AFGE Organizing Institutes
The first of six AFGE Organizing Institutes took place in Dallas the week of February 1, with 10 of the participants successfully completing all elements of the classroom and field training. These 10 AFGE members will now be placed on AFGE’s Temporary Organizers National Roster, which AFGE can tap throughout the year as organizers are needed in different regions of the country to help build our union’s membership. Class evaluations from the Dallas Institute sing the praises of the instructors and curriculum: “The training was outstanding!” “It was above and beyond my expectations.” “The instructors were fantastic!” “The presenters were very professional and very knowledgeable about organizing.” “All of the trainers were great; their professionalism is worthy of imitation.” “I would recommend this to all persons eligible to participate in Organizing Institute Training.” As a result of the success at the Dallas training, one more Institute has been added to this year’s schedule to be held Oct. 14-18, 2002, in Portland, Ore., in conjunction with AFGE’s
Human Rights Training Conference. Institutes will also be held in Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles. More information about AFGE’s Organizing Institutes as well as registration forms, can be found on AFGE’s Web site at www.afge.org. AFGE’s District Offices and/or National Organizer Tee Williams (202-639-6410) in the Membership & Organization Department can also answer questions regarding these exciting new trainings.
AFGE Newsletter Template Now Online
AFGE is happy to announce the completion of a newsletter template, developed in Microsoft Word, to assist Locals in publishing a union newsletter. The template—located in the Member Resources section inside the Members-Only portion of AFGE’s Web site— can be easily downloaded following the instructions provided. The template has been designed as a two-column publication with a top banner that can easily be customized to include the name of your newsletter, as well as your Local number, date and volume/issue numbers. The template also includes a masthead which can be modified to include your Local contact information as well as Local staff; i.e., the Local’s executive board and/or communications committee (editorial staff). Instructions to assist in the use of this template are available online, as well as layout techniques that cover the use of graphics, wrapping text, creating boxes, shading and footers. A list of writing tips and resources has also been uploading, covering such subjects as proofreading, content ideas, identifying your audience and organizing a communications committee.
to President Bush’s recent State of the Union Address, AFGE issued its own version of the “State of the Federal Work Force.” Here’s what AFGE had to say in its news release: AFGE supports President Bush in his efforts to rid the world of terrorism but opposes the Administration in its management of the federal work force. Federal employees would like Americans to know that the Administration: Revoked prior government policy to allow agencies to sign contracts with companies that have broken environmental, consumer-protection, civil rights, labor and tax laws—companies allegedly such as Enron and Arthur Anderson. Is randomly converting or competing at least 425,000 federal jobs under a quota system, enabling the Administration to award work to corporations that made campaign contributions. No longer encourages labor-management partnerships, ensuring employees’ concerns and ideas are no longer heard. Embraces prison privatization, an approach that failed at the state level because it resulted in unsafe conditions for corrections officers and local communities. Refuses to turn over documents to the General Accounting Office on how America’s energy
Responding
policy was developed, in turn displaying a lack of accountability to the public. Refuses to provide federal airport screeners with rights and benefits afforded to other federal employees—health and life insurance, retirement benefits, workers’ compensation, veterans preference, equal employment opportunity rights, rights to organize and whistleblower protections—which are essential to having a high-quality work force. Treated employees in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices as disloyal Americans by taking away their right to union representation—a right they had for 20 years. Has failed to name for over one year a General Counsel to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which in effect removes a forum for workers to speak out against mismanagement practices in government. “The state of the federal work force is not strong,” National President Bobby L. Harnage stated. “The Clinton Administration mismanaged the work force and created a human capital crisis. The Bush Administration plans to dismantle the work force by replacing highly-trained public employees with unaccountable private corporations, often at a greater cost.”
AFGE National Headquarters 80 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 737-8700 communications@afge.org www.afge.org
Bulletin Staff: Magda Lynn Seymour, Director; Diane S. Witiak, Assistant Director/Managing Editor; Wendy Pope, Design Editor; Ben Morris, Web Site Developer; John Irvine, Communications Specialist; Kim Kennedy, Staff Assistant. The AFGE Bulletin is published monthly. Union publications are encouraged to reprint or excerpt articles in the AFGE Bulletin. Please include credit line.
Aviation Security Requires Job Security
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, signed into law late last year, gives the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) broad discretion to decide whether federal screeners will have either whistleblower protections or the right to union representation. At a recent hearing before the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, John Magaw, head of the TSA, announced that the federal government would not allow the newly federalized aviation screeners to have the same whistleblower rights that are extended to other federal employees. “Federal employees have whistleblower protections in order to encourage them to ‘blow the whistle’ and inform the public regarding poor management, fraud, or security and safety problems,” National President Bobby L. Harnage stated in a recent news release. “These rights mean they can do this without fear of reprisal.” Harnage pointed out that as valuable as whistleblower rights are, on their own they are not adequate to give employees real protections and the critical right to be heard. “While individual whistleblowers can be effective at alerting Congress to issues of public concern, experience has shown that critical warnings and information are far more likely to be forthcoming when employees know they have union representation to protect them from retaliation and give voice to their concerns,” Harnage added. “Indeed, it is often rank-and-file federal workers who are the ones to come forward when managers’ corner-cutting comes at the expense of the public, as has happened recently at the Border Patrol and the Food Safety Inspection Service.” AFGE emphasized that tens of thousands of other federal employees whose job it is to protect public safety are union members: fire fighters, corrections officers, law enforcement officers, food inspectors, etc. “Unions already play a prominent role at our nation’s airports. Many baggage handlers, aviation mechanics, air traffic controllers, pilots, flight attendants and fire fighters already belong to unions,” Harnage emphasized. “There is no reason to treat federal aviation security employees differently from their unionized counterparts in the federal and private sectors.” “While considering the rights of federal aviation screeners, Mr. Magaw and the Bush administration must remember that only employees with both whistleblower and collective bargaining rights truly have the freedom to pursue aviation security,” Harnage concluded. “When public employees’ rights and protections are compromised, so too is the safety and security of the public they serve.”
Bush Disregards Pay Parity Again
President Bush has once again shown his disregard for the tradition of military-civilian pay parity, proposing a 2.6 percent raise for General Schedule (GS) federal workers while asking for a 4.1 percent military pay increase. Not only is the proposed federal pay increase lower than that of the military, the increase is also onehalf of a percentage point lower than what is called for under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA). Under FEPCA, the pay increase is supposed to be based on the Employment Cost Index (ECI), minus one half of a percent—which would equate to a 3.1 percent increase in 2003. Bush’s proposal represents a full percentage point below the ECI and is a departure from recent past practice. Commenting on Bush’s proposed pay increase for federal workers, Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, stated, “We thought giving back one percent less from this rule-of thumb index would be something federal employees would think was fair.” Key Washington area lawmakers have announced that they will fight to give federal employees a higher raise next year than the 2.6 percent proposed by Bush. The 2.6 percent proposed raise “…is sending the wrong message to federal employees at a time when the American people are depending upon government more than ever,” stated Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Federal Employees ar e America’s Homeland Security
And it’s time we elected a Congress that recognizes it! We can’t win the wage and benefit improvements we deserve, stop contracting out, or resolve the numerous other issues that confront us daily until we build our political power. This is a fact that we must face as federal employees. Congress sets the laws governing wages, benefits and contracting out. Congress approves the budgets for federal agencies. Congress oversees and can act on unilateral actions by Agency Directors and even the President. We must have Congressional Representatives and Senators who value the work that AFGE members do for America. It will continue to be nearly impossible to pass legislation that addresses our concerns—or defeat legislation that doesn’t— until we elect more members of Congress who will speak on our behalf. We need more Senators and Representatives who are pro-union, not antiunion. We need more Representatives and Senators who care about the needs of our families instead of big profits for unaccountable corporations. Federal employees are America’s Homeland Security and it’s high time we elect a Congress that recognizes it! Contributions to AFGE-PAC are used for only one purpose—to help elect Representatives and Senators who value federal employees and defeat those who don’t. AFGE-PAC is nonpartisan, supporting both Republicans and Democrats who have shown through their voting records that they are willing to stand up for federal employees. Federal law prohibits using union dues money to contribute to a Congressional candidate. Corporate contractors and other opponents of federal employees understand the need to use their political power. They’re raising and spending their own PAC money to elect members of Congress accountable to them and not to working families. They are raising money to elect Representatives and Senators committed to eliminating our jobs and dismantling the programs we have worked so hard to build. They’ve built their own grassroots political action programs. We’ve got to use our Union Power to elect candidates who value our contribution to America. That’s why the AFGE National Executive Council has approved a two-week AFGE-PAC Blitz, beginning March 18, 2002. During this time, each District Office—along with National Representatives and a team of National Office staff—will devote their time and energies exclusively to increase PAC contributions. The goal is to have at least 80 percent of each Local’s executive board members and stewards become PAC contributors. Daily District tallies, showing each District’s daily PAC results, will be posted during the two-week period on AFGE’s Web site— www.afge.org. More information about AFGE-PAC, including instructions for online PAC contributions, can also be found in the members-only area of AFGE’s site.
Federal Pay Gap Continues to Widen
AFGE is again using its online FEPCA Calculator to illustrate that the pay of federal employees is falling further and further behind private sector pay. The FEPCA Calculator, updated to incorporate the 2002 pay adjustment, allows General Schedule (GS) federal employees to enter their geographic location, grade and step to determine what their annual salary would be if the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) had been fully implemented. Under the 1990 pay law, federal salaries should have reached parity with non-federal workers by 2002. Instead, the federal pay gap continues to increase. “The hits to federal pay just keep on coming,” National President Bobby L. Harnage noted. “Instead of fully implementing FEPCA, President Bush has proposed an increase in 2003 which not only fails to follow the long-established tradition of pay parity between military and civilian workers, but also falls one-half of a percentage point below the formula used in recent years to adjust federal pay.” “Federal employees are working side-by-side with the armed forces to fight the war on terrorism,” Harnage added. “Yet, Bush ignored federal employees in his State of the Union address and now insults them in his budget proposals. Is it any wonder that federal recruitment and retention have hit a brick wall, with some 50 percent of the federal work force eligible to retire in the next several years?” Federal Wage Grade (WG) employees will also suffer further pay disparities should Congress continue its practice of capping the pay of federal WG workers, effectively undermining the ability of the prevailing rate system to operate as intended.
Vermont DVA Employees Pick AFGE
Professional employees at the only Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Medical Center in the state of Vermont, chose AFGE as their representative in a recent election at White River Junction. Local 2604—which already represents non-professionals and registered nurses at the White River Junction Medical Center and its four outlying clinics—will also represent this new bargaining unit of doctors, pharmacists, social workers, technologists, therapists, optometrists and the hospital’s chaplains. All totaled, Local 2604’s bargaining unit now covers over 500 DVA employees Commenting on the recent election win, District 2 National Representative John Price noted that, “The whole hospital is now 100 percent AFGE from top to bottom.” He pointed out that, “There seems to be a new resurgence of unionism in the New England area.” A number of other elections are scheduled in District 2 over the next several months. Stay tuned!
Lawmakers Urge Bush To Repeal E.O.
A bipartisan group of House members recently sent a letter to President Bush objecting to Executive Order 13252 which denies union representation to more than 1,000 employees at the Justice Department because of security concerns. Some 500 AFGE members working for U.S. Attorneys’ Offices are affected. The eight lawmakers question the President’s motivation for his action in their letter. “We all agree that protecting national security is critically important,” the letter states. “However, using national security as a guise ultimately cheapens the very thing we are fighting to protect.” The eight House members—Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), James Moran (D-Va.), Constance Morella (R-Md.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Al Wynn (D-Md.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)—are asking Bush to repeal E.O. 13252. They point out that the order effects several long established bargaining units. “To our knowledge there has never been any suggestion over the past 20 years that their union membership imperiled national security,” the letter states.
2 AFGE Bulletin/March 2002
March 2002/AFGE Bulletin 3