When AFSCME delegates gather this summer at our 46th International Convention in Los Angeles, they will have a full agenda — charting our union’s future, electing officers, workshopping ways to improve our locals and councils, and hearing from labor luminaries and lawmakers.
According to Gwen Jones, president of AFSCME Retiree Chapter 36, who calls Los Angeles her home, the convention serves another purpose: forming bonds of friendship with other AFSCME retirees and members.
Jones hopes to build on the connections she made at our 45th International Convention in Philadelphia.
“It was really good,” Jones said of that convention. “I met several people, and we talked a lot about our lives and what’s going on in our unions. It’s so important. I just had a long phone call with a person I met in Philly. We talk at least once a month.”
There are other members, too, whom Jones has met at the many conventions she’s attended as a working member and a retiree. She’s stayed in touch with them over the years.
That’s why Jones, who worked at the Los Angeles Superior Court for more than two decades, is especially excited for this convention in August. Making new friends, learning from each other and experiencing the union power only convention can bring are all on her list.
And she’s ready to get down to business. At last year’s Retiree Convention in Washington, Jones and other participants discussed new strategies to bring in new members and protect Social Security and Medicare, and they talked about all the great things that come with being an AFSCME member and retiree.
Jones expects the Los Angeles convention to be a supersized version of that. And she’s excited to visit parts of her hometown that she doesn’t get to see as often as she’d like.
“I’m looking forward to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures,” said Jones. That museum’s staff organized as Academy Museum Workers United (AMWU) in 2022, part of AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United campaign. “I’ve been there, and it really is a wonderful, interesting place.”
But the highlight of August’s convention will be connecting with retirees and members from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
“It’s amazing to me that I meet people across the country,” said Jones.
