Organizing In Our District

WHERE ARE WE HEADED IN 2006?

Happy New Year, everyone.  It has been five years since the most anti-union, anti-Federal Employee Administration took office and unveiled their plans for “changing” civil service.  Inappropriately named civil service reform, we have survived three years since the creation of the Transportation Security Administration where the employees do not have the same rights as most other Federal workers.  It has been more than two years since the introduction of NSPS and MAXHR, the new personnel systems being created for the Dept of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  It has been almost a year since the phrase “Working for America Act” (WFAA) became common language amongst Federal employees.  This is a new personnel system being debated for the rest of the civil service, outside of DOD and DHS.  Yet, we have fought long and hard, and successfully, to prevent implementation of these systems, and there is much more hard work to be done in the coming year.

Even those people with whom I spoke that didn’t see a problem with “Pay for Performance”, are now beginning to see the light as the true details as coming out about these systems.  I mean, who could argue with “Pay for Performance”?  Yet, we can see that the systems designed for NSPS and MAXHR, have nothing to do with pay for performance, and everything to do with stripping away hard-won rights of employees.  Why else would the system include an overriding final decision making board, that effectively strips employees of their right to binding independent review of an adverse action?  Why shouldn’t employees have the right to effectively argue their case for a pay raise, or worse, against pay loss?  Would this not have been the fairest way to make sure that all good performers receive their just due?  The always say the devil is in the details, and we are certainly seeing the devil in these details.

It is time for all Federal employees to stand up and say they are not going to take it anymore.  We saw what the cronyism and budget cuts did to FEMA, and how that affected the people of New Orleans.  Does any remember that famous statement, “You’re doing a good job here, Brownie,” which was uttered as the people of New Orleans continued to die due to the ineffective response of FEMA management.  Standing up for your rights as a Federal employee is also standing up for the rights of the American people.  The time is now. 

This year we have a very intensive organizing schedule ready for the 4^th District.  We would like to get everyone involved.  This will take a lot of hard work by National Staff, District staff, Councils and Locals.  We look forward to working with you again this year, and the key is working WITH you, not for you.  We want all locals to get as many people involved in AFGE events as possible.  The more involved each member is, the more empowered they feel.  The membership is our life blood, and we want to engage those current members whose talents have not been utilized, and have them engage those potential members who have not seen to it to join AFGE.  I was once an unutilized member of AFGE.  Here is a little of my story:

I was a member for many years, paying my dues, but not being very involved.  I was a living example of the belief of NR Charlie Trotman, as he says, “Better to have me and not need me, than to need me and not have me”.  I knew it was better to have a union than to not have one, but didn’t think I need to do anything other than pay dues.  One day while I was sitting at my desk at the Social Security office in Trenton, NJ, my friend Joe Cooke came by and asked me if I was dong anything after work.  Joe was a VP of the local in NJ, and wanted to know if I would come to the union meeting with him that night to help fold newsletters. Having nothing better to do, I agreed to come with him to help, and then continued to do this for the next few months.  I began to wonder why I had never met a lot of the people who were attending those meetings, and why no one ever came to the office to talk about the union.  I volunteered that night to go around to the offices in NJ, and see if we could get our message out to the people, and maybe sign up a few new members.  Armed with a couple of pizza’s and a benefit pamphlet, I began my work as the Local’s organizer, and increased membership by about 40%.  I never had any formal training as an organizer, so when AFGE was offering the Organizing Institute classes in 2002, I asked the NVP and the Local President to fund my attendance at this class.  I learned a lot over those five days (of which I only stayed three as my mother had a stroke while I was there, and I needed to return home).  I also found out there was a position as a National Organizer in the 2^nd District open, and after my mother’s funeral, I decided to apply for that position.  Due to my father’s subsequent broken hip and then his passing, I had to decline that job, but lo and behold the same job became available in the 4^th District a few months later, and here I am.  Little did I know that just that simple request by my friend to help fold newsletters would lead me to a new career, and a wonderful new life in the field of union organizing.  If anyone wants to know why I do this job, I can send you pictures of my granddaughter, who is part American, part Guatemalan and part Panamanian, and you will know why I think fairness on the job and equality throughout the country are so important.  People are people, and at times people will let their personality conflicts overrule their better judgment.  When these situations occur, I want everyone to have some recourse, preferably binding, independent third party review.  This is the fight we need to carry on, and it is the fight that we all need to join.  Now is the time!!   

I look forward to another year on the frontlines defending the rights of Federal employees, and continuing that fight with all of you.