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AFGE: Reorganization Makes VA Less Top Heavy

January 29, 2015

AFGE has long said that the Department of Veterans Affairs is top heavy and that the department needs more frontline workers in order to better serve veterans. This week’s announcement by VA Secretary Bob McDonald to reorganize the VA into five regions is a step in the right direction as it will reduce the department’s bloated middle management and shift resources to focus on providing more care to more veterans.

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Categories: Veterans

House Bill on VA Bonuses Could Be Used to Retaliate against Whistleblowers

January 29, 2015

A bill introduced earlier this month to take back bonuses given to employees could be used to retaliate against whistleblowers looking to speak out against mismanaged care for veterans.

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Categories: Veterans

AFGE TSA Local in Orlando Fought Back Against Cancelled Breaks and Won

January 29, 2015

AFGE TSA Local 556 in Orlando, Florida, (MCO) recently won a case in which a local airport manager was found to have violated the AFGE/TSA collective bargaining agreement when she inappropriately cancelled TSA officers’ 15-minute breaks on the east checkpoint.

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Categories: TSA

AFGE Urges Congress to Reject Plans to Destroy Jobs, Waste Taxpayer Dollars

January 29, 2015

AFGE is urging members of Congress to reject two bills pending in Congress that would kill nearly 400,000 jobs, undermine local economies, and waste taxpayer dollars.

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Categories: Job Cuts

House, Senate Leadership Giving Non-partisan CBO Chief the Boot

January 29, 2015

Majority leaders in the House and Senate are reportedly replacing Douglas Elmendorf as director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO, which was created as a non-partisan agency under a 1974 law, provides budget and economic analyses to Congress to help them make decisions on government programs. The CBO, for example, weighs in on sequestration cuts and other congressional proposals.

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Categories: Budget

6 Extra Weeks of Paid Leave for Feds?

January 29, 2015

Some lawmakers are more in support of family values than others, and those who support allowing more time for new mothers and fathers to bond with their babies deserve kudos from everyone. After all, we were all babies once and many of us will have children of our own.

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Categories: Workers' Rights, Member Benefits

AFGE Supports Bill to Restore Pension Fairness for Feds

January 29, 2015

The American people subsidize corporations through corporate tax breaks every year. In 2013 alone, they shelled out $1,328 per household, or nearly $176 billion to companies, many of which make billions in profit a year.

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Categories: Budget

Obama Proposes to End Sequestration

January 29, 2015

In his 2016 budget proposal to be released next Monday, President Barack Obama will propose ending sequestration cuts that have damaged the middle class and hampered scientific discoveries, job creation, progress in education, among other things. Sequestration began in 2013 and was scheduled to end in 2021.

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Feds Who Also Are Wounded Warriors Get Some Love Prior to Valentine’s Day

January 26, 2015

House and Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation that would make life a lot easier for federal employees who also are disabled veterans. The Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act would give 104 hours of sick leave up front to new federal employees who are veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 30% or greater.

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Categories: Veterans

Representative Cartwright Introduces Bill to Make BOP Pepper Spray Pilot Permanent

January 26, 2015

Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania last week introduced the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act of 2015 that would make permanent the Bureau of Prisons’ pepper spray pilot program which allows correctional officers and others to carry pepper spray for personal protection.

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Categories: BOP

TSOs Discover Record Number of Firearms

January 26, 2015

TSA officers are doing an outstanding job protecting the flying public. In 2014 alone, TSOs discovered a record 2,212 firearms in carry-on bags at airports across the country; a whopping 22% increase from 2013. Of the guns confiscated by officers, more than 80% were loaded.

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Categories: TSA

SAG-AFTRA Honors Union Members in Film, Television

January 25, 2015

Did you know that the SAG-AFTRA awards is the only televised award show of, by, and for union members? SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is a labor union representing more than 160,000 film, radio, television performers and journalists worldwide.

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Categories: Member Benefits, Labor

Pennsylvania Lawmaker Presses OPM to End Pay Disparity

January 22, 2015

At Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, white-collar employees are in the high-paying New York GS locality pay zone, but their blue-collar counterparts’ pay rates are based on wages in the Scranton area.

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Categories: OPM

AFGE Inquiry Prompts DoD to Direct Army to Comply with Sourcing Rules

January 22, 2015

Following a recent meeting with AFGE, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and Force Management Stephanie Barna directed the Army to review its sourcing decisions and comply with the Defense Department’s sourcing regulations.

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Categories: DoD

Business Leaders Throw Contractors an Unexpected Curveball

January 22, 2015

The Defense Business Board (DBB), which provides Pentagon officials with private sector perspectives, consists of business leaders and consultants, some of whom have been contractors to the Department of Defense.

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Categories: DoD, Outsourcing