AFGE Family,
Last Friday the VA Secretary
sent a formal letter to NVAC President Alma Lee telling her that VA would be adhering
to President Biden’s executive order that undoes the 2018 Trump executive
orders. And I have to say, it didn’t come a moment too soon. All over the
country, HR offices were telling our VA locals that as far as they were
concerned, the Trump EOs were still in effect until they heard from the
Secretary.
VA Updates
I met with Secretary McDonough,
along with NVAC President Lee, last month and told him we needed a statement
from his office asap and we mostly got what we asked for. The 2011 collective
bargaining agreement between VA and AFGE was reinstated. Official time was
restored according to any local CBA or MOU or the AFGE-VA contract. No more
charging us rent for office space and either former or equivalent office space
has to be provided. We got our communications capability back along with
parking spaces and a promise to continue to look for any other actions or
policies that implemented the Trump EOs and eliminate them.
Unfortunately, he did not
restore official time for Title 38 employees; that is something we must
continue to fight for.
All in all, I believe that we
should use the Secretary’s letter as a template for what every agency and
department should be doing. It was a clear message to the HR offices that would
love nothing more than to drag their feet until the next election and keep as
much as they could from the bad 2018 EOs and sets the stage for our efforts to
organize and bargain and lobby for gains and for protections against ever
losing our rights again.
Membership Trajectory
This week we saw some relatively
good news from the latest membership numbers from March. We now have 285,308
active members, a net loss of 649 members as compared to February. How can a
net loss be good news? When it’s a smaller – much, much smaller – net loss than
previous months. January’s net loss was 2,080 and February’s was 789. So we’re
definitely moving in the right direction. Remember, we need to recruit 4,000 to
5,000 new members each month just to remain even.
I am so proud of everyone who
continues to organize in spite of all the obstacles created by this pandemic! Please
keep up the good work and please know how grateful all of AFGE is to you for
your efforts to bring more people into our great union.
AFGE NOW Organizing
Initiative
We held a Facebook Live event
on Wednesday night to introduce our NOW organizing resource packages and answer
questions about how best to utilize this information to help with organizing. All
of us know that organizing is as much about engaging current members as it is
about recruiting new members. The NOW program brings together information on
legislation, politics, bargaining, representation and litigation to make sure
that everyone can access what they need to educate members for action. We’ve
had more than one thousand views of the live event and I plan to hold many more
of these. I love hearing from you all to get feedback on the program and to try
to answer questions that arise from what you’re experiencing at your locals.
OPM Taskforce
This week we also had a meeting
of our OPM taskforce. That taskforce was formed when the previous
administration threatened to dismantle the agency and send federal workforce
policy to the White House (in order to politicize it) and the rest to GSA. That
threat has passed for now, in large part due to the extraordinary good work of
this group that brought together local, district and national office staff. Emeritus
NVP Dave Schlein also volunteered his time to the taskforce and was a
tremendous asset. Their work is not done, however, because we still need
funding from Congress in order to strengthen and rebuild parts of OPM that have
been left to fend for themselves. But we all should be extremely grateful for
all that this group has accomplished.
Fighting For Equity
Last but not least, I want to
let you know about a few groups that I have been actively involved with that
met this week. One is the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). And the
other is the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s Racial Justice Taskforce. As AFGE
President, I have been honored to take a leadership role in both groups and
both are working hard to advance the interests of Black, Hispanic, Asian and
other workers of color.
Women and workers of color who
are in unions are far better off economically than their non-union counterparts
and they also are far more likely to want to join unions. The task is to help
them organize and bargain good contracts. That, of course, is even more
difficult in the private sector than it is for us in the federal and D.C.
government, and we focus our efforts both on helping workers of color who are already
union members and helping to bring more workers of color into unions.
Union Solidarity
As I write, we are still
waiting for the results of the union election of the Amazon workers in
Bessemer, Alabama. I also learned that another great union struggle is going on
in my home state: The Mine Workers (UMWA) are going on strike against Warrior
Met Coal. UMWA President Cecil Roberts, a great friend of AFGE who has spoken
at our conventions and many other meetings, said that Warrior Met has “some of
the worst labor-management relations we’ve seen in this industry since the days
of the company town and the company store.” The company is asking for cuts even
while they’re earning huge profits and giving big bonuses to management. No one
likes to go on strike, but it seems as though this company has given the UMWA
no choice but to act. If you have the chance, please show our union siblings of
the UMWA solidarity in whatever way you can. We all know what’s it’s like to
try to work under management that’s trying to destroy you!
For those who celebrate Easter,
I hope that the holiday brings you a renewal of hope, faith, love and joy. And
to those who have been celebrating Passover, I wish you “chag sameach.” And to
everyone I wish a good and restful union weekend.
In solidarity,
Dr. Everett Kelley
AFGE National President
For the latest AFGE news and information, follow us on:
