1969, AFSCME was unionizing 1,000 new workers each day.

A Political Action Committee (PEOPLE) was created in the 1970's and today is one of the largest PACs in America.

AFSCME set up its first political action committee in 1971.

The views of President Gerald McEntee and Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy—who was first elected to that post in 1972—help shape the debate on issues affecting American working people.

Management could always refuse to negotiate with the union.But in 1973 AFSCME won a major breakthrough when Gov.

The Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University became the official repository for AFSCME in 1974.

In 1978 AFSCME merged with the Civil Service Employees Association of New York.

Even in the face of an onslaught against public workers (led in the 1980's by Pres.

Gerald McEntee was elected president of AFSCME following Wurf's death in 1981.

In 1990, AFSCME membership topped the 1,200,000 mark and the union's strength and numbers have continued to grow in the years since.

McEntee was paid a gross salary of $1,020,751 in 2012, his last year on the job.

Saunders defeated Civil Service Employees Association president Danny Donohue with 54% of the votes and was re-elected without opposition in July 2016.