Imagine spending years, even decades, helping small business owners get off the ground, and then being told your office is moving to a suburb you can’t easily commute to by mass transit.
That’s what AFGE members at the Small Business Administration (SBA) are facing. SBA has recently told AFGE it plans to start relocating several field offices next year:
The agency is also reportedly looking at moving offices in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Every one of these moves takes SBA out of a city center and away from public transit.
AFGE Local 228, which represents more than 700 SBA employees across the country, is calling on Congress to step in.
“Longer and more difficult commutes, particularly when proposed locations are not readily accessible by public transportation, can make it substantially harder for SBA to retain experienced employees,” said AFGE Local 228 President Niklas Gustafsson. “The result could be a significant loss of institutional knowledge and expertise.”
SBA hasn’t shared any analysis of what these moves would cost or how they’d affect the public’s access to its services. Losing seasoned staff costs money to replace, and it weakens the agency’s ability to serve the small business owners who count on it.
On Oct. 20, Gustafsson wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Small Business Committees. He asked Congress to pause the relocations until SBA releases a full impact assessment, and to require the agency to sit down with AFGE and affected employees and look at less disruptive options.
AFGE National President Everett Kelley put it plainly: “I call on Administrator Kelly Loeffler to stop these office moves now. SBA should not move a single office until it can show the benefits outweigh the costs to employees, taxpayers, and the small business owners it serves.”
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AFGE Local 228, which represents more than 700 SBA employees across the country, is calling on Congress to step in to halt unnecessary relocations.
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