In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

St. Francis Hospital brought babies into this world for decades and decades. Cruelly, however, Ascension chose to close the only labor and delivery unit on the southside of Milwaukee when it abruptly closed the service at St. Francis Hospital only days before Christmas. St. Francis is also the only unionized private sector hospital in the city.  

The southside of Milwaukee is home to a significant immigrant, Latinx, and working class population who rely on the accessibility of the hospital for many needs. Pregnant women and families must now travel outside of their communities to deliver their

After three years of unprecedented challenges, healthcare workers are exhausted and their facilities dangerously understaffed. A groundbreaking new report by our national union, the American Federation of Teachers, brings together data and testimony from frontline workers. It details crippling staff shortages across the healthcare industry, revealing dangerous conditions for patients and healthcare professionals alike, made worse by profit-driven corporate leadership. According to the report, and as our union and members know all too well, healthcare workers are exhausted, burnt out, anxious and leaving the profession in droves. Since the pandemic, nearly 1 in 5 healthcare workers have quit their jobs. Learn more about the report, which lays out the issues in detail and offers potential solutions.