Latest news with #AmericanFederationofGovernmentEmployees
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge Blocks Trump's Union-Busting Plan At TSA
The Trump administration faced another legal setback on Monday when a judge temporarily blocked their plan to dissolve labor unions at a federal agency. The White House moved in March to revoke collective bargaining rights at the Transportation Security Administration, aiming to nullify the union contract for some 47,000 airport security officers. But U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman in Seattle, Washington, granted an injunction Monday at the request of the union, the American Federation of Government Employees. Pechman, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, determined that the union was likely to prevail in its argument that the administration ran afoul of the law. She said Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, offered only a 'threadbare justification' for stripping workers of their union rights, and the move appeared purely retaliatory. 'The Noem Determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration's attacks [on] federal employment in the courts,' she wrote. AFGE President Everett Kelley called Pechman's order 'a crucial victory for federal workers.' 'We remain committed to ensuring our members' rights and dignity are protected, and we will not back down from defending our members' rights against unlawful union busting,' Kelley said in a statement. The order means that the Trump administration must honor the union's collective bargaining agreement for now. But the White House could still win the underlying case and succeed in having the contract tossed out. The union-busting efforts are a key piece of President Donald Trump's broader plan to decimate the federal workforce and end longstanding civil-service protections. In addition to trying to kill unions at TSA, Trump has tried to nullify collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of other workers at a slew of federal agencies, all in the name of 'national security.' The White House has said explicitly that it's taking such actions at least in part because federal labor groups have stood up to the president. It noted in a 'fact sheet' on revoking collective bargaining rights that federal labor groups had 'declared war on President Trump's agenda,' a statement Pechman noted in her order Monday. 'The First Amendment protects against retaliation for engaging in litigation and public criticism of the government,' she wrote.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Advocates for NIOSH picket as deadline to restore jobs looms near
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — More than a month after roughly 100 NIOSH workers in Morgantown received their 'reduction in force' letters, workers and other supporters of NIOSH are still making one last push to restore more of the agency. The American Federation of Government Employees sent representatives to speak with congressional staff in Washington, and in Morgantown picketers tried to make their voices heard. The AFGE says a diminished NIOSH will make it harder to keep workers safe, and in the long run, this will cost the government money. Cathy Tinney-Zara, President of AFGE Local 3430 and also a NIOSH worker impacted by the RIF, argued that preventing injuries, accidents, and illnesses saves the government money in the long run. NIOSH might prevent a worker from getting so injured that they have to enroll in Social Security. Furthermore, with a diminished NIOSH, employers could see higher costs from workers compensation fees, and society could see higher healthcare costs. Randolph County superintendent says new policy that conflicts with WV Code is 'inaccurate' State Senator Mike Oliverio said while he believes the federal government must make cuts, NIOSH should not be one of them. 'There's nowhere else in the country that does what NIOSH does here in West Virginia, and so it's not like other federal facilities where you can cut here or trim there, and somebody else can pick up the slack,' Oliverio said. 'This is the place in the country that is designed to protect workers, everything from head to toe, whether it's a helmet, a respirator, steel toe boot, everything in between.' While some NIOSH employees have returned to their positions, most of them remain on the chopping block, with the official termination date being in early June. Unless a reversal happens by then, the jobs will be permanently lost. 12 News will continue to keep you up-to-date with developments with NIOSH as the deadline approaches. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Sneaky Policy Buried In The GOP Tax Bill Could Blow Up The Civil Service
President Donald Trump's long-running dream to protect loyalists in the federal bureaucracy and fire any perceived enemy got even closer to reality Thursday, when House Republicans passed a massive tax and spending bill. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 215-214, cuts $1 trillion in federal health and food programs while adding nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts steered primarily to the wealthy. But it also includes a little-noticed provision that would force new federal employees to either give up traditional job protections or take a significant cut to their compensation. If the measure survives in whatever package the GOP-controlled Senate passes, unions warn it could turn the federal workforce into an old-school spoils system. 'It's a huge policy change masquerading as a small budget provision,' said Daniel Horowitz, legislative director at the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing more than 800,000 workers. 'It torches the civil service.' And it does so in a sneaky way. Federal workers receive retirement benefits through what's known as the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS. Retirees are paid an annuity based upon their length of service, funded through contributions from both employees and their agencies. Current workers chip in a certain percentage of their paycheck into FERS — either 0.8% or 4.4%, depending on when they were hired — and the government covers the rest. The GOP measure would force new federal employees to pay a whopping 5% surcharge — bringing their FERS contribution to 9.4% of their pay — unless they agree to become an 'at-will' employee. That means they would waive their right to appeal their termination except in particular cases like racial discrimination. The average salary of a new federal worker entering the FERS system is around $71,000, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the agency inside Congress that analyzed the GOP bill. So the typical worker would have to give up $3,500 a year just to have job protections that have long been standard. Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union representing 100,000 workers, said the policy amounts to a 'bribe.' 'Another way to look at it is criminal extortion,' he said. 'They're saying, 'We will charge you more … if you choose to access the laws that are on the books.'' He suspects most workers would choose to have more money in their paychecks, even though 'you'd lose all your protections to report waste, fraud and abuse.' Indeed, the budget office estimates that only one-quarter of new hires would sacrifice 5% of their pay in order to keep their civil service rights. And therefore the budget savings from the measure — that is, the whole reason it's supposedly in a tax bill — would end up being quite small. CBO figures the policy would increase revenue by just $4.7 billion over 10 years. By comparison, the Republican bill cuts nearly $700 billion from Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, over the same period. Horowitz said the meager savings betray the policy's real intent: to turn the federal government into an at-will workforce in which employees can be fired for any reason at all. 'With a small provision here they're basically undoing all of Title 5,' he said, referring to the part of U.S. code that outlines federal job protections. 'It's 150 years of civil service rules that are being thrown out here and nullified.'While it may be tucked into a tax package, the policy fits neatly into the Trump administration's broader attacks on federal workers and labor groups. The White House has tried to unilaterally shut down federal agencies, terminate tens of thousands of probationary employees, carry out mass layoffs through 'reductions in force' and strip collective-bargaining rights from up to a million workers. It is also hoping to reclassify thousands of civil servants as 'at-will' political appointees through its Schedule F scheme. Federal unions are an obstacle to all those goals, and the GOP tax measure could be one way to weaken them for good. Unions in the federal sector cannot bargain directly over pay and benefits, but they can provide good job security by enabling workers to appeal what they believe are unfair terminations. If workers waive their right to such due process, there would be less reason for them to join a union in the first place. The at-will policy could therefore help with the long-sought GOP goal of shrinking the membership of federal unions. Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said the Trump administration seems determined to 'turn the federal sector into Walmart.' 'This idea of forcing federal workers to pay or be 'at will' is illegal and outrageous,' said Biggs, whose union represents workers at NASA and other agencies. But it's not clear the measure will make it through the Senate, where some Republicans have voiced concern about certain pieces of the House bill. Republicans hold 53 seats and have a narrow path to approving the tax overhaul. Winning over the more moderate members will be essential to getting the legislation to Trump's desk. Lenkart hopes the provision will die in the Senate, which tends to be 'a little calmer in the skull' than the House, he said. But he was reluctant to make any predictions. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of the few Republicans who've openly pushed back against Trump's attacks on federal employees. Her home state of Alaska is especially vulnerable to cuts to the federal workforce. Asked for her take on the at-will provision in the GOP bill, Murkowski said only that she'd been keeping an eye on it. 'I haven't looked to see how it actually landed,' she told HuffPost on Thursday, alluding to the last-minute changes House Republicans made to their bill. 'It is something that we were paying attention to. So I'm going to take a look at that one.' Arthur Delaney contributed reporting to this story.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Job cuts reversed at Pittsburgh lab that certifies nation's respirators
Aerial shot of the NIOSH campus in Bruceton, Allegheny County. (Photo from the CDC) The Pittsburgh-area lab responsible for certifying virtually all U.S. government-approved respirators in the country was preparing to shutter for good in June. The Capital-Star reported last month that employees had been told their positions were being eliminated as part of sweeping cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The lab is responsible for certifying and auditing just about every N95, as well as masks worn by doctors, firefighters, welders, coal miners, and other professionals. But those plans changed Tuesday afternoon. Officials with the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees union say many, if not all, employees remaining at the Bruceton facility, many of whom were on administrative leave, received an email telling them their jobs were safe — at least for the moment. 'You previously received a notice regarding the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) upcoming reduction in force,' read an email sent to lab employees by Thomas Nagy, the agency's acting chief human capital officer, and shared with the Capital-Star. 'That notice is hereby revoked. You will not be affected by the upcoming RIF.' The employee who shared the email did so under the condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation. But a union official told the Capital-Star between recent buyouts, layoffs and early retirements, it's been difficult to say with certainty how many employees remain. And with so many on administrative leave, it's been hard to confirm if anyone did not receive the notification Tuesday. 'We're still trying to figure out what it all means and who it all covers,' said Suzanne Alison, a steward at the local American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents Allegheny County's NIOSH employees. 'We're crowdsourcing a little bit among ourselves.' A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to detailed questions about the decision to reverse the planned cuts, but said that, 'The Trump Administration remains committed to supporting coal miners, who play a vital role in America's energy sector. Under Secretary [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]'s leadership, NIOSH's Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program will continue to meet the needs of our nation's miners.' Workers at the National Personal Protective Technology Lab learned their jobs were no longer being cut on the same day a U.S. District Court judge in West Virginia granted an injunction ordering employees of NIOSH's mine safety and respiratory health divisions return to work following previous cuts. That was in response to a class action case led by West Virginia coal miner, Harry Wiley. It's unclear if there was any connection between the ruling and the reversal of cuts to the respirator certification lab. Alison said the ruling likely only affected employees at NIOSH's Morgantown division, who also faced steep cuts earlier this year. West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito said Tuesday on the social media platform X that over 100 employees would be returning to work at the Morgantown facility. However, employees at NIOSH's Pittsburgh-area Mining Research Division, which studies best practices for avoiding workplace injuries and deaths, do not appear to have received the same notices as those at the respirator certification lab, Alison said. Kennedy is scheduled to testify Wednesday before both the U.S. House Appropriations committee and the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to discuss his agency's proposed budget, which includes drastic staff cuts. There are two Pennsylvania representatives on the House Appropriations panel, Republican Guy Reschenthaler and Democrat Madeleine Dean. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
CNN
11-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump isn't the only one targeting federal employees. House Republicans are pushing cuts to pension benefits
Source: CNN After months of contending with the Trump administration's multi-pronged effort to downsize the federal workforce, government employees are now facing the possibility of another major change that could push even more of them out the door. House Republicans are looking to make several big adjustments to federal workers' retirement benefits to help pay for the party's sweeping tax and spending cuts package. The House Oversight Committee last week approved a plan that would squeeze $50 billion in savings out of the retirement system over the next decade. 'They're going to charge people more for the benefit, and then they're going to reduce the benefit by changing the formula for how the benefit is calculated,' Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, told reporters on Monday. The cuts could lead workers eligible for retirement to head for the exits in an effort to lock in their current benefits, union leaders say. Congressional Republicans have long wanted to overhaul federal staffers' pension system, as did President Donald Trump during his first term. But their efforts typically did not advance far. In the current political environment, however, the policy push may have a greater chance of succeeding. Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill' has not yet been finalized and must still be approved by the full House and the Senate. Rep. James Comer, the committee's chair, described the effort as a way to save Americans money. 'The simple truth is that a significant amount of the costs associated with all of these benefits are funded by hardworking taxpayers in the private sector and increasingly now federal government borrowing,' Comer said in his opening remarks when the committee examined the plan. At least one House Republican has already come out against the measure. Ohio Rep. Mike Turner joined Democrats in voting against the committee's plan last week. 'I oppose any and all efforts to reduce federal spending by taking money from the hard-earned pensions of federal workers,' he said in a statement. 'These pensions are not giveaways – they are promises to federal workers in exchange for their dedicated service.' The most significant measure approved by the committee would raise the Federal Employees Retirement System contribution rate for many current civilian and postal employees to 4.4% of their salary. Those hired prior to 2014 generally contribute either 0.8% or 3.1%, while more recent hires typically already contribute 4.4%. For new retirees who are too young to collect Social Security benefits, the plan would eliminate an additional payment that's currently available to retired federal workers until they turn 62. The plan would also base retirees' pension payments on their average highest five earning years, instead of highest three years, which could reduce benefits by thousands of dollars annually. Certain employees, including those in law enforcement, Customs and Border Protection officers and air traffic controllers, would not be subject to these provisions, though they would not be eligible for the additional pension payment until after their mandatory retirement age of 56 or 57, depending on their position. Plus, the plan would impose an additional 5% pension contribution for new employees who don't agree to serve 'at will,' a status that would give them fewer job protections. The proposed plan has sparked a fresh round of concerns among federal workers, particularly among older employees, union leaders say. 'People are very frustrated at the moment, thinking that it's kind of like a bait and switch,' said Brandy Moore White, president of the AFGE's Council of Prison Locals, which represents more than 30,000 correctional officers and staff at federal prisons. Although her members are not subject to many of the provisions, those who retire before they turn 57 would not receive supplemental payments until they hit that mandatory retirement age. The loss would be 'devastating' for a share of the prison workforce since it's not uncommon for employees to retire in their 40s or early 50s after years of service. At the Social Security Administration, a quarter of the staff are eligible for retirement, said Jessica LaPointe, president of AFGE's Council 220, which represents workers in the agency's centers, field offices and other units. Some are calling her to say they want to put in their retirement papers now so they can lock in their pension benefits. 'There's no way that I would be able to absorb that hit,' she said her colleagues are telling her. See Full Web Article
