FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 02, 2024
August 02, 2024
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
[email protected]
AFGE Wins Election to Represent Defense Health Agency Workers in Indo-Pacific Region
Categories:
DoD
Workers will join more than 38,000 DHA employees represented by AFGE
WASHINGTON – Defense Health Agency employees in the Indo-Pacific region have voted to join the American Federation of Government Employees, which already represents more than 38,000 employees at the upstart agency.
AFGE already has been certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority to be the exclusive representative for more than 38,000 health care employees who migrated from individual military services to DHA, which Congress created in 2017.
With this latest election, AFGE now represents more than 2,600 DHA employees located at military hospitals and clinics in the Indo-Pacific region, which includes Hawaii, Japan, Okinawa, Guam, and South Korea. AFGE is now the certified representative for DHA employees at headquarters and 20 individual markets.
The new unit consists of both professional and non-professional employees. AFGE was unchallenged in the professional vote and won 94% of the non-professional vote against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The results were certified by the FLRA on Aug. 1.
The employees will join AFGE Local 1239, which was chartered in 2021 to represent registered nurses at Tripler Army Medical Center in Oahu, Hawaii, and negotiated a contract in 2023 to represent more than 350 nurses at Tripler and the Desmond T. Doss Health Clinic who were transferred to DHA.
“On behalf of the 750,000 federal and D.C. government employees currently represented by AFGE, I want to welcome these latest Defense Health Agency employees to our union family,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. “Make no mistake, we are a union on the rise – ranked the fastest growing large union in America last year and breaking organizing records month over month as we continue the drive to reach 325,000 active members by next year.”
AFGE reached agreement with the agency in April on an interim master labor agreement that will cover all DHA employees represented by the union until a more comprehensive contract can be negotiated. The union also has stood up an interim council to represent and organize DHA employees and is hiring additional staff focused on DHA, which will become one of AFGE’s largest bargaining councils once finalized.
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