The chartered name of this great organization is District of Columbia District Council 20. Our organization came into existence on April 24th, 1971. One of the first agencies to be organized was the District of Columbia Department of Public Works, Bureau of Building Operations, which consisted of all non-supervisory employees. At that time, it had 50 potential members.

Over the following years, D.C. Council 20 would branch out over every level of the DC Government, organizing and growing our council by the thousands. By the year 1996, D.C. Council 20 had organized over 12,000 employees in the District of Columbia Government, the District of Columbia Public School System, the District’s Health Care Systems and other independent agencies such as Howard University Hospital and the University of the District of Columbia.

In less than a decade, D.C. Council 20, AFSCME, became the largest public sector union in the city and a force to be reckoned with. To this day, we still remain the largest public sector union in the District of Columbia.