Public Employee Press

Lifeguards are union strong, union proud

With every member enrolled, New York City Lifeguards Local 461 and their Supervisors in Local 508 went above and beyond to participate in the DC 37/AFSCME Strong campaign.

“At inception, AFSCME set a goal of 80 percent enrollment for its 1.6 million members,” said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, “but our two Lifeguard locals in District Council 37 exceeded that standard with 100 percent enrollment of their members, who signed up at worksite training sessions in August.”

The DC 37/AFSCME Strong drive is a member-to-member organizing initiative to increase union membership and participation, better protect jobs, and preserve and improve wages, benefits and union-provided services for municipal employees. The union’s Organizing Dept. spearheads the campaign using union activists with the goal to engage more than 50,000 DC 37 members by 2016.