John,

There have been a number of important events happening in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, and we wanted to keep you up to date on the major events of interest to federal and D.C. government employees.

This week was a busy one. It started with an event sponsored by The Hill, a Washington, D.C. newspaper that focuses on Congress and politics as they affect what’s happening on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the city. AFGE was invited to speak about two items: how President Biden can shore up the morale of the federal workforce after four years of being “demeaned and frequently castigated as a habit of the previous administration?” (their words, not ours) and what is the feeling in the agencies four days post-inauguration?

During the discussion we shared that we were extremely pleased with all of the executive orders Biden had signed so far, especially including the revocation of the 2018 executive orders on collective bargaining, official time, office space, and adverse actions; but also the ones getting rid of Schedule F for Flunkies, lifting the ban on diversity and inclusion training, instructing agencies to develop plans for a $15 per hour minimum for all federal work, whether it is performed by federal workers or contractors. We also shared that we were pleased with appointments to chair the FLRA and EEOC and that we were working on getting the new EOs implemented right away.

We also talked about the need to staff up at the many agencies that were left without adequate numbers of federal employees – particularly in VA, EPA, and DoD. In addition we talked about the need for a pay raise that would really show that the Biden administration means it when they say they want to show respect for the federal workforce.

On Tuesday and Wednesday nights we held nationwide townhalls with leaders and the general membership that was a rollout of our new Organizing for Power —NOW program. The PowerPoint slides that went along with the presentation are available on the AFGE website. The basic thrust was that we need to kickstart our organizing program because recruitment has really fallen off due to the pandemic and the Trump EOs. This time, as we gear up we want to emphasize a new approach that goes beyond just signing up as many people as we can. We want to have one-on-one conversations with members and potential members to find out what issues they want to work on as union members — we want to make sure that every member is an engaged member who feels as though the union belongs to them, rather than seeing the union as almost just a business that owes them services in exchange for dues.

Nothing is more important to our union than to organize — to recruit and retain our membership. Our members are our strength. Our members are the union, and everything we hope to achieve depends on growing and empowering our membership.

The calls were very well-attended and generated lots of questions about organizing and how the revocation of the 2018 EOs will occur. You can still send in questions to [email protected] and we will see to it that your question is answered.

This week we also hosted two national press conferences: on the EOs and what comes next, and one on legislation introduced by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee that guarantees 12 weeks of paid leave every year to federal employees to deal with illness of their own or that of a family member. It also can be used in connection with a family member who is deployed for active military duty.  For both press conferences we had reporters from national outlets like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many representing the “trade” press, that is, the publications that focus on what’s happening in the federal agencies and with the federal workforce.

Today we've hosted a fair number of meetings as we continue to plan for our upcoming Legislative Conference. We’ve got a great conference planned and if you haven’t done so yet, I urge you to register.

Have a great weekend!

In Solidarity,

Dr. Everett Kelley
AFGE National President

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