Posts tagged Everett Kelley
‘This is the revenge’: Unions lash out at Trump administration over collective bargaining clampdown
March 31, 2025 // “This is the retaliation. This is the revenge. This is the shut ’em up effort,” said Hoyer, adding the actions are “consistent with the Republican Party’s long-standing hostility for the rights of working men and women to organize.” “Federal law gives federal employees the right to engage in collective bargaining,” said Raskin, adding, “That’s how these unions were formed.”
Pay for Play: Al Sharpton Books Labor Bosses Who Pour Millions Into His Nonprofit on MSNBC Show
March 30, 2025 // In the past year alone, Sharpton, who hosts PoliticsNation on the weekends, has interviewed the presidents of five unions that have given his nonprofit a total of $6.3 million: American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of Government Employees, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In all, labor unions have given nearly $8 million earmarked as "gifts," "grants," or payments for "political activities" to the National Action Network, which in some years has paid Sharpton a $1 million salary and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for private jets and limo services.
Union sues DHS to protect TSA screeners’ collective bargaining rights
March 18, 2025 // The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of violating the Administrative Procedure Act’s prohibition on “arbitrary and capricious” decision-making, as well as breaching their contractual obligations under the 2024 collective bargaining agreement and in so doing, violating union members’ due process rights under the Fifth Amendment. The union also brings a First Amendment claim, arguing that the Trump administration’s decision to revoke TSA screeners’ collective bargaining rights was in retaliation for the union’s other lawsuits against the executive branch, most notably their challenge of the mass firing of probationary workers across government. A federal judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction in that case, requiring agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of improperly terminated workers.
Unions take their protest of federal layoffs to the US Capitol
March 7, 2025 // They were there to demonstrate against reductions to the federal workforce. Signs included messages such as, “Save the Civil Service, Save the Country” and, “Support the Federal Workforce.” “The skies are crying because what’s happening to our workforce and what’s happening to the missions of our agencies,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. The protest was organized by a coalition of unions, including NTEU, and those who spoke criticized President Donald Trump’s administration’s downsizing of the federal workforce.
Philly congressman, union leaders, workers protest Trump’s federal layoffs
February 27, 2025 // “As to how we’re doing, the only answer is poorly,” Alex Berman, the executive vice president of the National Treasury Union Chapter 71, which represents Philly-area IRS workers, told NBC10 on Monday. “I have been on my phone constantly talking to the more than 400 people at my chapter alone who were let go under false pretenses. Now we’re looking at, if you don’t do X, you’ll be fired.” Berman referred to an email that was sent to federal workers last week asking them to detail their work. Monday’s rally took place at Independence National Historical Park where two employees were recently laid off, according to a union official.
AFGE sees surge in new members as its lawsuits stall Trump’s federal workforce policies
February 11, 2025 // AFGE currently stands at 321,000 dues-paying members, its highest level ever, and is on track to reach 325,000 dues-paying members by the end of the week. Everett Kelley, the union’s national president, told reporters on Monday that AFGE originally planned to reach that membership goal by December 2025.
Proposed federal pay adjustment could boost wages for thousands of blue-collar feds
October 9, 2024 // Geographically, based on the proposal, OPM’s regulations would give federal pay increases mainly to FWS employees working in Alabama, California, Maine, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In particular, the proposed regulations would most prominently impact federal employees working at three major military installations: Tobyhanna, Letterkenny and Anniston Army Depots. The challenges leading to the persistent federal pay disparities are two-fold. In some cases, there are differences between blue-collar FWS employees and white-collar GS employees. In other cases, there are pay disparities among FWS employees working within the same wage area, OPM explained.
Unions applaud ‘most pro-union president in history’ following Biden’s decision to end campaign
July 24, 2024 // As president, Biden instituted reforms aimed at rebuilding the federal workforce, both increasing recruitment at federal agencies and restoring rights taken away during Trump’s first term in office. Shortly after taking office, he rescinded Schedule F, an abortive—though not abandoned—effort to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees in policy-related jobs into the government’s excepted service, effectively making them at-will employees.
Union to Defense Chief: You Aren’t Using Your Own Employees Enough to Help Meet Global Threats
April 4, 2023 // AFGE called on the Biden administration and Congress to align the Federal Wage System’s locality pay map with that of the General Schedule and advance legislation to improve Defense Department civilian police pay. elley called for the Biden administration to waive laws that AFGE claims favor non-competitive contracts, as well as reform the compensation of tens of thousands of underpaid Defense Department employees. Specifically, AFGE renewed its call for the Biden administration to align the locality pay map of employees on the Federal Wage System, commonly called wage grade workers, to that of the General Schedule. At issue is the fact that, unlike the General Schedule’s locality pay areas, which are tweaked on a nearly annual basis to account for changing regional costs of living and commuting patterns, the Federal Wage System’s map is still based mostly on a decades-old map of domestic military bases and other facilities.
Federal employees’ union calls on White House agency to address return-to-office concerns
April 27, 2022 // The intervention comes after OPM Director Kiran Ahuja sent an email to staff saying they would return to an in-person work posture April 25. In response, AFGE’s Local 32 has filed 13 unfair labor practice complaints against the agency.