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

Massachusetts State Representative Jay Livingstone (D-Boston) has filed Amendment #590 to the FY2023 House budget. This Amendment would extend the line-of-duty death benefit to the families of ALL public sector workers.

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. Rep. Livingstone’s amendment would provide this benefit to every single state, county, municipal, and public higher education employee in the Commonwealth.

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

You can email your State Representative directly by clicking here.

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

Dear Rep. ____________________,

I am writing to you today as a public employee to ask you to support Rep. Livingstone’s Amendment #590 to the House 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 Boston Public Library, I face the following dangers nearly every day I go to work- [GIVE EXAMPLES OF THE DANGERS YOU FACE HERE, such as threats of violence, drug use, faulty heavy equipment, etc.].  

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