AFSCME Family,
The official jobs numbers were released on Friday morning, and they confirmed what we already knew: the coronavirus pandemic has triggered the most devastating economic crisis of our lifetimes.
The economy hemorrhaged nearly 1 million public service jobs in April. That is far and away the biggest one-month drop ever. This is a five-alarm fire. Congress has to act quickly and ambitiously.
Call your senators and demand that they fund the front lines.
Now — in the middle of a life-and-death public health crisis — is not the time to be handing out pink slips to the front-line fighters like you who keep our communities strong. We need public service workers on the job now more than ever.
If we’re not there, who will fix the roads? Who will answer the 911 calls? Who will treat the patients coming to the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms? Who will take care of seniors, people with disabilities, domestic violence victims and our most vulnerable people? Who will make sure kids get to school safely and have a clean, safe learning environment when they get there? Everything that matters in our communities — public safety, public schools, public health and more — hangs in the balance right now.
And here’s the bad news: usually the biggest public service job losses come later on in an economic downturn, not right at the outset. That means this could get a lot worse if Congress doesn’t deliver immediately on state and local government aid.
Call now! Tell Congress: Laying off more public service workers will turn a recession into a depression.
These are some of the toughest times we’ve faced — as public service workers and as a country. We will pull through this together. Thank you for the courage you show every single day.
In solidarity,
Lee Saunders
AFSCME President
