About NVP Thomas
Tatishka Thomas also known as “Tish” has been with AFGE for the past 18 years.
Tish as a single parent of two, arrived at the Department of Veterans Affairs in August 2003 and joined the union in early 2004. She was appointed to the secretary/treasurer position for Local 548 in 2004. After quickly proving herself in this role by converting the local’s manual books into QuickBooks she turned her sights to organizing, growing the local by 200 more members. In 2007, Tish was asked by the local’s former president, Yancy Dorn, to take over the local and that’s what she did! When Tish was elected as president in 2007, she quickly began growing the local to well over 1,100 members through fearless representation. She also became a certified mediator for AFGE, trained other locals on QuickBooks, and developed Local 548 steward training.
In 2009, Tish was asked to take over the Florida State Council as president and she took it on with the goal of creating an accountable council for Florida. The following year, Tish was elected as president and has gone unopposed since 2010.
In 2012, Tish applied and was selected to serve as a National VA Council representative. In 2015, she was elected as the 5th District National VA Council representative. She served as the chief negotiator for her local’s supplemental agreement at the Bay Pines VA. She was awarded the VA secretary’s award for alternate dispute resolution, became a national trainer for the 2011 Department of Veterans and AFGE/NVAC Master Agreement, and became a national trainer on bargaining a local supplemental agreement. For the past four years, Tish has been conducting labor/management interventions to establish and/or restore collaborative relationships between labor and management.
Tish prides herself in being a servant leader and a leader of inclusiveness.
