Black History Month Profiles: Charlotte James

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Charlotte James of AFSCME.

Charlotte James, a member of AFSCME District 1199C, is a mental health technician in the Temple University Health System at Episcopal Campus Inpatient Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Medicine. For a decade, she has stabilized patients in acute psychiatric crisis at one of the region’s few emergency mental health units. When she’s not caring for patients, James advocates for their access to care, traveling to Washington, D.C., trying to protect funding for mental health services.

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 02/09/2026 - 10:10

Tags: Black History Month

Get to Know AFL-CIO's Affiliates: Professional Hockey Players’ Association

This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 64 of our affiliates. Next up is the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA).

Mission: The PHPA operates under a mission focused on enhancing and protecting players’ rights as members pursue careers in professional hockey. Its primary functions include the following: Collective bargaining: Negotiating terms of employment, including salaries, health and welfare benefits, and playing conditions. Player advocacy: Protecting members’ interests and providing legal and professional guidance. Quality of life: Enhancing the off-ice well-being of players and their families through dedicated support programs.

Current Union Leadership: Elected players serving as the AHL Executive are Chris Terry, Chase Wouters, Joe Hicketts, Jimmy Schuldt, and Jarred Tinordi. Elected players serving as the ECHL Executive are Todd Skirving, Logan Lambdin, Justin Vaive and Justin Taylor. The executive director is Brian Ramsay.

Current Number of Members: 1,800+

Members Work As: Professional hockey players

Industries Represented: The American Hockey League (AHL) and the ECHL

History: The Professional Hockey Players’ Association was founded in 1967 in Portland, Oregon, when members of the Portland Buckaroos (of the now-defunct Western Hockey League) recognized that Canadians who played hockey in the United States and started families needed to send their wives back to Canada for babies’ births because the United States did not have a health plan that would cover the medical expenses. Several Buckaroos players, including Doug Messier and Arlo Goodwin, retained attorney Curt Leichner as their legal counsel so they could form a Western Hockey League (WHL) Players Association and secure group pension and health care plans, improving benefits through collective bargaining. Over the course of the 1967–68 season, players from the AHL saw the benefit of forming a benevolent society of their own and approached their WHL counterparts with the vision of creating a single players’ association that would represent all professional hockey players outside of the National Hockey League (NHL). On May 20, 1968, WHL and AHL players voted to form the Professional Hockey Players’ Association.

Since then, the PHPA has expanded to include representation of players in the former Central Hockey League (CHL) from 1974–84 and 2008–14, the former International Hockey League (IHL) from 1985–2001, and the ECHL since the 1995–96 season. The PHPA is now recognized as one of the oldest and largest players’ associations in professional sports, representing more than 1,800 members across 60 teams throughout the AHL and ECHL. The PHPA also boasts an alumni network of more than 10,000 former PHPA members.

Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: The Grow with the Pros! Mentor Program provides players for minor hockey teams with a one-of-a-kind hockey experience to develop on and off the ice. The Professional Hockey Players’ Guild is a comprehensive new resource initiative designed to support players throughout every stage of their career and prepare them for a career after hockey. It includes four core pillars of support: education, career, health and wellness, and perks. The PHPA Alumni Network is available to all PHPA alumni to assist former players in their post-hockey careers while offering unique access to PHPA resources, contacts and exclusive offers extended through PHPA corporate partner programs. Through the Group Licensing Authorization Program, the PHPA licenses the use of all authorized members’ names and likenesses to approved licensees to produce products such as trading cards, video games and photographs, as well as other collectibles and novelties. The PHPA Panel of Workers’ Compensation Attorneys is dedicated to providing professional legal services to injured players to ensure they can recover the maximum medical and disability benefits available. The PHPA Curt Leichner Distinguished Member Award is presented each year to a deserving recipient who has made significant contributions to the advancement of professional minor league hockey.

The PHPA Annual Meeting of Player Representatives is a weeklong series of meetings in which one player representative from each AHL and ECHL team and executive committee members, PHPA staff and advisers review the association’s operations during past year, plan for the upcoming season, and provide input and direction with respect to long-term strategic objectives.

Learn More: Website, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X

Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: The Grow with the Pros! Mentor Program provides players for minor hockey teams a one-of-a-kind hockey experience to develop on and off the ice. The PHPA GUILD is a comprehensive new resource initiative designed to support players throughout every stage of their career, and prepare you for a career after hockey. It includes four core pillars of support including education, career, health and wellness, and perks. The PHPA Alumni Network is available to all PHPA Alumni, designed to assist former players in their post-hockey career, while offering unique access to PHPA resources, contacts, and exclusive offers extended through the PHPA’s corporate partner programs. Through the Group Licensing Authorization Program, the PHPA licenses the use of all authorized members' names and likenesses to approved licensees, in order to produce products such as trading cards, video games, photographs, as well as other collectibles and novelties. The PHPA Panel of Workers’ Compensation Attorneys is dedicated to providing professional legal services to injured players in order to assure the recovery of maximum medical and disability benefits. The PHPA Curt Leichner Distinguished Member Award is presented each year to a deserving recipient who has made significant contributions toward the advancement of professional minor league hockey.

The PHPA Annual Meeting of Player Representatives is a week-long series of meetings where one player representative from each AHL and ECHL team, along with executive committee members, PHPA staff, and advisors review the Association’s operations during past year, plan for the upcoming season, and provide input and direction with respect to long-term strategic objectives.

Learn More: Website, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 02/09/2026 - 13:55