Two new employees recently joined the NAPE/AFSCME team.
Chris Morton is coming on as a Field Representative, though he’s certainly not new to NAPE. Chris is a long-time NAPE member and was part of the bargaining team that recently negotiated the best labor contract in the thirty-five year history of the State Employees Collective Bargaining Act.
For the past three years, Chris worked as a Communications and Community Outreach Specialist for Nebraska Medicaid. In his position, he was responsible for ensuring that when people were running into problems getting the care and benefits they needed, or when things weren’t being done by the book, those issues were addressed and promptly resolved.
Chris is most looking forward to helping grow our union. He’s confident that the more members we have, the better our chances are for winning even bigger in the next round of contract negotiations. What’s more, Chris spent so much of his spare time talking to potential members about the importance of union membership that he’s excited to make recruiting part of his full-time job.
In his spare time, Chris likes to cook and experiment with new recipes.
Lauren Franken started as NAPE’s new Communications Specialist in early June after graduating with her master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May. Though she’s new to union work, she appreciates the crash course that NAPE members and her coworkers have been giving her.
Already, Lauren has learned the importance of educating state workers about their rights; and she thinks that by elevating the outreach and impact of NAPE’s digital communications content, we can reach even more people and empower them with the information they need to advocate for themselves and others in the workplace. Her biggest goal is to engage the younger generations of state workers and rally them around our shared cause.
In her free time, Lauren likes to read on the patio with her cats, Juno and Nutmeg, or bake cupcakes in her too-small kitchen.