Statement by AFGE President John Gage on the Mid Term Elections

Wednesday November 8, 2006

On election day, federal employees and all working Americans let their feelings be known, they voted for a Congress that will stick with them, not stick it to them. They gave pink slips to lawmakers who refused to value their work and treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve. This is an enormous victory for the millions of working Americans who have had enough.

For federal employees whose rights, wages and benefits have been under relentless attack, this is a very sweet victory. It’s a repudiation of the mean spirited policies of the Bush Administration and the Republican leadership that did their bidding. This is also a great victory for veterans, retirees, and the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the public services that have been underfunded, understaffed and cut to the bone or outsourced.

AFGE is proud to have been part of this victory:

Thousands of AFGE members volunteered to contact and mobilize other AFGE members in virtually every state with a competitive House or Senate race.
AFGE conducted a rigorous membership education program that included well over 400,000 pieces of mail, over 100,000 phone calls and numerous rallies across the country.
AFGE was an active participant in the AFL-CIO Labor 2006 program, providing staff and volunteers for labor walks, phone banks and an extraordinary Get Out The Vote effort.

The outcome of the 2006 elections is a great moment for our union. But now the hard work begins. We are committed to working with the new Congress to overturn the egregious personnel policies developed by the Bush Administration and to end the underfunding and understaffing that are putting critical public services at risk. We are also committed to working with the House and Senate to ensure that federal employees receive the dignity and respect they deserve which includes fair wages and benefits for the outstanding job that they do in service to America.