Another group of federal employees have voted to join AFGE!
Inter-American Foundation (IAF) employees overwhelmingly voted to join AFGE as they seek to have a voice in the workplace.
The election took place on Sept. 11, and 33 employees out of 34 eligible voters voted to form a union under AFGE. The employees will join AFGE Local 2211, which represents employees at several federal agencies in Washington, D.C.
“We appreciate the overwhelming vote of confidence from the IAF bargaining unit employees, and we look forward to building the union there,” said AFGE National Vice President for District 14 Ottis Johnson. “AFGE is the leading union for foreign affairs agency federal employees, representing, among others, the State Department, USAID, Development Finance Corporation, Millenium Challenge Corporation and the US Agency for Global Media - Voice of America. We are glad to welcome into the AFGE family the employees of the Inter-American Foundation, a U.S. government agency that invests in community-led development across Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Several IAF employees are bilingual social science analysts and grants managers who specialize in Latin American and Caribbean countries to which they make grants and travel to frequently.
Employees sought to form a union after facing several workplace issues that management refused to address. The agency, for example, has the budget for staffing but doesn’t fill vacancies, opting to assign employees double or triple duty with no recognition or other consideration.
“Managers frequently tell people if they want higher pay or promotion opportunity, then they should look elsewhere – consequently, there is a lot of turnover for such a small agency,” said District 14 Special Assistant Peter Winch who ran the election campaign. “There is also no in-house HR function.”
One employee had a problem on the job, said she wanted to file a grievance, and was told she couldn’t grieve because she didn’t have a union. She thought to herself, ‘Let's do something about that’. The employee became one of the observers at the ballot count on election day.
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