Current Actions

• Your lawmaker is only 1 of 20

  Your lawmaker is 1 of only 20 members of Congress tasked with developing a proposal to pay for extending the payroll tax holiday to give relief to working families.

  Currently, this group of 20 is trying to reconcile a House plan that attacks middle-class federal workers with a Senate plan that doesn't.

  Republican leaders in the House want to pay for their plan by freezing your wages for a third year in a row, requiring massive increases in your pension contributions, and making draconian reductions in retirement benefits.

  Use the form below to email your lawmaker TODAY and tell Congress that federal workers shouldn't bear the costs of the payroll tax cut.

• It’s time to hold the VA accountable for treating some VA employees like second class citizens.

  Second class citizens is exactly how the VA is treating front line AFGE members like physicians, dentists, registered nurses (RN), physician assistants and other  clinicians who are denied the right to bargain over pay rules – a right that the rest of us who work at the VA can exercise everyday.

  We are one union and we can’t let this injustice stand.  The battle for collective bargaining rights is not just going on in Wisconsin!  It’s happening right now within the VA.  Join the fight!

• Tell your lawmakers: Enough!

  A government shutdown is looming.

  Republicans in Congress are willing to shut down the government in order to keep millionaires from paying their fair share, all the while proposing even more radical attacks on your pay, pensions, and the critical services we provide.

  Lawmakers in Washington need to stop playing games with the lives and livelihoods of the middle-income Americans who keep the country running.

  Email your lawmakers TODAY!

• Say NO to Another Pay Freeze!

  We just learned that the House is expected to vote TODAY on a Republican proposal to take money out of your pocket so they don't have to tax millionaires. You're being scapegoated, and it's outrageous!

  With the last votes of the year coming up in Congress, Republican House leaders are once again looking to extend the pay freeze on federal employees, increase what you pay for your pension, and cut federal jobs. They won't tax millionaires, but they will attack middle-income federal employees.

  Your Representative needs to know that we won't stand for a pay cut or changes to our pensions. No matter what the GOP proposes, Congress needs to stand up for the rights of the working Americans who take care of our borders, veterans, and environment.

  Email your Representative and tell Congress:

  • NO changes to what we pay for our pensions
  • NO extension of the pay freeze
  • NO to job cuts that undermine the economic recovery

  Email your lawmaker TODAY!

• Act Now: No Rotten Deal for Working Families

  In Washington, there’s been a lot of talk about cutting Medicare and Medicaid.
  
  Now comes a plan to slash Social Security by $112 billion over the next decade and raise taxes on poor and middle-class Americans while almost completely letting the rich off the hook.
  
  Will you let your senators know that working families will do our part to help clean up our economic mess, but we won’t accept cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, no matter what politicians call them?
  
  Tell your senators: No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Make millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.

• Tell your members of Congress to protect American standards and jobs

  Option A: Save $678 Billion by repealing the Bush Tax Cut for the WEALTHIEST 2% of Americans?

  OR

  Option B: Save $15 Billion by freezing federal pay or changing the retirement formula from a high three to a high five?

  No matter how you slice it, Option A saves significantly more money and Option B compromises America's ability to maintain standards for our citizens safety and welfare, AND cuts hundreds of thousands of jobs.

  AFGE is on Capitol Hill working to protect the jobs of federal workers as well as the public programs that make our country a world leader. Send this important message to your members of Congress by filling out this form today.

  
  

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  This information should not be read using government equipment, read during duty time, sent to others using government equipment, or sent to anyone while in a government building because it involves election related activity. Do not forward information from this site to the government email addresses of AFGE members; use their home email address.

  Stand with Pro-Federal Employee Candidates in 2010

  For AFGE members, their families, and working families across America, a clear choice has emerged in the 2010 midterm election:

             ✓ Support candidates that will stand up for government employees and effective government

  Or

             ✗ Support candidates who support extreme policies to cut your pension, your paycheck, and your job; waste taxpayer money on outsourcing, freeze federal employee pay, and dismantle working family programs – from privatizing Social Security to cutting federal employee retirement benefits.

  Take a stand – sign the pledge below!

• Federal Employees Know - Certain Government Jobs Are Too Important to Contract Out
• Thank you for calling your senator

  Before we call tomorrow to find a time to meet with your senator, we want to know how many voicemail messages they got from AFGE.

  We know how valuable your time is and wouldn't have asked you to make this call unless it was really important. AFGE has been fighting back against greedy contractors, laying the groundwork for victory, by meeting with senators and their staff, in Washington, DC.

  Thank you again for your support.

• Stand with Pro-Federal Employee Candidates in 2010

  This information should not be read using government equipment, read during duty time, sent to others using government equipment, or sent to anyone while in a government building because it involves election related activity. Do not forward information from this site to the government email addresses of AFGE members, use their home email address

  For AFGE members, their families, and working families across America, a clear choice has emerged in the 2010 midterm election:

             ✓ Support candidates that will stand up for government employees and effective government

  Or

             ✗ Support candidates who support extreme policies to cut your pension, your paycheck, and your job; waste taxpayer money on outsourcing, freeze federal employee pay, and dismantle working family programs – from privatizing Social Security to cutting federal employee retirement benefits.

  Take a stand!

• Stand with Pro-Federal Employee Candidates in 2010

  For AFGE members, their families, and working families across America, a clear choice has emerged in the 2010 midterm election:

  • Support candidates that will stand up for government employees and effective government

  Or

  • Support candidates that support extreme policies to cut government services, jobs and benefits, wasting tax-payer money and and dismantling working family programs – from Social Security to veterans’ health care.

  Take A Stand! Take the Pledge!

  As an AFGE member, you can send a message to political candidates considering which side they will take on the issue of protecting government employees by signing the AFGE Decides 2010 petition today.

  Make sure your voice is heard today and on Election Day.

• Federal Employee Pension Is On GOP Chopping Block

  
  Republicans -- led by House Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- want to cut your pension.
  
  On top of that, they want you to work longer for less. 
  
  As you read this, Republicans in Congress are pushing for a vote on the House floor that would change how your pension is calculated (highest earnings for 5 years instead of 3) and eliminate the early retirement benefit.  Don’t let them do it.
  
  Click here to send an urgent message to your Representative asking them to oppose cuts to Federal employee pensions.
  
  Over the last several weeks, a group of Republicans known as the “You Cutters” have tried to:
  
  •    Cut your pay,
  •    Freeze federal hiring (which would make it impossible to end the understaffing at most agencies), and
  •    Eliminate the official time that AFGE uses to defend the rights of federal employees. 
  
  Now the “You Cutters” want to cut your pension.
  
  They want the House to vote RIGHT AWAY on a proposal to change how your pension is calculated -- from the current highest earnings over 3 years to your highest earnings over 5 years.  That’s a big chunk of money right out of your retirement wallet. Plus they want to eliminate the early retirement benefit for those who voluntarily retire early.  Again, that's money out of your wallet at retirement. Stop them!
  
  There is a strong case of amnesia among the Republican You Cutters – the same lawmakers who in eight short years rubberstamped the Bush Administration’s policies that ran up more in national debt than all of the other Presidents in American history combined.  Now, in an election year, the deficit creators have seen the light. Their solution is to attack the modest pay and pensions of federal employees.  Why?  Because, they choose not to be on the side of workers.  They don’t want to save some real money – like doing away with the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy or making Wall Street pay for their greed. It’s against their principles.  So they take the easy way out and demonize federal employees and government in general even though it doesn’t solve a single problem facing working Americans. 
  
  Don’t Let Them Get Away With It!

• Support Bargaining Rights for the VA!

  IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time or sent to others using government equipment, because it suggests action to be taken in support or against legislation.

  VA's front line Title 38 health care professionals (registered nurses, physicians, physician assistants, dentists, dental assistants, podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors) are supposed to have the same rights to grieve, arbitrate and negotiate with management over compensation matters as other federal employees, including other VA employees.  In fact, Congress added Section 7422 to Title 38 nearly two decades to make it clear that health care professionals have equal bargaining rights.  But over the last seven years, VA management has engaged in a massive attack of these critical rights by refusing to bargain over almost every routine compensation issue, including: nurse premium pay, requests for access to locality pay survey data and physician performance pay criteria.  As a result, laws passed by Congress to ensure competitive pay for the VA health care workforce are undermined on a daily basis.  
  

  That's why AFGE has worked with House and Senate lawmakers to introduce legislation (S. 3486/H.R. 55432) to restore these collective bargaining rights.

• Improve Veterans' Healthcare: Act Now!

  IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time or sent to others using government equipment, because it suggests action to be taken in support or against legislation. Do not list your government email or government address in filling out this message. Do not forward to government emails.

   

   

  Please join AFGE and the Department of Veterans Affairs' health care professionals in urging lawmakers to support two bills pending in Congress—H.R. 949 and S.362.  These bills, which were introduced by Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), would close the collective bargaining loophole for VA nurses, doctors, dentists, physician assistants, and other front line health care providers.

   

  These employees' bargaining rights are covered under Section 7422 of Title 38, which exempts them from collective bargaining issues relating to direct patient care, peer review, and compensation. For many years, the VA has interpreted these exceptions very broadly to mean that nearly all workplace issues are non-negotiable.  This is not what Congress intended when it passed the law in 1991. Mandatory overtime, for example, has resulted in overworked and exhausted nurses.  VA doctors have no recourse when they are regularly required to work 12-hour days and weekends without compensatory time.  These abuses deplete morale and make it harder for the VA to recruit and retain qualified professionals. Silencing employees' ability to fully exercise their rights also jeopardizes the ability to maintain excellence in care and honor a sacred trust between health care professionals and patients.

   

  A legislative fix is critical to ensure that clinicians retain their rights when Administrations change.  We need you to ask your lawmakers to support H.R. 949/S. 362 in order to stop this administration's attack on VA employees.

   

  For more information on Nurses Week, please visit www.afge.org.