Wins demonstrate the power of collective bargaining and solidarity

Leaders from across the country celebrated historic victories during today's general session at the AFT's national convention. The wins ranged from reforms to New York state's long-criticized Tier 6 pension plan to new job protections addressing artificial intelligence-a rapidly emerging issue alongside the labor movement's long-fought battles for fair pay and affordable healthcare. Together, the victories demonstrated the transformative power of organizing, solidarity and bargaining for the common good.

The wins come in the same year that the AFT announced reaching 1.88 million members, its largest membership ever.

Sarina Roher, president of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, shared a landmark victory secured after a coalition of unions authorized a five-day strike that brought approximately 40,000 nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals across Oregon, California and Hawaii out on the streets.

"You cannot provide healthcare without healthcare workers," Roher said, standing alongside Teri Carvalho Luke, president of the Hawaii Nurses and Healthcare Professionals. "And when workers stand together, hospitals cannot ignore us."

During months of contentious negotiations, Roher and Carvalho Luke "called on the strength of our national union," Roher said. Together with AFT national, OFNHP, HNHP and others "coordinated our strategy and proved that when healthcare workers bargain together, we absolutely win together."

Here are a few highlights of what they won: strengthened staffing protections, improved health benefits-including expanded IVF coverage and additional paid lactation breaks-and restoration of the language in their 2021 racial justice contract provision, which Kaiser Permanente had diluted to preemptively appease the Trump administration. Solidarity is power, and "power is muscle," Roher said.

Debbie White, president of New Jersey's Health Professionals and Allied Employees, described how the union took the fight for safe staffing from the policy table to the bargaining table when legislative efforts stalled. This year, HPAE negotiated 14 consecutive contracts with enforceable safe staffing provisions-a major victory on an issue that directly affects healthcare professionals' ability to provide high-quality patient care. They also won 10 percent wage increases over the course of just one year by demonstrating to the employers-with a 95 percent turnout for a strike authorization vote-that the power of the people is a formidable force.

Union leaders also highlighted victories won by locals across the country. After years of raises ranging from zero to 1 percent, the Faculty Alliance of Miami secured a 9 percent salary increase over three years and established minimum salaries for the first time. The United Educators of San Francisco demonstrated how collective bargaining can strengthen entire communities, codifying sanctuary school protections and preserving and expanding an overnight shelter program for unhoused students and their families, while also winning fully funded family healthcare and significant raises for classified educators. United University Professions, a higher education affiliate in New York, guaranteed that employees, from professors to support staff, cannot be replaced by AI.

Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers, described sending 157 buses packed with members to the state Capitol as the culmination of a sustained campaign against the state's Tier 6 retirement requirements. That organizing helped lower the retirement age from 63 to 58, giving members "five years of their life back," she said.

AFT leadership reinforced that collective bargaining and organizing are how workers turn power into enforceable contracts, and that these wins show us what's possible when unions stand in solidarity.

[Melanie Boyer/Photo credit: Suzannah Hoover]