By Jesse Russell

Is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a crisis? The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 600,000 workers in the federal government thinks so and is launching a media campaign this week to inform Americans.

[Brooks1]: “It’s not a normal freeze, this - this breakdown is to eliminate the agency.”

That was Andrea Brooks, AFGE’s National Vice President of Women's and Fair
Practices, talking about a hiring freeze that has been in place at the agency since 2001. Since that time the EEOC has lost 20 percent of its workforce and the Bush administration is seeking to cut the agencies budget by $4 million. According to Brooks the backlog of cases at the EEOC will grow to nearly 48,000 in 2007. The commission helps discrimination cases concerning sex, race, age, religion, disability,
national origin, equal pay and other issues. Without it, Brooks said thousands of working people will be left with their cases in limbo.

AFGE members at the Department of Defense are especially concerned as the administration is implementing new work rules that will take away some of the on-the-security they have with union representation.

[Brooks2]: “They said, in touting these new work rules ‘Don’t worry, you still have the right to go to the EEOC.’ Well they knew that EEOC was being dismantled from within.”

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