Two measures of organizing success emphasized by the AFT Public Employees program and policy council over the past two years have been growth in membership and growth in membership involvement in local union activities. After all, it is the latter that largely determines a union's ability to advocate on behalf of its members in the workplace as well as in city councils, county boards, state legislatures and Congress.

Locals large and small resoundingly met the challenge. State employees in Connecticut, Montana, New York and Wisconsin marshaled their collective voice against privatization of public services. County workers in Ohio went on strike over healthcare; and state employees in Kentucky derailed attempts to overhaul their health benefits. State and local government employees in Colorado helped pass a ballot initiative to suspend the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which was crippling public services at every level of government. And Maryland state employees gained collective bargaining enhancements despite a gubernatorial veto.

While mobilization efforts turned up the volume of the union's collective voice, the division also was building membership. The Wisconsin Professional Employees Council and the Wisconsin Science Professionals are implementing the national AFT's MC/IO protocols to capture their full membership potential.

The division also has had demonstrated organizing successes among units of local government employees: Keene, N.H., city employees voted for AFT Public Employees representation in August 2004; and the city's police supervisors affiliated in January 2005. Montana's MEA-MFT welcomed a group of public defenders working for Cascade County, which includes Great Falls, in March 2005.

Illinois Community College Board Staff also said yes to union representation in October 2005; and the Guam Federation of Teachers/AFT, which has been steadily expanding its government employee membership, now boasts members in every branch of Guam government ranging from the Guam Law Library to community maintenance workers at the Mayor's Council. One of GFT's latest representation victories was finalized when the governor signed the petition for exclusive recognition for Guam Waterworks Authority employees this spring.

The division's most illustrious victory was marked in March 2006 when the Illinois Labor Relations Board certified the Illinois Federation of Public Employees as the collective bargaining representative of 155 public service administrators. The statewide unit is composed of site managers at state parks for the Department of Natural Resources' divisions of forestry and fisheries, site managers for the Historic Preservation Agency and a small group of supervisors in various bureaus of the Department of Agriculture. The organizing victory among workers in this unit, however, occurred 16 years ago when site managers at DNR forged an association with IFPE.