Traditional Thanksgiving gatherings with family and friends are fun but can increase the chances of getting or spreading COVID-19 or the flu. Follow these tips to make your Thanksgiving holiday safer.

The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year is to celebrate with people in your household. If you do plan to spend Thanksgiving with people outside your household, take steps to make your celebration safer.

For a full guide of how to stay safe this Thanksgiving and reduce the spread of COVID-19, read the CDC’s guidelines here.

The Ohio Council 8 Executive Board is pleased to announce that Reese Eichler has been awarded the Betty Thomas Scholarship and Damian Davis II has been awarded the George Tucker Scholarship as part of the AFSCME Ohio Council 8 Family Scholarship program.

Reese Eichler

Reese is the daughter of Janet Eichler who is a member of AFSCME Local 2026, which represents nurses at Steward Health/ Trumbull Memorial Hospital in the Youngstown Region. A graduate of Pymatuning Valley High School, Reese was as a motivated student who achieved an outstanding academic record and was respected by her classmates and teachers.

She is attending a 6 year program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Damian Davis II

The 2018 men’s scholarship winner, Damian Davis II, is the son of AFSCME Local 1632 member Damian Davis. An active member of the union representing City of Columbus employees, he is a 23-year union member and works for the city water department.

His son Damian graduated from Bexley High School with a strong academic record and was an outstanding athlete. Damian will be attending Bluffton University where he will major in sports management and business.

The 2020 AFSCME Ohio Council 8 Scholarships are named in honor of Toledo unionist George Tucker and Cincinnati unionist and Ohio Retiree coordinator Betty Thomas. Betty Thomas, a mother of five, began her career in education as a school and library volunteer. In 1972 she took a part-time job as an Instructional Assistant for the Cincinnati Board of Education.

Her skill and dedication were quickly recognized and in 1974, Thomas was hired full-time and  soon joined AFSCME Local 1938, the union for unclassified employees. She continued to work for the board of education and served the union for the next 19 years. In 1995, Thomas joined the International Union staff as the Retiree Coordinator for AFSCME Ohio Retirees Chapter 1184. Thomas is retired and lives in Cincinnati and is still active in AFSCME Retiree Chapter 1184.

George Tucker is a Toledo native, who after graduating from high school in 1961, joined the United States Navy. Five year later Tucker signed on with the Toledo city workforce and immediately joined AFSCME Local 7, which has represented the city’s workers since 1937.

Working in the city’s Division of Inspection and the sign shop, Tucker held numerous union positions as a member of Local 7 and in 1972 was elected president of, at that time, the 1,100-member union and also served on the AFSCME Ohio Council 8 executive board.

In 1984, Tucker joined Ohio Council 8 Toledo regional staff, a post he held until 1987, when he was appointed Toledo Regional Director. Tucker retired in 2004 and in 2012, he agreed to come out of retirement and served as director for an additional year.

Tucker also served on the Greater Northwest Ohio AFL-CIO steering committee and executive board and as President. In addition, Tucker gave of his time and talents to the United Labor Committee, the Northwest Ohio Center for Labor and Management Cooperation, the Labor Management Citizens Committee, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, was President of the Toledo Library Board of Trustees and served on the Toledo Port Authority. Tucker passed away in the spring of 2020. 

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

Most employees encounter unusual circumstances on the job at some point. Some even find opportunities to perform a good deed while working. But just this week (on Tuesday, Aug. 18), Water Service Representative Larry Luers found something extraordinary and responded with a very good deed.

While working in the field reading water meters, Larry turned his City vehicle into an alley off Prescott Avenue. He quickly noticed a child’s car seat on the ground, with a very young, unattended baby in it…in the rain. Larry immediately radioed his dispatcher, who in turn called 911.

While waiting for the police to arrive, Larry watched over the baby, now safe in his truck. As officers responded, other water service reps arrived on the scene, to see if Larry needed assistance.

As the situation settled, it was determined by police that the 6-month-old baby had been left by his mother in a car while she visited a nearby store. The car was then stolen; the baby, fortunately, was left behind and had the good fortune to be found by Larry Luers.

Larry’s supervisors in the Finance Dept., Rhonda Salone and Valerie Hudson, shared his story and are proud to count him among their crew.

“Every city worker is on the front lines serving the citizens of Dayton,” said Ann Sulfridge, AFSCME Local 101 President. “His actions are in the best tradition of our members and all city workers.”

By a landslide vote, more than 450 full-time and part-time clerical and technical classified employees at Ohio University overwhelming said AFSCME Yes and won union representation after more than a year-long organizing effort.

In the wake of recent university layoffs of classified employees and more than 150 AFSCME Local 1699 skilled-trade, maintenance and culinary employees, the new union is set to elect officers and enter negotiations with the administration.

“I’m looking forward to working with the newly formed classified bargaining unit to negotiate a fair contract with the administration that will address job security, wages, benefits, health insurance, and other labor concerns,” said John Johnson, AFSCME Ohio Council 8’s Athens Regional Director.

Early this year the organizing committee was ready to move to a mail-in secret-ballot election. However, due to the pandemic shutdown of the State Employment Relations Board the election was delayed until July and the ballots were counted on August 5th.

According to Melanie Quolke, a classified employee with ten years of experience in the university community and a member of the administration appointed Executive Policy Committee* which was supposed give classified employees a voice, “the main issue is trust”, she said.

*Correction –  Quolke is not a member of the Executive Policy Committee. She was a member of the Classified Senate which up to this point has been the voice for Classified Staff at the University. 

“We presented many detailed proposals to the committee on improving our jobs, our workplace and the university only to have many of them rejected out-of-hand by the administration.

“The union will give us representation that counts. With AFSCME we will have a real voice and a seat at the table,” Quolke said.

The new union will now be in addition to AFSCME Local 1699, which has represented skill trades, maintenance and culinary employees since 1967.

“I am very proud of this committee for their commitment to stick together for the long haul,” said Steve Roth, AFSCME Ohio Council 8 Organizing Director.

“I think this victory at OU will show classified employees at other state universities what a real voice on the job can do for them and their families,” Roth said.

Sean Harber

At a recent special convention held in the Dayton Region Sean Harber was elected as the new Regional Vice President. 

Harber joins Regional Vice President Jeff Hasty on the executive board representing the region’s 4,000 union members.

A 27-year member of AFSCME Local 101, Harber works as a Parks and Forestry Department employee responsible for maintaining park streets, guard rails, shelter houses, mowing grass, plowing snow, and the maintenance of other park facilities. 

Harber, a life-long resident of Dayton, is an active union member, a proven leader and has served as a union steward for nine years.

“I’m proud to be a city worker. It’s fulling to take care of the areas where people live, work and go to for relaxation and entertainment.  “I’m looking forward to meeting all the other board members and working with them to keep Ohio Council moving forward,” he said.

Harber takes over from Elizabeth Elliott who retired from the city and stepped down as regional vice president after serving the Dayton Region on the AFSCME Ohio Council 8 Executive Board since 2014.

The Senate plans to go on vacation AGAIN starting Friday, August 7th. But our communities-and the front-line workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic and helping Americans who have lost their jobs-can’t afford to wait any longer.

Call your senators today and tell them we need at least $1 trillion in federal aid to our states, cities, towns and schools.

Without this relief package, we won’t be able to keep nurses and other front-line health care workers on the job. Our schools won’t be able to reopen safely. Help for Americans who lost their jobs will slow even further. The trash won’t get picked up, and 911 response times will only increase.

This isn’t a blue state or a red state issue. Federal help for America’s states, cities, towns and schools is critical to saving the essential public services that all of our people and communities rely on every single day. It’s these services that we need to beat this pandemic and safely reopen the economy. We cannot choose between the two-they go hand in hand.

Call your senators today and tell them we need at least $1 trillion in federal aid to our states, cities, towns and schools.

Each day the Senate delays is another day of essential public services being cut and front-line public service workers being thanked with a pink slip. Continued inaction will be catastrophic for the economy and our chances of recovery.

Tell your senators to stop delaying and save our public services.

Our lives and livelihoods are on the line.

In Solidarity,

Team AFL-CIO