AFGE Family,
It has once again been a busy week for AFGE. Here are a few of the most important things going on around the union this week.
Push for the PRO Act
You may have noticed a lot of PRO Act messages this week. That’s because the AFL-CIO unions are all doing everything we can to get 50 senators on board supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and we still have three Democratic senators who haven’t yet signed on. The three are Senator Warner of Virginia and Senators Kelly and Sinema of Arizona. Of course, we need Republican senators’ support as well!
So, if you’re reading this and your senator hasn’t yet signed on to support American workers’ right to organize without employer interference, please ask them to sign on! You can make the call right now by clicking here and entering your cell phone number or dialing 866-832-1560. The form will connect you directly to your senator. This is especially important if you live in Virginia or Arizona.
Honoring Workers Memorial Day
We scheduled this PRO Act week of action to coincide with Workers Memorial Day, which we celebrated this past Wednesday. Lives lost on the job are always a tragedy – usually a preventable tragedy. This year’s toll is so much higher because of the pandemic. We have lost union members in numerous agencies – the Food Safety and Inspection Service, EPA, Border Patrol, TSA, VA, DoD, and BoP. We mourn with their families and recommit to fighting for safe and healthy workplaces not only for all federal and D.C. government workers, but for all workers. May their memory be a blessing to their families and to all of us.
New Emergency Paid Leave Guidance
Yesterday, OPM released hotly anticipated guidance about how to use the emergency paid sick leave our union lobbied to secure for federal employees as part of the American Rescue Plan. You can read up on all the guidance here, including a very helpful Q&A document.
There are 8 qualifying circumstances related to whether you or certain relatives, like your children or an elderly family member you care for, are affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. If you meet one of those qualifying circumstances, then you could get up to 15 weeks of emergency paid leave, but that leave will not count as time in service for retirement purposes. However, if you aren’t covered by Title 5, like workers at TSA and certain VA workers, you have a different fund with a different set of rules controlled by your agency. This guidance is only for those workers covered by the OPM fund.
One thing the OPM guidance makes clear is that the emergency paid leave is being granted on a conditional basis and only until September 30, 2021. Congress appropriated a limited amount of money for the fund to cover this leave, so if those funds run out, this leave will no longer be available. We will get additional guidance out into the field once our experts have a chance to review these documents closely, but we advise you to try to get your leave requests in as soon as possible because of the limited timeframe and limited funds.
Marking President Biden’s First 100 Days
I hope all of you had a chance to see the op-ed we placed in The Hill, one of the leading publications in Washington D.C., that reflects on the many positive changes the Biden-Harris administration has made for federal employees in the first 100 days. We’ve truly seen a sea-change at the policy level coming directly from the top, and we should be proud of the work we did as a union to make that possible. More on that in the next section.
Public Service Recognition Week is next week!
Next week is Public Service Recognition Week. Traditionally, it is a time for presidents to say nice things about federal employees, even presidents who never show federal employees much support during any other week. Fortunately for us, President Biden has been an exception to this tradition in his repeated executive orders that emphasize his commitment to being a “model employer.”
After the January 22 executive order that revoked the previous administration’s union-busting EOs, this week he issued an executive order that created a task force made up of most of his cabinet focused on “Worker Organizing and Empowerment.” You can read the whole thing by clicking here.
In it, President Biden orders the government to use its “full authority” to promote union organizing and collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors. Now that’s Public Service Recognition from the president that really means something! Of course, it’s up to all of us to make the most of this moment of union opportunity, so I urge you to take advantage of all the resources we’ve made available in our NOW program and sign up as many new AFGE members as you can.
Join us for the AFGE NOW Power Hour Next Thursday at 7:00 p.m. on Facebook!
Speaking of our AFGE NOW organizing program, I am pleased to announce we are still making progress and adding more members each month. Next week, we are launching a new Facebook Live series called the AFGE NOW Power Hour that will give you a chance to hear directly from the AFGE local leaders who are growing our union through their efforts on the ground.
We will also be joined by a very special guest, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, who is always a dynamic and inspirational speaker. I hope you will mark your calendars and join us for this very special event. You can RSVP right now by clicking this link.
Winning the Fight for Full Implementation of the Biden EOs
I am well aware that there are pockets of resistance to President Biden’s executive orders that restore what was taken from us by the previous administration. Every week I hear from locals coming up against belligerent management officials who seem to think they can dig in their heels and wait this administration out, refusing to restore official time, office space, parking, and equipment that they have been ordered to give back. AFGE is doing its best in each case to lean hard on the administration to enforce their own EO, and for the most part, we’ve been able to make progress. So please do not suffer in silence – if you are experiencing pushback from your agency on these executive orders, let your NVP, Council, or the National Office know and we’ll try our best to help out.
Tonight – Union Veterans Council Roundtable on the PRO Act
This evening, I will be participating in a Union Veterans Council Roundtable on the PRO Act and union organizing specifically oriented toward Black veterans and other veterans of color. You can check it out on our Facebook page at 7:00 p.m. ET.
I always say that union membership is a no-brainer for Black workers, as Black unionized workers, on average, make 16.4% more than their non-union counterparts. The union advantage for Black men is 19.3% and it’s 18.9% for Black workers in relatively low-wage occupations. Black workers with a union are 17.4% more likely than non-union Black workers to have health insurance provided through their job and 18.3% more likely to have an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
Veterans in general appreciate the fact that we’re stronger together than we are when we’re apart, and we veterans understand unity and solidarity are not just nice concepts, they’re a matter of life and death. Last week I spoke to the NVAC Health and Safety Conference and talked about how union-management cooperation on health and safety saves lives. Whether it’s preventing workplace violence, PPE against COVID-19 or other infectious disease, electronic medical records, safety protocols for lifting patients, hand-washing or recognizing the crucial role of housekeepers in keeping a hospital safe and clean – the union saves lives of both veterans and the VA workforce.
Have a safe and relaxing union weekend.
In solidarity,
Dr. Everett Kelley
AFGE National President
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