Editor’s note: This post is excerpted from an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio.
The Mount Vernon Development Center, where I’ve been a direct-care worker for 15 years, is home to some of Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens. The women and men I serve suffer from mental or physical disabilities so severe they can’t live on their own. … One crucial factor in our ability to care for our residents is our union.
As members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, my co-workers and I bargain for better staffing levels and better conditions for our patients, as well as salary and benefits that enable us to perform a job we love and earn a sustainable wage.
However, that level of care is under threat. A Supreme Court case now being heard, Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, might deal a devastating blow to public-service workers across the country. Teachers, sanitation workers, law-enforcement officers and many others will soon be severely hobbled in how they do their jobs, robbed of their freedom to join together in strong unions and negotiate on behalf of themselves and their communities. …
To read the rest of Campolo’s op-ed, go here.
Two examples of AFSCME Now’s recent coverage of the Janus case can be found here and here.