In 2025, AFSCME faces big challenges but also promising opportunities.
AFSCME fought hard this year to elect pro-worker, pro-union supporters to office. While we won several critical races, others who supported the infamous Project 2025 playbook won their elections.
Without a doubt, there will be a new round of attacks on everything AFSCME members value — the budgets that fund our work to keep our communities strong, the health and safety protections we need, and even the right to have a union. Anti-worker billionaires with little knowledge of, or interest in, public services are already hard at work figuring out ways to cut salaries, benefits and job security.
But we are ready. In the last decade, even under tough conditions, our union has thrived and emerged with greater strength. Over the last year alone, AFSCME has grown by 40,000 members.
Doubling down on organizing is how we’ll fend off the coming attacks. We will keep connecting and engaging with co-workers, talking about the union difference, and getting folks to sign a card. It also means organizing the thousands and thousands of unrepresented public service workers who want a union voice.
The conditions are favorable for continued growth and power. Unions have a near-unprecedented approval rating of 70%. And huge majorities of nonunion workers say they’d join one if they had the freedom to do so. So, let’s give them that freedom.
There’s a lot at stake. Big state and local funding cuts would make it harder for us to negotiate the good contracts we deserve. It would mean lower wages and more dangerous working conditions. It would mean more staffing shortages, leading to greater burnout and exhaustion. It would make it harder to make ends meet and retire with dignity. AFSCME will be front and center in fighting these attacks.
I believe moments of great urgency are when we bring our very best as a union. Throughout AFSCME’s history, we have responded and delivered every time we have faced stern tests. We are resilient and battle-hardened. With renewed energy and optimism, we are eager to meet the challenges that 2025 will bring.