AFGE president says downsizing after Trump's order threatens the union's survival
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The president of the nation's largest union for federal workers said Monday the organization's ongoing staff downsizing will devastate the services it provides members and threatens the group's survival.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March removed over 200,000 of its dues-paying members, or about two-thirds of the total.
The order stripped union rights from employees in several executive branch agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
AFGE and other unions are fighting the order in court as illegal and retaliatory. But Kelley said the order has already taken a 'very direct hit' on the group's finances because agencies stopped collecting union dues from paychecks.
Saying it had lost over half of its dues revenue and faced a major budget shortfall, AFGE's National Executive Council last month approved a plan to slash its staffing levels from 355 to 151. The union has offered early retirements and buyouts to some staff, and employees are anticipating layoffs in the coming days.
'It's going to be devastating,' Kelley told reporters on a Zoom conference celebrating Public Service Recognition Week. 'I don't know if we'll overcome it, to be honest with you, because members have joined this union because they expect us to provide a certain amount of services.'
Local unions have already been warned that they will face longer response times from national staff members and less legal help on non-essential matters.
Kelley said AFGE is pushing its remaining members to sign up to have their dues withdrawn automatically from their bank accounts. The union said Monday that about 120,000 of its members have signed up. In all, the union represents about 820,000 federal workers.
Kelley said the group had been successful in pushing back against Trump's dramatic downsizing and reshaping of the federal government, filing nine lawsuits and rallying the public to its cause.
'We've been beating him in the court of law and also in the court of public opinion,' he said. 'But he wants AFGE silent.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
What to know about the Group of Seven summit in Canada that Trump will attend
TORONTO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive Sunday for a Group of Seven summit in a country he has suggested should be annexed and as he wages a trade war with America's longstanding allies. Trump's calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won his office by pledging to confront the U.S. president's increased aggression, now hosts the G7 summit. Carney asserted this week that Washington no longer plays a predominant role on the world stage, imposing tariffs for access to its markets and reducing its contributions to collective security. Carney has decided to abandon the annual practice of issuing a lengthy joint statement, or communiqué, at the summit's conclusion as French President Emmanuel Macron did at the G7 summit in France in 2019. The document typically outlines the consensus reached by leaders on summit issues and provides a roadmap for how they plan to tackle them. Trump roiled the 2017 meeting in Italy over the climate change passage in that summit's final statement. He then withdrew his support from the 2018 communiqué after complaining he had been slighted by then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the host that year. The leaders of the world's richest countries begin arriving Sunday in the resort town of Kananaskis, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. The Group of Seven comprises Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain. The European Union also attends as well as other heads of state who are not part of the G7 but have been invited by Carney. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend and is expected to meet with Trump, a reunion coming just months after their contentious Oval Office encounter, which laid bare the risks of having a meeting with the U.S. president. Other world leaders will be meeting with Trump both in a group setting and for bilateral talks, which are often precarious as foreign leaders must navigate between placating and confronting him. 'Anything could happen. The Canadians would be crazy not to anticipate something. We can't tell. That's Trump stock and trade. He likes to keep everyone guessing,' said Robert Bothwell, a University of Toronto professor of Canadian history and international relations. 'It all depends what kind of theater he's going to want to have,' he said. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will attend and said she expects to have her first in-person meeting with Trump. On his way to Canada, Macron is making a notable stop in Greenland, the semi autonomous Danish territory that the U.S. president has also suggested annexing. Among the other newcomers are German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Starmer will meet with Carney on Saturday in Ottawa before flying to Alberta. Carney also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite accusations from Canada's national police force that agents of Modi's government were involved in 'widespread' violence in Canada. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, was invited but will not attend. The 2018 G7 summit in Quebec was thrown into disarray after Trump called Trudeau 'dishonest' and 'weak,' while complaining that he had been blindsided by Trudeau's criticism of Trump's tariff threats at a summit-ending news conference. Trump pulled out of the G7 group statement just as it was released. 'We weren't too happy because we thought we managed to pull off a pretty good summit,' said Peter Boehm, Canada's deputy minister for the Quebec summit.' The reaction — and I was with Mr. Trudeau at the time — was a bit of disbelief.' Boehm expects a chair's summary from Carney this year instead of a joint statement from the leaders. During the Quebec summit, Trump also insisted on Russia's readmission to the elite group, from which it was ousted in 2014 following President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea. 'Trump raised that at the foreign policy dinner,' Boehm recalled. 'It was a bit awkward because British Prime Minister Theresa May was there and some British citizens had just been killed by Russian operatives using a toxic agent.' Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were targeted in a nerve agent attack a few months before the Quebec summit in the English city of Salisbury. U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has said that Carney has been quietly holding direct talks with Trump about a trade deal in the lead up to the summit. Separately, top Canadian cabinet ministers have also been in Washington for negotiations in recent weeks. Trade tensions may be unavoidable. The United States runs trade deficits with all G7 countries except the United Kingdom. In an effort to balance what he describes as America's lopsided trade relations, Trump has imposed 10% import taxes — tariffs — on almost every country in the world. He also announced bigger tariffs, then suspended them, on countries that sell more to the United States than they buy. 'The big X Factor (is) the looming tariffs,' said Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The G7 is supposed to provide global economic governance. And the way the Europeans see it right now is that the country that's the source of major instability in global economic affairs is the United States.'' Trump's trade wars are already threatening the world economy. The World Bank on Tuesday sharply downgraded its forecast for global economic growth this year, citing 'a substantial rise in trade barriers.'' NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will attend the G7 meeting ahead of this month's NATO summit and has said most U.S. allies in the alliance endorse Trump's demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense needs. Carney said this week Canada would meet NATO's current 2% target but seemed to suggest he would not support 5%, saying his goal is to protect Canadians, and not to satisfy NATO accountants. Law enforcement overseeing security expect large protests but say protesters won't be able to get anywhere near Kananaskis, as access roads to the summit will be closed to the public. The Mounties say there will be designated G7 demonstration zones in Calgary and Banff, Alberta that will have live audio and video feeds, which will be broadcast to G7 leaders and delegations at the summit. Kananaskis also hosted a G8 summit in 2002. ___ Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pope Leo XIV's fashion choices make waves, and many wonder what they mean
VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Leo XIV stepped out on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to greet the crowd for the first time after his May 8 election, liturgical fashion aficionados around the globe took note: Gone was the simple white cassock and silver cross favored by Pope Francis. Back was the red satin mozzetta shoulder cape, the burgundy stola with gold embroidery and a gold cross held by a double-stranded silken gold cord. Over Leo's first few weeks, the excitement grew among liturgical fashion-conscious Catholics as they noticed new additions to the wardrobe, or rather a return to the old additions of the papal wardrobe: cufflinks, white pants, lace. After Francis' revolutionary papacy, Vatican watchers are now wondering if Leo's return to the past sartorial look means a return to the past on other things too, including more substantial policy issues. But for tailors at the elite handful of liturgical tailoring shops in Rome, there is hope that Leo's return to the fancier garb of popes past will mean a boon to business if Leo's traditional look has a trickle-down effect from the pope to priests and all those in between. The style is a return to form According to the Rev. John Wauck, professor of church communication at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome, Leo's clothing choices are a 'return to form,' and his attire similar to that worn by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II and other popes going back to the middle ages. They show 'a respect for tradition,' he said. Such respect for the papal office is important for many conservative Catholics. Many conservatives and traditionalists soured on Francis' informal style and disdain for tradition, which reached its pinnacle with his his crackdown on the old Latin Mass. The old liturgy was celebrated before the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council; Francis greatly restricted access to the old liturgy, saying it had become a source of division in parishes. Leo has shown strong familiarity with Latin, and has taken to singing the Sunday noontime prayer in Latin. Some traditionalist Catholics are hoping Leo will take the pro-Latin path even further and reverse Francis to allow greater use of the traditional Latin Mass. Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology at Villanova University, where Leo went to college, said it's too early to tell if Leo will reverse Francis' reform. 'It remains to be seen if Leo's more traditional attire and liturgical style means that he will change Francis' strong decisions limiting the so-called 'Latin Mass,'" he said. That said, Faggioli said U.S. conservatives seems particularly happy with Leo's traditional attire, given Francis' disdain for the fashion pomp of the papacy. 'In this sense, Francis might have been a parenthesis or an interlude, more than a changer of the tradition in 'papal style,'' he said in an email. Leo has made other changes, too At his inaugural Mass on May 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV reached out his arm to sprinkle holy water and revealed a shirt with cufflinks, which Francis had largely avoided. He was also wearing an amitto, and an alb held in place by a cingulum. For the non-experts, the amitto is a lacy linen cloth that goes around the neck, the alb is the white tunic worn under the ceremonial vestment, and the cingulum is a braided rope with tassels that serves as a belt. If it weren't for photographers' long lenses relentlessly trained on the pope's every gesture, Leo's switch from Francis's standard black pants to more traditional white papal trousers would have gone completely unnoticed. In addition to the clothing changes, Leo has returned to some other traditions of the Vatican that Francis eschewed. He has shown himself willing to accept the traditional 'baciamano' or kissing of his ring. Francis disliked having his ring kissed and often pulled his hand away if someone tried to kiss it. 'I think that what we see with Pope Leo is a willingness to embrace tradition, even if it risks seeming perhaps more formal than Pope Francis,' Wauck said. The idea is that 'seeing that tradition as a treasure to be conserved and embraced as opposed to something that makes one feel perhaps a little bit standoffish.' It remains to be seen whether Leo will move into the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace, which stood empty during the 12-year Francis papacy. Francis shocked the world by choosing to live in a small room at the Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, eating his meals in the common dining room. For the Rev. Castro Prudencio, this is all much ado about nothing. "For Pope Francis it was simplicity. Always. And Pope Leo has taken up what Pope Benedict had and many others. That is what the church is like,' he said. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What to know about the Group of Seven summit in Canada that Trump will attend
TORONTO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive Sunday for a Group of Seven summit in a country he has suggested should be annexed and as he wages a trade war with America's longstanding allies. Trump's calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won his office by pledging to confront the U.S. president's increased aggression, now hosts the G7 summit. Carney asserted this week that Washington no longer plays a predominant role on the world stage, imposing tariffs for access to its markets and reducing its contributions to collective security. Carney has decided to abandon the annual practice of issuing a lengthy joint statement, or communiqué, at the summit's conclusion as French President Emmanuel Macron did at the G7 summit in France in 2019. The document typically outlines the consensus reached by leaders on summit issues and provides a roadmap for how they plan to tackle them. Trump roiled the 2017 meeting in Italy over the climate change passage in that summit's final statement. He then withdrew his support from the 2018 communiqué after complaining he had been slighted by then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the host that year. The leaders of the world's richest countries begin arriving Sunday in the resort town of Kananaskis, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. Who will attend The Group of Seven comprises Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain. The European Union also attends as well as other heads of state who are not part of the G7 but have been invited by Carney. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend and is expected to meet with Trump, a reunion coming just months after their contentious Oval Office encounter, which laid bare the risks of having a meeting with the U.S. president. Other world leaders will be meeting with Trump both in a group setting and for bilateral talks, which are often precarious as foreign leaders must navigate between placating and confronting him. 'Anything could happen. The Canadians would be crazy not to anticipate something. We can't tell. That's Trump stock and trade. He likes to keep everyone guessing,' said Robert Bothwell, a University of Toronto professor of Canadian history and international relations. 'It all depends what kind of theater he's going to want to have,' he said. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will attend and said she expects to have her first in-person meeting with Trump. On his way to Canada, Macron is making a notable stop in Greenland, the semi autonomous Danish territory that the U.S. president has also suggested annexing. Among the other newcomers are German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Starmer will meet with Carney on Saturday in Ottawa before flying to Alberta. Carney also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite accusations from Canada's national police force that agents of Modi's government were involved in 'widespread' violence in Canada. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, was invited but will not attend. Will Trump upstage this G7 too? The 2018 G7 summit in Quebec was thrown into disarray after Trump called Trudeau 'dishonest' and 'weak," while complaining that he had been blindsided by Trudeau's criticism of Trump's tariff threats at a summit-ending news conference. Trump pulled out of the G7 group statement just as it was released. 'We weren't too happy because we thought we managed to pull off a pretty good summit,' said Peter Boehm, Canada's deputy minister for the Quebec summit." The reaction — and I was with Mr. Trudeau at the time — was a bit of disbelief." Boehm expects a chair's summary from Carney this year instead of a joint statement from the leaders. During the Quebec summit, Trump also insisted on Russia's readmission to the elite group, from which it was ousted in 2014 following President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea. 'Trump raised that at the foreign policy dinner," Boehm recalled. 'It was a bit awkward because British Prime Minister Theresa May was there and some British citizens had just been killed by Russian operatives using a toxic agent.' Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were targeted in a nerve agent attack a few months before the Quebec summit in the English city of Salisbury. Looming tariffs U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has said that Carney has been quietly holding direct talks with Trump about a trade deal in the lead up to the summit. Separately, top Canadian cabinet ministers have also been in Washington for negotiations in recent weeks. Trade tensions may be unavoidable. The United States runs trade deficits with all G7 countries except the United Kingdom. In an effort to balance what he describes as America's lopsided trade relations, Trump has imposed 10% import taxes — tariffs — on almost every country in the world. He also announced bigger tariffs, then suspended them, on countries that sell more to the United States than they buy. 'The big X Factor (is) the looming tariffs,' said Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The G7 is supposed to provide global economic governance. And the way the Europeans see it right now is that the country that's the source of major instability in global economic affairs is the United States.'' Trump's trade wars are already threatening the world economy. The World Bank on Tuesday sharply downgraded its forecast for global economic growth this year, citing 'a substantial rise in trade barriers.'' A prelude to NATO summit NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will attend the G7 meeting ahead of this month's NATO summit and has said most U.S. allies in the alliance endorse Trump's demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense needs. Carney said this week Canada would meet NATO's current 2% target but seemed to suggest he would not support 5%, saying his goal is to protect Canadians, and not to satisfy NATO accountants. Why such a remote location Law enforcement overseeing security expect large protests but say protesters won't be able to get anywhere near Kananaskis, as access roads to the summit will be closed to the public. The Mounties say there will be designated G7 demonstration zones in Calgary and Banff, Alberta that will have live audio and video feeds, which will be broadcast to G7 leaders and delegations at the summit. Kananaskis also hosted a G8 summit in 2002. ___ Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.
