Despite determined attempts by this administration to gut federal workers’ rights and eradicate their labor unions, AFGE membership is rebounding thanks to legal wins and a focused recruitment and retention strategy.
Our most significant recent legal victory was the March reinstatement of our collective bargaining agreement covering more than 320,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In a single day, more than 40,000 members who had been illegally dropped from our union due to the cancellation of payroll dues deduction were restored. A federal appeals court unanimously upheld the ruling in May – helping us hold the line and retain returning members.
In addition to our legal wins, AFGE membership is growing thanks to the sustained work of locals, staff, and leaders who have focused on various recruitment and retention strategies.
“That work is now showing up in the numbers: fewer members dropping each month, more new members joining, and the slow, steady and clear turn from loss to growth,” AFGE Membership and Organizing Director Dave Cann said. “Month over month, we see reliable trends of fewer drops and trends of more new members. This is what sustained local organizing looks like.”
Since December 2025, Cann said the M&O department has focused on four priorities: retention, visibility, conversion, and recruitment. Over that period, the department held more than 225 in-person events, including 30 mini-metros, reaching roughly 6,000 workers. This field activity resulted in hundreds of new member signups and helped convince about 3,600 members to make the switch from agency payroll deduction to AFGE E-Dues.
AFGE also had tremendous success with the dedicated member recovery call center that M&O developed in response to the National Executive Council’s recommendation to address a wave of membership drops in response to the administration’s assault on workers’ rights. One out of every three lapsed members reached through the call center chose to rejoin the union – an enormous conversion rate that vastly outperforms industry standards, Cann said.
The best results occurred when lapsed members heard directly from fellow rank-and-file workers, Cann said.
“When someone hears from someone they work with instead of staff, they are much more likely to switch,” Cann told the NEC during its June meeting.
In addition to reaching out to lapsed members, AFGE has been busy organizing new units to reach employees without current representation.
The biggest new unit organizing push is at the Department of Interior – specifically the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and National Park Service.
Our biggest gains have been at Fish and Wildlife, where AFGE has won decisive elections in eight out of nine geographic regions and is close to having enough showing of interest cards to hold an election in the last region. These elections are putting AFGE on track for our first wall-to-wall new unit – representing both professional and non-professional staff – since we organized the Transportation Security Administration.
AFGE has added about 3,000 employees to our bargaining unit so far because of the Interior Department push, Cann said.
Despite determined attempts by this administration to gut federal workers’ rights and eradicate their labor unions, AFGE membership is rebounding.
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