AFSCME Florida Statement on George Floyd Protests and the Movement for Black Lives

At this crucial moment in our nation’s history, Americans of all walks of life are coming together to express their anger and grief over institutionalized racism and its impacts that have flourished for far too long. We can and must understand that pain in order to envision a more equal and just society for all.

From the fight for fair working conditions in the 1930s to Dr. King’s fateful march with sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968, AFSCME has had a long history of standing up for civil rights in our communities and fighting for social and economic justice. Today is no different. 

Let this moment of unrest in the midst of a woefully mismanaged pandemic, millions unemployed, and historic levels of inequality be a catalyst to move this nation in a profoundly new direction toward the aims the labor movement was founded on: that every person has dignity and value and deserves equality and justice.

"As the largest public sector union in the state of Florida representing over 100,000 front line workers, we know that an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said AFSCME Florida President Vicki Hall. We stand in solidarity with all those in the streets peacefully seeking justice for George Floyd and all victims of police brutality and racial injustice everywhere.

#BlackLivesMatter