Mike Newman

Deputy Director

AFSCME Council 31

Mike Newman is the Deputy Director of AFSCME Council 31 and an AFSCME International Vice President. He is also a Vice President of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Newman joined Council 31 as Legislative Director in 1982, playing an important role in the passage of public sector collective bargaining laws.

AFSCME Council 31 represents more than 90,000 active and retired employees of state, county and city governments, state universities, local school districts and nonprofit agencies across Illinois.  Newman has been involved in every facet of the union’s work, including overseeing the negotiation and administration of hundreds of collective bargaining agreements and supervising the union’s legal and contract administration teams.

Newman previously taught in the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois where he also earned a Master of Labor and Industrial Relations degree. Prior to that, Newman was a union organizer in the garment industry in the Southeastern United States.