Latest news with #EverettKelley
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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 Kelley said AFGE is pushing its remaining members to sign up to have their dues withdrawn automatically from their bank accounts.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.'
Associated Press
05-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
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.'
Winnipeg Free Press
05-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
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.'
Axios
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Trump seeks to dismantle federal unions
Federal unions are fighting a new executive order from President Trump that tries to ban collective bargaining for agencies that deal with national security matters. Why it matters: The executive order clashes with the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which created a structure for labor organizing in the federal government, unions say. State of play: Trump's executive order from last Thursday says it ends collective bargaining with federal unions for the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, ICE, State Department, USAID, an immigration review office part of DOJ, and more. "Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump's agenda," says a White House announcement. It says the largest federal union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), "is widely filing grievances to block Trump policies." What they're saying: AFGE says the executive action attacks the "collective bargaining rights of over one million federal employees." It notes that federal unions can't negotiate over pay, benefits or hiring/firing decisions, unlike those in the private sector. Federal employees cannot go on strike. Their role is narrowly defined as bargaining over employment conditions. "AFGE is preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks," the head of AFGE, Everett Kelley, said in a statement.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Moves to End Union Protections Across Broad Swath of Government
President Trump instructed a broad swath of government agencies on Thursday to end collective bargaining with federal unions, a major escalation in his effort to assert more control over the federal work force. Mr. Trump framed the order as critical to protect national security. But it targets agencies across the government, including the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State, Treasury and Energy, most of the Justice Department, and parts of the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, estimated that the order would strip labor protections from hundreds of thousands of civil servants, and said it was preparing legal action. 'This administration's bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association,' Everett Kelley, the union's president, said in a statement. 'Trump's threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.' Unions have been a major obstacle in Mr. Trump's effort to slash the size of the federal work force and reshape the government to put it more directly under his control. They have repeatedly sued over his blizzard of executive actions, winning at least temporary reprieves for some fired federal workers and blocking efforts to dismantle portions of the government. To claim authority to cancel the union contracts under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, Mr. Trump expanded the list of agencies exempt from provisions of laws governing federal labor relations for national security reasons. In doing so, he adopted an expansive view of national security, one that encompasses agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. The American Federation of Government Employees said Mr. Trump's order was illegal. After Mr. Trump signed the order, the affected agencies filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Texas against the unions representing federal employees, seeking to rescind their collective bargaining agreements. The government argued that the agreements 'significantly constrain' the executive branch and hinder the president's 'efforts to protect the United States from foreign and domestic threats.' In the filing, the government contended that the Biden administration extended the labor agreements for five years shortly after Mr. Trump won the election in November. The government also raised concerns about the contracts' return-to-work policies. The executive order is the latest step in Mr. Trump's wide-ranging effort to drastically overhaul the federal bureaucracy, which he has assigned Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficient to oversee. Mr. Musk said in an interview that aired Thursday on Fox News that he was trying to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion, and to cut $4 billion every day. Federal workers are already bracing for major new cuts. Mr. Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the Education Department last week, and on Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, announced that he was laying off 10,000 employees as part of a broad reorganization.
