Public employees have traded raises for better benefits. Yes, we enjoy good health insurance, paid vacation and sick leave – the kind of benefits that all workers deserve. But, we earn about 11 percent less than someone doing the same job in the private sector (check the facts). That means the average AFSCME member, who earns $38,000 a year, would make $4,180 more. That’s the truth, but cheap-labor conservatives are trying to pit public workers against private workers with lies about our pay and work habits. Their real agenda is to strip all workers of their wages, benefits and health care. They especially hate labor unions, because wages go up when workers stick together. Watch AFSCME's Eliot Seide destroy the cheap-labor agenda. He went head-to-head with the Taxpayers League on FOX-9 news August 9.

Cheap-labor conservatives, like Governor wannabe Tom Emmer, have no problem opening the public purse for corporate interests. Their tax breaks for the rich are already costing Minnesota $4 billion every two years. It’s “social spending” on people who actually need assistance that they “can’t tolerate.” Their defining slogan these days is “less government.” You know why? Destitute people work cheaper.

Workers rise or fall together. That’s why AFSCME advocates for ALL WORKERS – not only our members. We believe all labor should be rewarded with wages that can raise a family, health care if we get sick, and a retirement that’s dignified.