AFSCME Council 8
Strong, active local unions joined together make AFSCME Ohio Council 8 a powerful force for working families. Council 8 is the leading union for public and non-profit workers in our state with more than 41,000 members in nearly 300 local unions representing city, county, hospital, and university employees along with boards of education, non-profit workers, and other public service employees. We are constantly working to organize new workers across Ohio to insure that the strength of our voice continues to grow.
Council 8 develops and implements programs designed to build local union power so workers have a real voice on the job. Council 8 enables its members to win good wages and health care benefits, a secure retirement, a safer workplace and respect and dignity on the job. Together with our local unions we work to strengthen labor-management relations.
The Council also collaborates with many other trade union organizations, including the Ohio AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Alliance of Retired Americans, and local labor central bodies in communities throughout the state. Together, these groups work to bring a stronger voice and better life to all Ohio working families.
At Council 8, the members run the union. Members take an active role in political and legislative issues through AFSCME Power In Action, a joint program of active and retired members which gives each AFSCME member a voice within the union as well as in the workplace.
Elected delegates represent their local unions at the Council's biennial statewide convention where they set policy and determine the union's agenda. Every four years, convention delegates elect the Council's president, first vice president, treasurer, recording secretary and trustees along with multiple representatives from each of the eight regions in Ohio. These leaders comprise the union's 23-member executive board responsible for implementing the policies and agenda set forth at the convention. The Council’s regional offices provide valuable assistance to AFSCME members, empowering local unions to win strong contracts, job security, fair treatment and uniform policies for their members.
The Council's headquarters is home to the president, first vice president and Council 8 staff members. They focus on issues affecting workers across Ohio and provide specialized resources such as legal expertise, health care and benefits analysis, organizing services and regular communications to AFSCME members.
AFSCME International
For more than 70 years, AFSCME has been the union for public and non-profit workers in America. Today, AFSCME represents more than 1.6 million members in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico with about 3,500 local unions and affiliates. Each local union writes its own constitution, designs its own structure, elects its own officers, and sets its own dues. Local unions often pool their resources by forming councils which provide services and representation by region or occupation. Currently there are 61 councils, including AFSCME Ohio Council 8.
The International union coordinates the union's activities at the national level on major issues that affect AFSCME members, including privatization, funding public services, health care, Social Security and protecting public pensions. In addition to lobbying Congress and the White House and providing important testimony before congressional committees, AFSCME International works with the political action organizations of affiliates, including Ohio Council 8's AFSCME Power in Action, to mobilize members at the grass roots level. The International union helps councils and local unions mount organizing campaigns, provides support for political action, bargaining and training, and administers a package of members-only benefits, such as a low-interest rate credit card, home mortgages, legal assistance and scholarships for members' children. The International union also represents more than 220,000 men and women who retired from public service careers through AFSCME Retiree organizations like AFSCME Ohio Retiree Chapter 1184.