Week Ending May 20, 2022

• National Emergency Medical Services Week
• Casey Introduces No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act
• Murray and Kaine Child Care Plan Expands Access and Lowers Cost for Families

National Emergency Medical Services Week

This week, we recognize National Emergency Medical Services Week. President Lee Saunders released the following statement:

“During National EMS Week, we celebrate the over one million EMS workers — including many AFSCME members — who are always there to answer the call. When it comes to saving lives, these everyday heroes never shy away from dangerous, even life-threatening situations. They are the epitome of what it means to be an essential worker. While we celebrate the first responders in our communities during EMS week, AFSCME will continue to fight for them every single day. We are committed to ensuring that front-line EMS personnel have the funding and resources they need to continue to do their essential work with dignity and pride.”

Share our tweet celebrating these front-line heroes.

Casey Introduces No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) was joined by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in introducing the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act to end the taxpayer subsidization of corporate union-busting campaigns. As workers around the country join together to fight for better pay and safer working conditions, they often face million-dollar corporate intimidation campaigns to prevent unionization.

Share our tweet celebrating this bill introduction.

Murray and Kaine Child Care Plan Expands Access and Lowers Cost for Families

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) have rolled out a new plan that would expand access to child care to more than 1 million children, lower costs for families, and get parents back to work by investing more in the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG), pre-K, and Head Start. AFSCME continues to advocate for robust investments in our child care system to help our child care providers and continue to provide high quality care for our nation’s children. See President Saunders’ reaction below:

"We depend on our critical child care infrastructure to keep America working, but COVID-19 has pushed early learning to the brink. Countless child care providers have been forced to close their doors. Costs for families are skyrocketing, and wages for child care providers remain inadequate to sustain high quality care. As America gets back to work, we cannot leave children and working parents behind — it is absolutely vital that the Senate include bold, robust investment in child care within the budget reconciliation package.”

Read more about Murray and Kaine’s proposal to lower costs for families.