This is a critically important budget alert for AFSCME public sector employees in Massachusetts!  

Massachusetts State Senator Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow) has filed Amendment #131 to the FY2023 Senate budget.  This Amendment would extend the line-of-duty death benefit to the families of ALL public sector workers.  Last month we tried to get this amendment attached to the House budget.  This month we are trying again, this time focusing on the Senate.

Currently, this $300,000 one-time payment is only provided to the families of public-safety workers who lose their lives while in the performance of their duties.  Sen. Lesser’s amendment would provide this benefit to every single state, county, municipal and public higher education employee in the Commonwealth.

Please call and email your state Senator TODAY and ask them to co-sponsor this amendment. 

You can email your State Senator directly by clicking HERE.

We urge you to ask your co-workers and family members to do the same.

At this time we are only focusing on the State Senate. If you have questions, please reach out to AFSCME Legislative and Political Director Jim Durkin, or call him at 978-866-2283.  Thank you!

If you’d like to call instead of email (or do both!), click here to find out who your State Senator is.  Here’s a sample of what you might say:

Dear Sen. ____________________,

I am writing to you today as a public employee to ask you to support Rep. Lesser’s Amendment #131 to the Senate Budget.

This amendment would provide a line-of-duty death benefit for all public sector employees, not just public safety workers. There is an element of danger to virtually all public sector jobs. As a INSERT JOB TITLE with INSERT EMPLOYER/AGENCY I face the following dangers nearly every day I go to work- [GIVE EXAMPLES OF THE DANGERS YOU FACE HERE, such as patient assaults on staff, heavy equipment operation, school violence, etc.].  

On-the-job deaths are rare, but they do happen. In the past ten years, my union has lost two members: a New Bedford Public Works employee who was crushed to death by a piece of heavy equipment and a state mental health worker who was murdered by a patient. 

This issue has already been reported out favorably by the Public Service Committee twice and was included in the 2017 Senate budget following the death of an East Longmeadow public works employee who was killed while plowing during a blizzard.

Please co-sponsor Amendment #131 and ask President Spilka to support it as well.  Thank you.