News

The AFT PSRP leadership conference last month came chock-full of advice from activists on how to optimize campaigns, whether they focus on organizing, politics, a living wage or community service. PSRP co-chairs Carl Williams and Sarah Wofford led the proceedings. Williams is president of the Lawndale (Calif.) Federation of Classified Employees, a former school custodian and president of California’s classified members. Wofford is an accounting specialist for Rogue Community College and president of the Oregon School Employees Association. Eighteen AFT locals sent paraprofessionals and school-related personnel to Chicago April 10-12 for the conference.

As the Trump administration continues to attack higher education—cutting research grants, targeting free speech and restricting classroom materials—the AFT and the American Association of University Professors have unveiled a powerful new blueprint to restore and preserve higher education, just in time for the 2026 midterms.

When the president of Colorado WINS learned that the president of the United States might be targeting Denver next in his anti-immigration campaign of terror, she knew how she’d begin to mobilize. One simple thing Diane Byrne does is deck out her activists in matching T-shirts. Wearing union colors promotes team spirit and builds confidence, she says. The AFT Public Employees program and policy council, meeting in New York City Feb. 5-6, abounded with tips to help locals mobilize. PPC chair Gary Feist, president of North Dakota Public Employees, recommended finding members who can tell a personal story to draw media attention. With more media on the issue, he said, legislators will become more motivated to fix the problem.

Federal immigration actions are rapidly expanding, with deadly consequences. The killings of poet Renee Nicole Good and nurse Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have brought intense focus on the use of excessive force. An AFT webinar, co-hosted by AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang on Jan. 28, featured experts on immigration and the law. It highlighted AFT resources and showcased how our locals are showing up to minimize fear and trauma.

On her very first day of student teaching at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, N.Y., Martha Strever pushed, pulled and pounded on the school’s door, which was locked. No one came. Where was everybody? It was, after all, the first day of school.

It turned out everybody was exactly where they were supposed to be: inside, having entered through the school’s front entrance. Strever had been knocking on a side door. Flustered but undeterred, she not only found her way inside, she also found her life’s calling.

Paraprofessionals and school-related personnel are often overlooked because of their support roles. They are the last ones hired and often the first ones fired when budgets get tight. This certainly seems true right now as the Trump administration withholds nearly $7 billion in education funds, effective July 1, which has hamstrung summer school programs, hindered English language support, halted professional development this summer, and left before- and after-school programs in limbo for the coming school year.

It is clear that higher education is under attack. The Trump administration has frozen funding for science, from cancer research to reproductive care; has hamstrung student financial aid programs; has stripped colleges and universities of diversity, equity and inclusion programming; has strangled affirmative action designed to expand access to college; and is demanding that some institutions sign a “compact” that forces them to adopt Trump’s ideology in exchange for federal funding.

Wisconsin public employees file lawsuit challenging constitutionality of law banning collective bargaining

State statute unconstitutionally violates workers’ freedom to negotiate, unlawfully creating a disfavored class of public sector employees, says a new lawsuit filed by workers.

MADISON, Wis. – Today, Wisconsin public employees filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law which eliminated the freedom to engage in collective bargaining for most public sector workers.

“State-employed workers, such as graduate assistants like myself, should be guaranteed the same rights as public safety workers. We contribute so much to our communities, and we deserve a voice on the job,” said Maddie Topf, a graduate assistant at University of Wisconsin Madison. “Legal action to restore collective bargaining rights to all state employees is one way to secure the livelihood of working people in Wisconsin,” said Nina Denne, a graduate assistant at University of Wisconsin-Madison. They are co-presidents of AFT-Wisconsin’s Teaching Assistants Association.