Junior College District Federation of Teachers & Classified AFT/AFL-CIO - Local 3506

How To Join

Print the membership application. Fill out and sign the application and give it to any Local 3506 officer. Application forms are also available from the campus associate vice presidents or local officers. Current officers can be found by clicking the ABOUT US link at the top of the Web page and then choosing the CONTACT US option. These officers can get you enrolled immediately and you can start enjoying the benefits of membership just as fast. Help share the cost of supporting our Office and Technical bargaining unit members. Dues paying members make it possible for the Union to enforce our negotiated contract.

JCD/FTC Local 3506 makes its services affordable for all members. Our dues program is only $20.00 per month and allows anyone, regardless of their economic status, to be able to join our organization and access important benefits and protections. The mission of JCD/FTC AFT Local 3506 AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families within the Saint Louis Community College District. Your union dues are automatically deducted from your paycheck at a rate of only $10.00 per pay period twice a month. Membership earns you the right to vote on union matters such as ratification of our bargaining unit contact/resolution negotiated between the Union and the College. Local 3506 is the only entity authorized to negotiate with the College on behalf of the Office and Technical bargaining unit for our working conditions. Membership means that you become an affiliate of national, state and local American Federation of Teachers (AFT) organizations. There can be safety in numbers.

JCD/FTC Local 3506 Member Benefits and AFT PLUS
AFT offers top-of-the-line comprehensive benefits that can help you reach both personal and professional goals. With your full-service union, you will find resources at every level of the organization to meet your needs—both on and off the job. Our union works hard to improve your professional life while serving as a resource, a tough negotiator, and a contract enforcer.

Members of JCD/FTC Local 3506 receive the highest quality representation available from one of Missouri’s strongest unions. JCD/FTC Local 3506’s commitment to stand by each and every member to provide top quality services makes this union not only trustworthy, but also reliable.

The following is a brief list of the many benefits available to each member:

$2 Million Dollars Occupational Liability and Legal Action Trust Insurance
Legal Counsel / Legal Representation
State and Federal Lobbying Services
Grievance Assistance and Union Staff Assistance
Contract Negotiation Services (Pay and Benefits)
College Budget Analysis
$25,000 Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
$12,000 No-Cost Term Life Insurance (First Year of Membership)
Professional Development Conferences and Seminars
Access to Numerous Publications and Reports

A Message from AFT-Missouri President

By deciding to stand with our 1.6 million members nationwide, you have the power to bargain; the power to negotiate; the power to change things, win improvements, and achieve victories that matter to you and to the people you serve. Together, we are able to attain our goals of fairness and dignity for people in our workplaces and in our communities. Together, we can make a difference every day in everything we do.

AFT membership brings with it a wealth of opportunities and resources. By getting involved in the union, you have the opportunity to actively address the issues and concerns you face at work. Every day, workers like you help shape and drive the AFT agenda. In addition, your membership provides numerous professional and personal resources. I urge you to band with coworkers and explore everything AFT has to offer by visiting www.aft.org for current AFT new and resources.

In Solidarity,

Debbie Bornhop

President, AFT-Missouri

Tips from public employees on mobilizing members

When the president of Colorado WINS learned that the president of the United States might be targeting Denver next in his anti-immigration campaign of terror, she knew how she’d begin to mobilize. One simple thing Diane Byrne does is deck out her activists in matching T-shirts. Wearing union colors promotes team spirit and builds confidence, she says. The AFT Public Employees program and policy council, meeting in New York City Feb. 5-6, abounded with tips to help locals mobilize. PPC chair Gary Feist, president of North Dakota Public Employees, recommended finding members who can tell a personal story to draw media attention. With more media on the issue, he said, legislators will become more motivated to fix the problem.

Federal immigration actions are rapidly expanding, with deadly consequences. The killings of poet Renee Nicole Good and nurse Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have brought intense focus on the use of excessive force. An AFT webinar, co-hosted by AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang on Jan. 28, featured experts on immigration and the law. It highlighted AFT resources and showcased how our locals are showing up to minimize fear and trauma.

Photo credit: SDI Productions / E+ / Getty Images

Paraprofessionals and school-related personnel are often overlooked because of their support roles. They are the last ones hired and often the first ones fired when budgets get tight. This certainly seems true right now as the Trump administration withholds nearly $7 billion in education funds, effective July 1, which has hamstrung summer school programs, hindered English language support, halted professional development this summer, and left before- and after-school programs in limbo for the coming school year.

It is clear that higher education is under attack. The Trump administration has frozen funding for science, from cancer research to reproductive care; has hamstrung student financial aid programs; has stripped colleges and universities of diversity, equity and inclusion programming; has strangled affirmative action designed to expand access to college; and is demanding that some institutions sign a “compact” that forces them to adopt Trump’s ideology in exchange for federal funding.

Randi Weingarten at a Massachusetts high school

Summer is upon us, and parents, children and teachers are winding down from what has been an exhausting and fully operational school year—the first since the devastating pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 has affected our students’ and families’ well-being and ignited the politics surrounding public schools. All signs point to the coming school year unfolding with the same sound and fury, and if extremist culture warriors have their way, being even more divisive and stressful.

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

How To Join

Tips from public employees on mobilizing members

All the resources you need on immigration and ICE

Kids and PSRPs take the brunt of Trump’s halt to school funding

We rise up to save higher education

Smears vs. solutions

What unions do