From President Gerald McEntee

State and local budgets are being drastically slashed, and AFSCME members like you are on the front lines—trying to meet skyrocketing demand for services with fewer and fewer resources.

In the face of such challenges, AFSCME members do we what do best—we keep our communities going. We make America happen.

But it can't all be left to the frontline workers to keep doing more and more with less and less. That's why AFSCME launched our Make America Happen campaign—to win bold changes in Washington that will get our country back on track.

With our Make America Happen campaign we are fighting to win:

1. Big investment in public services that strengthen the economy;
2. Quality, affordable health care we can count on;
3. A stronger middle class by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

Republican leaders in Congress have made clear that they will do all they can to block progress. Not one Republican House member—not one—voted for President Obama's recovery bill for Main Street—a bill to create or save nearly 4 million jobs, in part by investing $225 billion in state and local public services. We got it passed without them because tens of thousands of AFSCME members took action—calling, emailing and writing your elected officials in Washington.

Our work is far from done. Our next step is to help get the President's budget passed. Unlike the budgets of the past eight years, it’s a budget with the right priorities—putting the needs of working families first and paving the way for real health care reform.

As part of our Make America Happen campaign, we've deployed field organizers across the country. And this week we've launched, in partnership with Americans United for Change, a TV ad campaign to put pressure on politicians who want to stay with the failed policies of the past.

But field organizers and TV ads won't be enough. We need every AFSCME member taking part in this campaign. We’ve launched a new Make America Happen website. There you can get campaign updates, watch a video message from me, hear from your fellow AFSCME members, register for a special online briefing and sign up to get involved.

In Solidarity,

GERALD W. McENTEE
International President