Free Republic

Legislation from Sens. Blackburn and Howley “is a solution in search of a problem,” union president says WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. issued the following statement in response to legislation introduced by Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Josh Hawley that would relocate the headquarters of major federal agencies outside Washington, D.C.: “Eighty-five percent of federal employees already live outside the nation’s capital – caring for veterans, supporting our military, processing Social Security and other federal benefits, and carrying out other vital work serving citizens across the country. It is neither cost-effective nor practical...

This is the first segment of AFGE’s 5-part series: The Secret Memo : Inside Trump’s Plan to Destroy Unions.A leaked White House memo, as first reported by the New York Times and then obtained by POLITICO, outlines President Trump’s plans to destroy public and private-sector unions, get rid of worker protections, cripple workers’ ability to organize, and increase profits for corporate special interests.This explosive 19-page document was prepared in 2017 by Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy James Sherk, who was previously a research fellow at the regressive, anti-worker Heritage Foundation.The memo, laced with familiar half-truths and outright...

I am President of AFGE Local 2463 representing all the Smithsonian Museums, Research Centers, National Zoo as well as the Kennedy Center. My membership is faced with a government shutdown while the political games continue between the Republicans and the Democrats.The Democratic Party has forgotten its roots and which groups actually built the Democratic Party. They have taken for granted the union members, the working poor and the African American Community who have marched to the polls and pulled the lever for the Democrats.Construction sites used to be filled with high paying Union members building housing for Americans. Now you...

WASHINGTON – Leaders with the American Federation of Government Employees are calling out Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie for disparaging a disabled combat veteran who shared his firsthand accounts of veterans who are suffering extreme financial hardships under this unprecedented government shutdown.

AFGE sends letter to House and Senate to avoid December 7 shutdown and support a 2019 pay adjustment for civilian federal employeesWASHINGTON – With a little more than a week before the expiration of the current continuing resolution that will result in a partial government shutdown, the American Federation of Government Employees has sent a letter to members of the U.S. House and Senate urging them to keep the government open and to pass a pay adjustment of at least 1.9 percent for federal workers in 2019. The letter, signed by National President J David Cox Sr. on behalf of...

In just two weeks, Americans will flock to the polls to cast their votes in the mid-term elections where all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. The people we elect on Nov. 6 will make policy decisions that will shape the future of our country for years to come.  As a federal employee, it’s your chance to make your voice heard and hold politicians accountable. Besides Social Security, health care, voting rights, and other important issues, your entire livelihood is on the line. It’s not about...

Arbitrator rules that VA misused Accountability Act in disciplining employees WASHINGTON – This week the Trump administration was delivered another blow against its attempts to undo our apolitical civil service system and dismantle unions across the country. In a recent decision by an independent arbitrator, the Department of Veterans Affairs was found to be in violation of the existing Master Agreement between the VA and the American Federation of Government Employees by improperly implementing the VA Accountability Act.

The war between our unelected robed masters in the last and least of the three branches of government and the president of the United States continues apace : A U.S. federal judge on Saturday rejected key elements of President Donald Trump’s May executive orders that would make it easier to fire federal employees and reduce their ability to bargain collectively. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson , of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in a court order that Trump’s orders, which also would reduce the amount of time low-performing employees had to improve their performance before...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Saturday rejected key elements of President Donald Trump’s May executive orders that would make it easier to fire federal employees and reduce their ability to bargain collectively. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in a court order that Trump’s orders, which also would reduce the amount of time low-performing employees had to improve their performance before being fired, “undermine federal employees’ right to bargain collectively.” Trump signed three executive orders in May that administration officials said would give government agencies greater ability to...

IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time, sent to others using government equipment, or sent to anyone while in a government building because it involves election related activity. On July 25,the nation’s largest federal union is standing up to the administration’s efforts to dismantle workers’ rights and representation in the federal government WASHINGTON – With oral arguments set to begin in AFGE v. Trump in exactly seven days, the nation’s largest federal union is announcing #RedforFeds day on July 25 to protest President Trump’s illegal, union-busting executive orders. “A little under two months ago,...

Unions evicted from federal offices, denied time to meet with employeesWASHINGTON – The American Federation of Government Employees is obligated under the law to represent all employees covered by our negotiated contracts, but the Social Security Administration is deliberately and illegally restricting the union’s ability to uphold this obligation, AFGE leaders say.“The agency is attempting to wipe all traces of our union from SSA offices and deny workers their legal rights to representation,” AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said.Read President Cox’s Full Statement Here On Monday, July 9, SSA management unilaterally implemented extensive changes to the contract that had...

The largest union representing federal workers on Thursday took the Trump administration to court to block a new executive order that severely restricts the time employees may spend on union activity, claiming the president’s action violates the First Amendment and oversteps the president’s constitutional authority. “This president seems to think he is above the law, and we are not going to stand by while he tries to shred workers’ rights,” said the American Federation of Government Employees national president J. David Cox Sr., in a statement that announced the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District. “This is...

White House directives aim to strip federal workers of right to representation WASHINGTON – President Trump is attempting to silence the voice of veterans, law enforcement officers, and other frontline federal workers through a series of executive orders intended to strip federal employees of their decades-old right to representation at the worksite, the American Federation of Government Employees said today.“This is more than union busting – it’s democracy busting,” AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said. “These executive orders are a direct assault on the legal rights and protections that Congress has specifically guaranteed to the 2 million public-sector employees...

President Trump signed three executive orders Friday containing sweeping reforms that weaken protections for federal workers and eliminate perks for the unions that represent them. Under the new executive orders, unions will be charged rent for federal office space and will not be reimbursed for travel expenses or for hours spent appealing worker firings. All federal workers will be ordered to spend 75 percent of their time on government work, and agencies are ordered to publicly post union contracts in an online repository.

President Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders making it easier to fire federal government workers and rolling back the prerogatives of unions that represent them. Andrew Bremberg, the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said the president was “fulfilling his promise to promote more efficient government by reforming our Civil Service rules.” But the push also reflects conservatives’ long-running suspicion of the federal bureaucracy, one that the president’s advisers have been outspoken in channeling. Shortly after Mr. Trump took office, Stephen K. Bannon, then his chief strategist, called for “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”...

https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/03/16/va-employee-local-548-afge-union-president-weighs-white-privilege/

The effort to expand cynically named "right to work" laws says a lot about what is wrong with politics in our country. Disguised as protecting workers, the real goal is to silence workers’ voice, reduce our bargaining power and make our jobs more precarious. It’s about power—social, political and economic power.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 30,2018WASHINGTON – Defying staffing mandates and the need for increased hiring to safeguard prisons, this week the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) made public it is initiating a process of eliminating jobs within the agency. The mandate will slash roughly 14 percent of positions from correctional facilities. The proposed cuts are coming at a time of severe understaffing in most of its prisons.  BOP has left thousands of authorized correctional workers’ positions vacant all year, endangering inmates in its custody, control, and care.  “President Trump came into office preaching about the need for a safer America, but instead he is...

AFGE union president also warns against steep cuts to non-defense programs WASHINGTON – Federal government programs and services benefiting millions of Americans are in jeopardy due to a potential government shutdown and steep cuts in non-defense spending, the head of the largest union representing federal government workers told Congress. American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. urged lawmakers in a Jan. 18 letter to keep the government running beyond Jan. 19, when current funding expires.“It is very clear that a federal government shutdown could inflict serious pain on everyday working people,” Cox said in the...

President Trump on Friday signed Veterans Affairs reform legislation meant to protect whistleblowers while making it easier to fire problematic employees at the department. The Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act passed by Congress earlier this month streamlines the process to remove, demote, or suspend VA employees for poor performance or misconduct. In addition, it authorizes the VA secretary to recoup any bonuses awarded to employees who have acted improperly. “Veterans have fulfilled their duty to this nation and now, we must fulfill our duty to them,” Trump said. “So to every veteran who is here with...