AFGE wins two more union elections for federal workers stationed in Europe

The nation’s largest federal employee union has continued to make progress organizing overseas federal employees, as two separate groups of Defense Department workers voted Wednesday to join the labor group.

Two bargaining units—the first made up of 36 IT employees at the Army Enterprise Service Desk, 2nd Signal Brigade, in Kaiserslautern, Germany and the second comprised of 163 non-appropriated fund workers at the U.S. Army’s Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany—voted to join the American Federation of Government Employees. May 1 coincidentally marks International Workers’ Day, or May Day for short.

“As many workers across the globe celebrate International Workers’ Day today, AFGE is proud to welcome these federal employees working overseas to our union family,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley in a statement. “By joining AFGE, these employees are affiliating with the fastest growing large labor union in America and improving our ability to fight for them and all our members.”

Wednesday’s elections mark the second and third European bargaining units formed under the AFGE umbrella in recent months. Last December, nearly 400 employees at Ramstein Air Base, also in Germany, voted to join the union as part of AFGE District 14, which represents overseas federal employees. Prior to the December election, the only active AFGE unit in Europe was AFGE Local 3712, which represents Naval Support Activity and Naval Exchange workers in Naples and Sigonella, Italy.

Javier Soto, a legal rights attorney for AFGE District 14, said the organizing workers largely want union representation to create more structure around their working arrangements, as well as to put them on a level footing with the “local nationals”—German employees who are represented by their own labor guild—they work alongside.

“Employees are looking for more of a consistent application of policies, like leave, overtime, scheduling and that sort of stuff,” Soto said. “[Federal] labor law applies to them, and they deserve what their counterparts are getting in the U.S.: a collective voice, a mechanism to resolve issues, and a place to take disputes, when they rise to that level, that is seen as impartial.”

Another common issue for Europe-stationed feds is what Soto described as a “bait and switch” that can occur when employees are first recruited to take overseas postings.

“We have other workplaces that report when you’re hired out of the continental U.S. and are promised a position, but when you get here, other duties are assigned,” he said. “It isn’t fair for people looking for specific experience and volunteer to come out here, but then not get it.”

Much of the work associated with building labor density overseas has been educating both frontline workers and base managers about how federal sector labor law still applies to workforces based outside of the U.S.

“We’re making inroads, but at this point, it’s a matter of educating employees and getting management to be accepting,” Soto said. “[We] had an issue with a supervisor a little bit ago who was not that welcoming [to labor]. But when he called his U.S. counterparts [in the Defense Department], he was told, ‘What’s the problem? AFGE is all over the place here.’”