AFSCME is the nation's largest public employee and health care workers union. AFSCME is the nation’s largest and fastest growing public services employees union with more than 1.6 million working and retired members who are committed to achieving dignity and improving their working conditions through collective bargaining. AFSCME represents public employees and health care workers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Panama. They include employees of federal, state, county and municipal governments, school districts, public and private hospitals, universities and nonprofit agencies who work in a cross-section of jobs ranging from blue-collar to clerical, professional and paraprofessional. White-collar employees account for one-third of the membership, while health and hospital workers constitute the largest sector with more than 325,000 members. About 325,000 AFSCME members are clerical and secretarial employees, making AFSCME the largest union of office workers. Seventy-five thousand members are corrections officers, making AFSCME the largest union in that profession. The Los Angeles County Superior Court Clerks' Association represents court clerks and judicial assistants in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the world's largest trial court of general jurisdiction. Local 575 was chartered by AFSCME International in 1969. Local 575 was the first employee bargaining unit recognized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. AFSCME is organized into more than 3,400 local unions, most of which are affiliated with one of 63 councils. Local unions and councils have their own constitutions, elect their own officers and administer a wide variety of local affairs. The international union coordinates issues of concern to all AFSCME members and provides research, legislative, legal, organizational, educational, public relations and other services. Two national officers, the international president and international secretary-treasurer, are elected by convention every four years. They and 31 international vice-presidents --elected at convention on a regional basis--comprise the International Executive Board, which meets quarterly to review reports of officers and staff, determine policy and programs and implement convention resolutions. Local 575 is affiliated with Council 36, headquartered in Los Angeles. Local 575 elects a president, a vice-president, a secretary, a secretary-treasurer and seven executive board members. These officers are elected pursuant to the provisions provided for in the local constitution. AFSCME is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, of which AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee and Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy are vice presidents. AFSCME is a member of the Department for Professional Employees, the Industrial Union Department and the Public Employee Department of the AFL-CIO, and Public Services International, the international trade secretariat of public employees.
