The Trump administration’s attacks on the federal employees who keep our country running were centerstage at the NAACP’s 117th National Convention, held last month in Chicago.
The theme of the convention was We, The People – a nod to the opening line of the U.S. Constitution, as the nation celebrates is 250th anniversary this year, and a reminder of NAACP’s critical role in fighting for the rights overdue to many.
AFGE National President Everett Kelley and National Education Association President Becky Pringle addressed attendees during a labor town hall hosted by actress, producer and SAG-AFTRA member Ryan Michelle Bathé.
President Kelley focused on the indiscriminate and illegal dismantling of our federal government at the hands of the Trump administration and the disproportionate impact on Black workers, who represent about 20% of the federal workforce.
“So when these billionaires took a chainsaw to the federal workforce, it was never going to hurt everyone the same. When more than a quarter of a million jobs were cut, Black workers—especially Black women—were hit the hardest,” Kelley said. “This is not efficiency. It is a ladder being pulled away from the very people who fought to climb it. And it was no accident.”
AFGE is challenging the administration’s actions in nearly 20 lawsuits – and we have successful protected workers’ jobs and union rights. Kelley urged NAACP attendees to join our fight and hold our nation’s leaders accountable for their actions.
“An injury to one is an injury to all. If they can do this to Black workers serving veterans at the VA, inspecting our food, ensuring our skies are safe, processing social security benefits, making sure we have clean air and water, and protecting our communities, they can do it to anybody,” he said.
Following Kelley’s speech, AFGE Local 777 President Darrell English highlighted the administration’s efforts to radically expand the privatization of airport security functions currently performed by federal employees at the Transportation Security Administration during a panel discussion on current issues facing workers.
During an awards luncheon later in the week, President Kelley accepted the William “Bill” Lucy Legacy Award, which recognizes individuals who have significantly advanced labor and civil rights through advocacy, leadership, and innovative practices. It’s named for the late labor rights champion Bill Lucy, who in 1968 stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others in a key moment in the civil rights struggle.
“The fight Bill Lucy waged is not history. It is happening right now,” Kelley said. “Right now, in Washington, billionaires and their allies are trying to break us. They want to strip our union rights. They want to fire dedicated public servants without cause. They want to replace merit with loyalty, and turn our civil service into a spoils system. They call it efficiency. Let me be clear. That is not efficiency. That is abandonment.”
Kelley highlighted the critical work federal employees perform every day that is being undermined by the administration’s anti-worker policies: VA nurses caring for wounded veterans, TSA officers keeping your family safe in the air, SSA representatives making sure senior citizens get the benefits they worked a lifetime to earn, the food inspectors and climate specialists protecting the food we eat and the air we breathe.
“Eighty-five percent of them live outside of Washington. Hundreds of thousands of them are veterans. They are not the ‘deep state.’ They are the people who keep this country running,” he said.
Conference attendees answered the call to support federal employees and union members by passing three labor resolutions during the convention. The resolutions call for the immediate reinstatement of all wrongfully terminated federal employees, a moratorium on all federal privatization projects including at TSA, and a new partnership between the NAACP and the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department to equip Black workers and those from other racial and ethnic minorities with the necessary training to qualify for infrastructure jobs.
For 94 years, AFGE’s mission has been to improve the lives of government workers and make sure they have the resources they need to serve the American people.
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