Every year, the President of the United States addresses the House and Senate in a joint session of Congress to discuss the state of our nation and plans for the future. Each member of Congress is allowed to bring a guest.
This year the state of the union address will be held on March 7, and AFGE Local 96 member April Williams will be attending as a guest of Rep. Nikki Budzinski of Illinois, who also spoke at the AFGE rally calling for full funding of our government earlier this month. In bringing April with her, the congresswoman wanted the issues important to federal workers to be front and center for all of Congress to see.
April works as a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in St. Louis, MO. Besides being a member of Local 96, she’s also the local’s legislative and political coordinator and is active in her local community.
We caught up with April during our legislative conference and asked her about her union activism and the upcoming SOTU.
How long have you been working with Rep. Budzinski and on what issues?
Why have you been invited as a guest for the State of the Union address?
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit kept the largest collective bargaining agreement covering Department of Veterans Affairs employees in place.
The Trump administration’s plans to replace many of the career federal employees who ensure the safety of the flying public with private contractors ignores the lessons learned from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and would result in weaker airport security.
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in April undermining a key tenant of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, AFGE National President Everett Kelley recently joined more than 5,600 concerned citizens in Alabama to protest the decision and its impact on marginalized communities nationwide.