Correction: AFSCME didn’t turn down having Juneteenth holiday

In the June 29 issue of the Independent, we started a long report on the June 20 Van Buren Township Board of Trustees meeting that continued on page three.
Although it was reported in the story that the AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) union local turned down having Juneteenth as a paid holiday, we find that isn’t exactly what happened.
Clerk Leon Wright said actually AFSCME proposed having Juneteenth as a paid holiday during recent negotiations and then the township turned it down when the union didn’t want to give up another paid holiday in exchange.
The Independent did publish a typographical error in that story and referred to Columbia Day in the sentence that should have read, “The union gave up Columbus Day for Martin Luther King Day.”
Employees now have 12 paid holidays.
We apologize for the confusion.
— Rosemary K. Otzman, editor