June 2015

MEA-MFT members Tom Fulton, Julianna Crowley, Kevin Bock, Renne’t Sarbu, Jill Cohenour, and Michael Hoffman receive the AFT Solution-Driven Unionism award.

MEA-MFT public employee members who attended a national AFT conference this spring came home to Montana toting a prestigious prize: AFT’s Solution-Driven Unionism award.
 

The award recognizes AFT members’ outstanding collective work to create solutions that improve their workplaces and communities. AFT is one of MEA-MFT’s two national affiliates.
 

Montana’s prize honors “the public employee local unions of the Montana MEA-MFT for bringing together a community alliance of citizens, activists, unions, and community groups around issues that help support the common good. The MEA-MFT agenda works to build a stronger community, supporting mental health programs, public safety, retirement security, jobs, education, and a wide range of issues that benefit communities all across Montana.”
 

Several MEA-MFT members received the award at the AFT’s annual public employees’ conference in Denver in May.
 

With the theme “Reclaiming the Promise of Quality Public Services for Strong Communities,” the conference addressed the need to confront powerful, well-funded forces working to silence workers’ voices and eliminate bargaining rights. “It’s more important than ever that we fight together to restore the middle class in this country,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten at the conference.
 

“And it means our communities get first-rate public services that keep them safe, healthy and vibrant,” Weingarten said, “services that are provided by public employees, not privatized.”