The Nation’s Largest Federal Employee Union Celebrates Recent Wins, and Braces for Fights Ahead

The opening session of the American Federation of Government Employee’s annual legislative conference Monday was brimming with optimism, as attendees celebrated a number of high-profile victories from last year, paired with a dose of bravado, as labor leaders and Democratic lawmakers prepare for legislative battles in the newly divided Congress.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley read off a laundry list of major successes from 2022, including the earmarking of nearly $400 million to pay for an average 27% pay raise for employees of the Transportation Security Administration, the shuttering of a commission that could have closed dozens of Veterans Affairs Department facilities, the restoration of a one-year probationary period for new hires at the Defense Department, as well as retirement benefit improvements such as the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act. He highlighted a year of consistent growth in membership, exceeding the union’s goal of increasing the number of dues-paying members by 3,500 per month over the course of 2022.

But he warned that there will be many fights ahead, as House Republicans have gained control over the chamber and already are threatening brinkmanship over the looming debt ceiling crisis.

“We’re in strong shape, but we’re not where we need to be yet; we still have so much more to do,” Kelley told union members. “We face an environment filled with new challenges and threats, most notably from the House of Representatives, whose new majority has already shown itself to be incompetent, inept, incoherent, insane, insipid, incapable of governing and incompatible with the democracy of the United States of America.”

In a perhaps veiled reference to the last major showdown over the debt ceiling, when federal agencies underwent sequestration and the federal workforce endured furloughs and new requirements that they contribute more of their paycheck toward their defined benefit retirement program, Kelley said unions must be more proactive in the debate.

“If these extremists want to cut any of these essential government functions, we’re going to rise up and alert the American people of the harm they’re threatening,” he said. “If they force another shutdown, we’ll rise up and remind people about what we do, why it’s so important to their lives, and why these maniacs, if you will, must be held accountable. We must go on offense.”

Labor leaders and Democratic lawmakers rallied around a proposal to grant federal employees an average 8.7% pay raise in 2024, as well as legislation to expand collective bargaining rights for Veterans Affairs medical professionals and a bipartisan bill to codify the federal government’s shift away from educational degree-based hiring to a system based more on skills assessments with subject matter experts.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., endorsed the pay raise plan and promised that she is hard at work gathering cosponsors to reintroduce a bill to eliminate the windfall elimination provision, a policy whereby retired public servants receive only partial Social Security payments if they spent part of their career in the private sector.

“We got more than 290 members of Congress to sign onto the effort last Congress, although we did not get it across the finish line,” she said. “I’m working with [Rep.] Garrett Graves, [R-La.], now and we are rocking and rolling getting cosponsors on this bill. I know that you all know this, but these provisions unfairly reduced the benefits of federal retirees and other public sector employees and they have done so for four decades.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who is the lead sponsor of the 8.7% pay raise bill, offered advice to AFGE members: find Republicans who are “persuadable.”

“You know, I figured, if Social Security can get an 8.7% [cost of living] increase, so can federal employees,” he said. “You know, there are all too many political figures who make their careers on the backs of federal employees, disparaging federal employees, demeaning federal employees, and looking for ways to take away compensation and benefits that employees everywhere are entitled to. It’s really important to educate members who are persuadable that the average federal employee lives outside of the beltway, with thousands and thousands in their districts, tending to their constituents’ needs. We ought to honor that service, and never degrade it.”

After the session, Kelley said that while AFGE intends to remain “on offense” this year, fighting for the enactment of laws like Connolly’s pay raise bill and other measures, it will be a tougher fight than the last two years.

“We’re expecting some of the same things we go through year after year, that’s nothing new,” he said. “We anticipate we’ll hear more rumbling about official time, rumbling about [union access to agency office] space and those types of things, and we’re ready to take things on. We know that it’s coming. But we still want to extend invitations to every congressperson, whether Democrat or Republican, and ask them to work with us to make this workforce the best that it can be.”

He also dismissed GOP-led efforts to reduce the use of telework at federal agencies, such as the SHOW UP Act, which mandates that agencies revert to pre-pandemic telework policies, as fundamentally misunderstanding how agencies have devised their remote work programs.

“I’m always annoyed at the terminology ‘come back to work,’ . . . because where do we come back to?” he said. “Those on telework have been working all along . . . I understand the push to return to buildings a certain amount of days—I’m sensitive to that, and we understand that to a degree—but we understand the need for telework. There needs to be a balance, and we’re willing to talk to agencies about that and we’re willing to work with Republicans on that.”