By Doug Cunningham

The American Federation of Government Employees says staffing levels at the Social Security Administration are the lowest since 1972, thanks to Bush budget cuts. The AFGE’s Witold Sweirczynsnki says Congress needs to appropriate more money for staffing to meet people’s Social Security service needs.

[Sweirczynsnki]: "We have slipped below 60,000 employees. In order to stretch out a limited budget, SSA has engaged in what we think are some questionable tactics to reduce service to the public. One of them is to accelerate office closings and the second is to emphasize the filing of the public of Internet claims. The population affected by these closings are seniors, widows, the disabled, and the poor."

Federal employees were dealt a major blow on August 10 when the U.S. Court of Appeals denied an attempt by federal worker unions to overturn a new Pentagon personnel system. 35 unions representing nearly 750,000 employees at the Department of Defense filed the motion and now plan to take it to the Supreme Court. According to the new personnel rules, the Defense Department can assign employees to new roles without first bargaining with union representatives. Employees can be disciplined without warning and without a union representative present during proceedings. Employees will also now be paid based on performance instead of seniority. Currently 110,000 employees are covered by the new system and 500,000 are expected to be covered by the end of 2008.

More than 10,000 Environmental Protection Agency employees have made a call to Congress to take action on global warming. Jesse Russell reports:

It all started with a petition that began circulating within between staff at the EPA. The petition called on Congress to take immediate action to help stop global warming and called for an end to censorship by the current administration against scientists and specialists who research topics related to climate change and air pollution. The petition was released by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In addition to the more than 10,000 employees the petition was signed by the presidents of 22 locals in the five unions that represent EPA workers: The American Federation of Government Employees, the Engineers and Scientists of California, the National Association of Government Employees, the National Association of Independent Labor, and the National Treasury Employees Union. Yesterday also marked the day the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments in a case brought by states and environmental groups demanding that the administration begin regulating greenhouse gases.

By Jesse Russell

The recent Supreme Court ruling that inhibits the ability of whistleblowers to have protection on the job will have little impact on federal workers according to John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees:

[Gage1]: The real problem is the chilling effect it will have on whistleblowers. And this administration puts enough of a chill by itself and to have the Supreme Court and especially the newspapers and the media come out and say this was a blow to whistleblowers, it was a blow to whistleblowers because it was so chilling. I think they should be covered by First Amendment rights; however in the case of federal employees we still have our protection under a whistleblower statute.

By Jesse Russell

Unions representing scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency are accusing the organization of pressuring them to approve chemicals. The American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Engineers and Scientists of California allege that the EPA is urging scientists to skip some testing at the behest of the pesticide industry. The unions say that the industry is seeking to continue the use of some pesticides that may be harmful to children and babies. Together the three unions represent 9,000 workers at the EPA.

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,

By Jesse Russell

A coalition of defense department union locals' known as DEFCON, issued a vote of no confidence against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday. The local union offices are part of the American Federation of Government Employees and the vote follows a decision by the Defense Department to appeal a federal judge's ruling against Rumsfeld over proposed personnel regulations. A judge had ruled that the new rules would blunt collective bargaining, eliminate fair appeals for disciplinary action and quells the voice of workers. The resolution states that Rumsfeld broke promises to both Congress and workers that the new system would respect collective bargaining and prevent favoritism.

By Jesse Russell

Ten unions filed a lawsuit Monday against the Defense Department over a proposed merit pay system. The American Federation of Government Employees filed the suit along with nine other federal employee unions alleging that the new system would lessen the collective bargaining rights of employees. Part of the plan gives more flexibility to management to assign work and would reward employees based on merit and not seniority. A similar plan introduced at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked by a federal court judge in August. The judge agreed with the unions who bro

By Doug Cunningham

The Pentagon is pressing ahead with a personnel system overhaul that guts collective bargaining agreements and the power of unions to represent their members. Six hundred fifty thousand workers and their families would be affected. Several public employee unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees, are planning to sue in federal court to block the attack on collective bargaining rights. The unions say the plan to gut collective bargaining rights violates federal law. Workers and their unions won a similar suit against the Department of Homeland Security when the court ruled the government was violating the law in effectively wiping out collective bargaining rights .

The Department of Homeland Security is asking a US District Court judge to narrow her ruling that prevents proposed personnel rules from being implemented. The rules have been opposed by unions representing nearly 60,000 DHS employees and were declared a violation of employee rights by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer. They would create an internal labor relations panel appointed by the DHS secretary and install a merit-based pay system. Department managers would also have increased authority over shift and duty changes.

Nearly three quarters of a million federal workers in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are fighting an attack on their labor rights under the guise of national security. John Gage is President of the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE. He wants people to call Congress urging that it take another look at the stripping away of these hard-earned collective bargaining rights.

[John Gage 1]: "We're fighting back on this and we're asking people to call their congressman. And really Congress has to take another look at this, a sober look and not a look that was clouded by nine eleven and the war in Iraq."

Federal employees from the Department of Defense marched on Capitol Hill yesterday in protest of a proposed personnel regulation overhaul. American Federation of Government Employees President John Sweeney told the hundreds of rallying employees that the National Security Personnel System "will jeopardize public safety and national security by taking away employee protections that allow workers to speak freely when they see wrongdoing or mismanagement." The AFGE and other unions representing government employees are planning to file a lawsuit. The decision to implement similar changes at the Department of Homeland Security has already led to one lawsuit, saying that the changes undermine the constitutional right of due process. AFGE General Counsel Mark Roth said of the DHS changes in a press release that managers will have free reign to retaliate against employees who challenge management decisions.

Unions representing homeland security employees are filing a lawsuit against the department. Collective bargaining rights within the DHS have been narrowed and new regulations require employees to take concerns to an internal board appointed by the secretary of Homeland Security. Mark Roth, General Counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees says the lack of due process will give management "free reign to retaliate against employees who challenge management decisions." The AFGE, along with the Treasury Employees Union, the Federation of Federal Employees and the Association of Agriculture Employees are suing on the arguments that the DHS is violating a law within the Homeland Security Act that calls for "meaningful collective bargaining" within the department.

Thousands of current or former federal employees in the National Guard are eligible for annual leave adjustments or other compensation. The American Federation of Government Employees won a major Court of Appeals case last year that forces a reversal of a policy implemented by the Office of Personnel Management. Under federal law, federal employees who are also reservists are allowed 15 days of military leave each year. However, because of a misinterpretation of the law by the OPM, those employees were also charged those days on weekends and for other scheduled days off. The AFGE is working to assist the OPM in reimbursing employees who were incorrectly charge. Joe Goldberg is the AFGE Assistant General Counsel:

Even with one day left until election day, the Swift Boat Veterans controversy is still refusing to die. The American Federation of Government Employees is calling for an investigation into why retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier, a man linked to the swift boat vets, was allowed to make disparaging remarks towards democrats while giving a speech on POW issues at Waco Veterans Federal Affairs Regional Office. According to witnesses, Cordier “started referring to scumbags who threw their medals and said he hated the Democratic Party since LBJ stopped bombing Vietnam.” In addition, the AFGE, who has endorsed Senator John Kerry as President, has also come under fire. Veteran’s Affairs has filed a complaint saying the union has done political activities on at least two VA campuses.