Michael Knowles, president of Local 1924 representing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USIS) employees in the Washington, D.C. area, recently went to his membership to pitch the idea of donating $25,000 to AFGE’s Federal Employee Defense Fund to help the union litigate the cases against the Trump administration. AFGE has filed several lawsuits challenging the administration’s illegal actions, ranging from abolishing congressionally created agencies to removing collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers.
After the motion was submitted at a membership meeting, Michael was prepared to explain how urgent and important it was to step up now to defend public service and protect workers’ rights, but the big debate they were having went the other way.
“It was not the debate that you would imagine. You would think you would have people say ‘No, don’t give money.’ That’s not what happened. What happened is we had people saying why are we only giving $25,000? We’re in this tsunami. We need to give more. The members debated it and unanimously approved $50,000,” he recalled.
“Our members were very proud to bring our check. $50,000 is a drop in the bucket, but it’s something,” he added. “And it’s my hope that other locals and other councils will accept a friendly challenge from Local 1924 to do their part. If we can do it, they can do it.”
Local 1924 has grown exponentially because of the attacks on public service. It had 800 members at the last convention in August, but since then more than 500 people have joined. The local is working hard, often well into the night, to ask each member to sign up for E-Dues, an AFGE-operated dues collecting system, and it has made tremendous progress. Of the 1,300 members, more than 1,000 are now on E-Dues.
USCIS, an agency with about 20,000 employees including managers, is doing a big drive for the deferred resignation program as part of the Trump administration’s reckless staffing cuts across the government. A few thousand USCIS employees may have accepted, resulting in low morale and a loss of talent and institutional knowledge at the agency.
With all the attacks from the administration, some wonder what would happen to the union. But most members understand that if they don’t continue their membership and get actively involved, they will lose the union – or have a union that’s helpless.
“Right now, we are not helpless. We’re fighting multiple lawsuits. We’re on the Hill lobbying Congress. We’re fighting for you in the workplace,” he concluded. “If you want us to be successful, you need to stay in the union.”
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