From the most membership net growth in seven years to a new law granting full retirement benefits to first responders and law enforcement officers injured on the job, 2022 has been nothing short of a great year for AFGE members.
This year, our activists continued to rise to the occasion, taking advantage of new opportunities under President Biden despite the pandemic and some hostile agency officials who’ve resisted Biden’s pro-collective bargaining directives. We fought hard on Capitol Hill, in court, and at the bargaining table. We organized like never before because we know the only way to have a real voice and power is through all of us standing together as one.
That’s why we should be proud of all our accomplishments big and small – they are testaments to our fighting spirit and teamwork.
Before we take a little break to spend time with family and friends during the holidays, let’s take a walk down memory lane and remind ourselves of the great work we did and what we’ve accomplished together this year.
Here are some highlights:
- AFGE got its growth motor running again this year with positive months of growth, setting us up for a good 2023. We beat our monthly goal of organizing 3,500 new members a month except for January, and we also won exciting new organizing campaigns, pushing our year-end membership higher than we were in January. We ended November with 281, 661 members, compared with 281,045 in January. In October, we had the highest net growth – a gain of 677 members – since 2015.
- An AFGE-backed bill granting full retirement benefits to first responders and law enforcement officers injured on the job passed Congress and became law.
- Another AFGE-backed bill became law, expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits and providing funding and training for workers needed to process these new claims.
- We defeated the VA closure commission.
- A 4.6% pay raise for federal workers in 2023.
- The Department of Education agreed to refund lost union dues, ditch an imposed contract, and restore payroll dues deduction, among other things.
- We won countless cases involving discrimination, wrongful termination, or other injustices, including this case in which a Bureau of Prisons local president was awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages.
- At the Department of Defense, we successfully fought back attempts to delay the ending of the two-year probationary period for newly hired DoD civilians at the end of 2022, bringing DoD in line with the one-year probationary period used at most other federal agencies. Other wins at DoD are listed here.
- AFGE mounted a large midterm program to elect pro-worker candidates and won big.
- AFGE fought to get Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court. She was confirmed by the Senate in a historic vote.
- AFGE members in D.C. fought hard and won. A bill expanding paid family leave for D.C. government workers is on its way to become law.
- The Environmental Protection Agency agreed to postpone the closure of the full-service analytical Houston laboratory until 2027. It’s a temporary win, but a win nonetheless!
- Employees at the understaffed US Penitentiary Thomson and the Federal Correctional Complex Florence were given a locality pay boost, thanks to AFGE local leadership’s hard work.
- We successfully negotiated safe re-entry agreements like this and this.
- We continued to win expanded telework programs like this and this.
We are excited for 2023 and even more wins and membership growth!
