The Ohio Council 8 Executive Board is pleased to announce that Simone Hester has been awarded the Patricia Kittle Scholarship and Michael Patterson has been awarded the Leroy Elmore Scholarship as part of the Ohio Council 8 2021 Family Scholarship program.

Simone is the daughter of Sunday McDuffey is a 16-year member of AFSCME Local 3411, which represents employees of the Toledo City Clerks office.

A graduate of the Toledo School for the Arts, Simone was a motivated student who achieved an outstanding academic record and skill as an artist. In addition, she participated in many school and community activities including serving as a vocal advocate for several medical causes in her community.

In her winning essay, Montgomery saw firsthand the difference a union can make.  As the child of a single parent “the opportunity to become a union member provided my mother with one of the most important things she desperately needed  – job security.”

Simone will be attending Kent State University this fall and plans to follow her passion as an artist and become a fashion designer.       

The 2021 men’s scholarship winner, Michael Patterson, is the son of 19-year AFSCME Local 0027 member Robin Patterson. An active member of the union representing Cuyahoga County office of Child Support Services, she serves on the union’s executive board. 

Michael graduated from Euclid Hills High School, where he was an active student with a strong academic record.  He is a member of the National Honor Society, was the, captain of the varsity basketball team for two consecutive years and was respected by his classmates and teachers. 

In his winning essay, Michael recounted lessons he learned through his mother’s association with AFSCME.  “My mother would always say ‘there is strength in numbers” and through her actions I learned a group has more power than a single person.”

Michael will be attending John Carroll University in the fall where he plans on pursing a communications degree with a goal of becoming a sports reporter.

The 2021 AFSCME Ohio Council 8 Scholarships are named in honor of Patricia “Pat” Kittle and Leroy Elmore .

Sister Kittle worked as a registered nurse at Trumbull Regional Medical Center for more than 42 years. A graduate of the Trumbull Memorial School of Nursing, she embarked on a career dedicated to the selfless care for others. 

A key activist during the successful nine-day strike for union recognition in 1999, Pat went on to serve as vice president of AFSCME Local 2026 for 20 years and in 2019, she became Union President. 

A caring individual, she was regarded as a person who could solve any problem with grace and efficiency. Pat passed away in June of 2020.

Brother Elmore started his health care career in the 1960’s and was employed by Cleveland’s Mt. Sinai Hospital as a pathology assistant starting in 1971.

A year later, he was instrumental in forming an AFSCME local union at the hospital and served as a member, steward and union president for more than ten years. In 1985, he joined the AFSCME first as an organizer and later he became an Ohio Council 8 staff representative and in 1998, he became Cleveland Regional Director. 

In 2001, he joined the AFSCME Ohio Care Plan as Plan Administrator and served for 12 years before retiring, topping off his 39-year AFSCME career.

Leroy lives in Euclid Ohio and is still active in the community.

Ohio Council 8 First Vice President Marcia Knox, chairperson of the executive board committee that reviews the scholarship applications, wished Simone and Michael the best of luck pursuing their higher education goals.  

The Ohio Council 8 Family Scholarship program was established in 1982.

AFSCME Ohio Council 8 is saddened to report the passing of Nelsonville Ohio senior firefighter Jeff Armes, who died in the line of duty at the scene of a structure fire Sunday, May 2, 2021.

A member of AFSCME Local 2845B, Armes, 38, of Nelsonville, collapsed while actively fighting a fire. Fellow firefighters and EMS administered CPR and advanced life support care. Armes was transported by Athens County EMS to OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital in Athens where he was pronounced dead.

He had worked as a fireman for the Nelsonville Fire Department since 2011 and was a longtime volunteer for the Starr Township, Hocking County, Ohio fire department.

Jeffrey is survived by his parents, loving wife, Lezlee Renee and children, Ayden and Teylar Armes.

“Jeffery will be greatly missed by our union family,” said AFSCME Ohio Council 8 President R. Sean Grayson. “We offer his friends and family our sincere condolences.”

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, on Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Known as “The Lady With the Lamp,”  Florence Nightingale was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician best known as the founder of modern nursing.

National Nurses Week is devoted to thanking nurses and other healthcare workers for the hard work they do every day keeping patients healthy, especially after a year of stress and long hours caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland, an employee at the United States Department of Health, sent a letter to President Eisenhower proposing a National Nurses Day. An official proclamation was not made. The following year, people began celebrating National Nurses Week on their own.

In 1974, President Nixon issued a proclamation by the White House as establishing a National Nurse Week. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation proclaiming “National Recognition Day for Nurses” to be May 6, 1982.

Since then the nation has used this opportunity to recognize nurses everywhere and celebrate their dedication and commitment to their patients and their profession. 

Now more than ever it is time to recognize AFSCME Ohio Council 8 and all nurses.

Fifty years ago on April 28, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect promising America’s workers the right to a safe job. 

While the law was a great step forward for private sector workers, public employees were exempt. It would take Ohio’s public sector workers another 23 years, including an eight-year battle in the Legislature, to end this deadly discrimination and win the same workplace protections.

Without OSHA protections Ohio public employees could not even refuse to enter an unsafe area if they believed their lives were in danger.

The law was won because of the tireless efforts of Ohio’s AFSCME unions which organized for safer working conditions and demanded government action. While the law passed in the Ohio House several times it always died in the Senate.

The law for the first time created a legal obligation for public employers to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards.

Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality in Ohio and across the nation. But our work is not done.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the inextricable link between workplace safety and the health of our communities. Organized labor will continue to organize and strengthen job safety to save lives and make the workplace a safe place.

Ohio got two more pieces of hopeful news about the coronavirus Tuesday.

Gov. Mike DeWine announced that because of rapidly expanding supplies of the vaccine, all Ohioans 16 and over will be eligible to get a shot by the end of March. At the same time, the percentages of residents already eligible for the vaccine are showing marked improvement after weeks of slow growth.

Increased production of the first two vaccines to be used in the United States and the approval of a third have tripled the number of weekly doses flowing into the state from early February. Growing supplies prompted DeWine to make his Tuesday morning announcement.

“It’s a moral imperative that we move as quickly as we can to vaccinate all Ohioans who wish to be vaccinated,” DeWine said in a tweet. “We expect a significant increase in vaccines coming to Ohio soon, so we will expand vaccine eligibility.”

Read the full story from the Ohio Capitol Journal here.