THE AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees), the nation’s largest union for federal workers, president said on Monday the organisation’s ongoing staff downsizing will devastate the services it provides members and threatens the union’s survival.
AFGE national president Everett Kelley 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 Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
AFGE National President Kelley on Monday issued the following statement in honour of Public Service Recognition Week (4th-10th May), held each year on the first full week of May.
He said: ‘There could be no more critical time than now to recognise the dedicated public servants who work tirelessly every day to maintain our government programmes and services and to ensure the safety and prosperity of everyone who calls this country home.
‘The current administration is moving at warp speed to slash staffing at federal agencies and gut any protections workers have against mismanagement and mistreatment.
‘And make no mistake – even if you are not a federal worker or a member of a federal family, the drastic cuts being carried out at our federal agencies will affect everyone in this country.
‘Federal employees have dedicated their lives to public service – nearly 30% are military veterans.
‘They deserve our support and admiration – not pink slips and attacks on their rights.
‘So in honour of this year’s Public Service Recognition Week, I call on each of you to show your support for the employees who deliver for you and for our country every day.
‘Thank you.’
The coalition – that includes nationwide labour organisations, vital non-profit groups, and local cities and counties in California, Illinois, Maryland, Texas, and Washington challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful reorganisation of the federal government underway without legislative authority – has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order that would halt the unlawful reorganisation of the federal workforce.
The case is AFGE versus Trump and the large and diverse coalition is represented in the matter by Democracy Forward, Altshuler Berzon LLP, Protect Democracy, Public Rights Project, and State Democracy Defenders Fund.
The urgency for emergency relief comes as plaintiffs seek court intervention to stop the implementation of the President’s unlawful Executive Order 14210 (Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimisation Initiative), which violates the Constitution’s fundamental separation of powers principles.
Federal agencies were required to submit for approval Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganisation Plans on April 14th.
Although the President’s Executive Order seeks to radically reorganise and deconstruct federal agencies through massive reductions in force, the groups make clear in the filing that only Congress has the power to change the federal government in the ways the President has directed.
The coalition includes the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and four AFGE locals; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and SEIU Local 1000; Alliance for Retired Americans; American Geophysical Union; American Public Health Association; Centre for Taxpayer Rights; Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks; Common Defence; Main Street Alliance; NRDC (Natural Resources Defence Council); Northeast Organic Farming Association Inc.; VoteVets; Western Watersheds Project; City and County of San Francisco, California; County of Santa Clara, California; City of Chicago, Illinois; City of Baltimore, Maryland; Harris County, Texas; and King County, Washington.
- An immigration raid in western New York last Friday targeted a group of immigrants involved in a landmark statewide effort by farm workers to unionise.
Last Friday morning, May 2nd, at around 9.30am, federal agents in unmarked cars and bearing no agency insignia pulled over a bus in Albion, New York, about 35 miles west of Rochester, and took 14 people of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms into custody.
All of the detainees, who hailed from Mexico and Guatemala, were year-round employees of Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms, a family-owned business in nearby Kent, New York, which has been locked in a multi-year battle to prevent workers from unionising.
The company is one of five agricultural businesses that, together with a state growers’ association, have tried for years to overturn or chip away at New York’s 2019 farm labour law.
The law enshrined protections for the right of farmworkers, whether seasonal or year-round, to seek union representation.
Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers of America (UFW) union, said: ‘This was strange because they actually had a list of most of the workers on the bus.’
Several of the workers taken into custody last Friday have been active in efforts to unionise year-round employees, including at least one who has spoken publicly in favour of joining the United Farm Workers of America, according to the storied labour union.
Starter added: ‘We are concerned at the appearance of targeting publicly pro-union worker leaders.’
In video of the raid posted to social media, the agents could be seen dressed in civilian clothes and wearing tactical vests with patches that said ‘Police’, as is common in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
The agents did not identify themselves, said a source close to the families of the detained workers, but a spokesperson for ICE later confirmed that its agents had made the arrests.
According to the spokesperson, all 14 were in the country without authorisation, and three of the individuals had pending removal orders.
Lynn-Ette – which grows green beans, cabbage, squash, and other vegetables and foodstuffs – issued a statement on Monday morning expressing concern for their employees.
It said: ‘We are deeply troubled by the manner in which this enforcement action was carried out and the impact it has had on our team and their families.
‘Lynn-Ette & Sons had no prior knowledge of the raid and had no contact with ICE beforehand.’
As of Monday evening, more than 72 hours after the raid, the location of most of the detainees was not yet clear.
ICE detention records show that at least one man is being held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York, and two women are being held at Niagara County Jail in Lockport, New York.
Lynn-Ette forcefully rejected any notion that the company had any role in the raid.
‘We strongly reject the United Farm Workers’ (UFW) irresponsible and self-serving public claims suggesting that these workers were targeted in retaliation for union activity,’ the company said in its statement.
The company said: ‘These claims are categorically false.’
Lynn-Ette made no mention that the detained workers were part of a group actively seeking representation with the UFW.
As families scrambled to locate their loved ones, Strater said: ‘Workers and organisers alike are on really high alert.
‘They are used to working hard and they’re used to needing to be resilient, but this is a different level of fear.’
Even prior to the raid last Friday, families have been changing up their routines to avoid the worst-case scenario of both parents getting snatched at once, Strater said, adding: ‘They’re avoiding simple stuff like going to the grocery store as a family. They’re scared.’