Austin AFSCME

This week, AFSCME Local 1624 is honoring all of the public servants that maintain our safe and clean streets, provide us with drinking water, keep our light on, and all of the other acts of public good that are too often taken for granted. Our city and county workers keep Austin running, and we are eternally grateful for your service.

✅LINK IN BIO - Solidarity isn’t a slogan. On this May Day, AFSCME Local 1624 member Seon-Ju Seung-Bickley helps remind us that workers are not safe due to ICE’s presence in our city. As public servants, we have to be serious about being a city that people can trust.

Yesterday, we were proud to support the Austin City Council’s “Safe to Call’ resolution, an item that seeks to ensure the safety of marginalized communities when they reach out to public safety officials. As public sector employees, we know how critical the trust between residents and public servants is. We look forward to our continued collaboration with community partners and to ensure safety for all that use our public services.

📰 Our members have been making their voices heard across the city! IT workers have raised the alarm bells and demanded the following from city management:

✅ Notify all City employees that you will stop OATS and halt transfers or reclassifications tied to OATS, effective immediately.

✅ Engage the workforce to identify improvements and innovations that do not rely on risky consolidation proposals.

✅ Pause over $10,000,000 in continued spending on consultants and contracts related to OATS.

Learn more and read more One-ATS coverage at stopoats.org

🚩 Over 700 City of Austin employees have raised red flags over the One Austin Technology Services initiative and signed our petition to STOP OATS. Every signature represents a conversation held at worksites, conferences, and other events around the city. The voices of city workers have been loud and clear 🚩- STOP THE CONSOLIDATION AND PAUSE THE MILLIONS IN CONSULTING CONTACTS

AFSCME Local 1624 Members have been making their voices loud and clear - the One Austin Technology Services initiative will remove crucial IT expertise from their departments and will increase risks to public safety. Emergency response teams deserve to have embedded IT staff ready at a moment’s notice - not after waiting for their IT ticket to be processed.

We’re because when we organize together, we strengthen ourselves, our workplaces, and our community!

This week, we wore green in solidarity with our City of Austin IT workers fighting to protect public services, safety, and data. When bosses push risky schemes, we don’t go quietly, we make headlines! Check out stopoats.org/news (link in bio)

City executives claim that the One ATS initiative will help the city save money. In reality, private consultants have made millions selling the city manager this incoherent plan, while withholding data and methodology from decision makers as “proprietary information.”

Removing IT employees from their specialized roles is no way to save taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. Our nationally-recognized IT workers devote their technological prowess to Austin’s critical services. Their innovations save time, money, and lives.