More and more federal and D.C. government workers were joining AFGE in 2022, an indication that government employees knew their rights and wanted to be part of the movement that strengthens their voice at work.
Our union started out 2022 with 281,045 members and ended the year with 282,436, the highest membership number in the past 12 months and an increase of 775 active members from November. All except one AFGE district registered a net gain last month, showing how widespread AFGE’s organizing success truly is.
Due to retirement, people changing jobs or leaving the union, AFGE has to recruit thousands of members a month to break even. We have a goal of recruiting 3,500 new members each month, and we hit that goal every month last year except for January. We added 4,162 members in December.
A series of agency-driven reorganizations drove much of our union’s organizing work in 2022, including the enormous Defense Health Agency realignment.
“From May 2018 through the pandemic, we lost some 2,000 members a month, and now we are growing,” said AFGE Membership and Organization Director David Cann. “The growth is sustained, consistent and spread through the districts. We are on the road to continued success.”