John,
We had another very busy week at AFGE with a lot to celebrate. Here are some of the biggest highlights.
AFL-CIO Executive Council Committee Meetings Help Set Agenda for Labor Movement in 2021
This week the AFL-CIO Executive Council held its committee meetings and I represented AFGE at several: the Legislative and Policy Committee, the Political Committee, the State and Local Labor Council Committee, the Union Veterans Council Committee and the Civil Rights Committee. What a tremendous amount of information was presented in each meeting!
Each committee had guest speakers. We heard from professors who told us about the economy, the pandemic, and the particulars of how various groups voted in the election. Union presidents and staff also shared their experiences fighting for proper PPE, paid time off, job security, organizing in a pandemic and legislative efforts for pandemic disaster relief and the PRO Act – Protecting the Right to Organize, much-needed labor law reform that gets rid of right to work laws and “captive audience” meetings during union elections when employers push anti-union propaganda. It also prohibits replacing striking workers with permanent employment of scabs, lets the NLRB fine employers when they violate labor law and stops employers from gutting bargaining units by misclassifying employees as “independent contractors,” and many other provisions aimed at helping organized workers get to the table to bargain a contract.
AFGE Pledges Our Solidarity with Amazon Workers Fighting to Win their Union
At one of the meetings, I met up with Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) that is holding the historic union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Since I’m from Alabama, he asked me if I would make a video in support of the @BAmazonUnion, which I did that very night. You can see it here.
Organizing in the South is a high priority for every union, and I hope that hearing from a native son of Alabama like me might help sway a few votes at least. Amazon has pulled out the stops to try to undermine the workers in Bessemer, even paying an anti-union consultant $3,200 a day! They are willing to spend that kind of money because they know that once workers see that it can be done in Alabama, they’ll know it can happen anywhere and everywhere.
SSA Returns to the Table in Another Positive Sign
This week, I was notified that SSA is returning to the table with our general committee to begin the work of restoring official time at that agency. This step is a move in the right direction and further proof that the Biden administration intends to make good on the spirit and letter of his executive order revoking the anti-union policies of the previous administration. We look forward to working with new leadership at each agency to get our local leaders back on site, with the time and resources they need to effectively represent our members.
Ensuring Safety at AFGE’s National Convention
This week we also held a few NEC calls and a nationwide all-leaders call to help us, as a union, to make a decision about our AFGE National Convention. As I write, there is conflicting information in the news about when it might be safe to resume normal face-to-face meetings.
Dr. Fauci says he thinks vaccines will be available to the general public through an “open season” by April based on supply, but others caution that it will be at least toward the end of summer until enough people are actually vaccinated because of the logistical challenge of getting “shots in arms.” Supplies and distribution have been the twin challenges of the vaccine rollout and it is great news that the supply problems seem on their way to being solved.
Especially as this situation continues to develop, with new information becoming available all the time, it’s important that we follow an orderly, good faith decision-making process based on mutual respect and understanding.
We’ve seen so many times over the past few years how misinformation can spread rapidly on social media, to disastrous effects. Watching the impeachment trial this week, I’ve been struck by the deep connection between the insurrectionary actions on January 6 and the conspiracy theories and misstatements floating around on social media that were filling these people’s minds and tearing our country apart.
Let’s resolve to do better as a union and set a positive example. Because all of us want a convention that allows us to conduct the important business of our members while also ensuring that this business can be conducted safely.
Celebrating Black History Month by Understanding the Struggles of Black Leaders in America
AFGE had a great Black History Month event on Facebook Live this week that is still available to watch in case you missed it, hosted by our Women’s and Fair Practices Department. I was privileged to speak and focused my remarks on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jack Johnson, a heavyweight boxing champion recently “pardoned” posthumously.
Both of these heroes of mine were Black men whose success was so threatening that opponents tried to undermine them with false rumors meant to discredit and shame them.
Jack Johnson, who's parents were enslaved, became the first Black heavyweight champion in 1908. After he won the title, many called for a “great White hope” to replace him, but Johnson was mostly unbeatable and proud of it. There was violent reaction to his successful matches against White opponents in New York, Atlanta and Houston. He was convicted of the crime of traveling across state lines with his White girlfriend and went to prison. He died in a car crash in 1946 after angrily leaving a restaurant in North Carolina that refused him service because of his race; he had to be taken to a hospital 25 miles away from the site of the crash because a closer hospital wouldn’t treat Black people.
For Dr. King, it was the FBI’s Cointelpro spy mission that tried to paint him as a lying communist. In fact, Hoover called MLK “the most notorious liar in the country,” after King complained about the FBI’s failure to investigate crimes affecting the Black community. They even went so far as to send MLK an anonymous letter that has been interpreted as encouraging King to commit suicide to avoid embarrassment. The lesson I take from these two Black men’s lives: Don’t let anything anyone says deter you from the mission God has set before you.
A Thought on the Ongoing Impeachment Trial
Today is the 212th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Watching the Senate impeachment hearings reminds us that Lincoln’s famous words in a 1858 speech calling for unity are still relevant. Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." We no longer have slavery, but the divisions in this country continue to threaten our nation.
Sign up for AFGE’s Legislative Conference
Lastly, I want to encourage you to sign up for our 2021 Legislative Conference if you haven’t done so yet. There’s still time! It promises to be an educational, empowering and inspiring event that will kickstart our effort to strike while the iron is hot with this new Congress and new administration.
Have a great weekend. God bless you all.
In Solidarity,
Dr. Everett Kelley
AFGE National President
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