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 of or against legislation. Do not list your government email or government address in filling out this message. 

Thanks to the thousands of AFGE activists who volunteered countless hours, 2008 was a momentous year for AFGE. We elected a new president and more pro-union, pro-government employee lawmakers. AFGE is now aggressively working with lawmakers to make government more effective and responsive to government employees.

 

AFGE’s Legislative and Political Action Department is currently engaged in four major legislative campaigns.

 

  • Operation Cleanup: AFGE is working with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Representative John Sarbanes (D, MD-3) to advance the Clean Up Act. This critical piece of legislation, which will be introduced in the Senate very soon and in the House in early May, would clean up the waste, fraud and abuse left behind by the previous administration by making the outsourcing and insourcing process more accountable to taxpayers and fairer to government employees. To take action on this campaign, please visit: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/cleanup

 

  • Winning Collective Bargaining Rights for TSOs: AFGE is leading the fight in Congress to get collective bargaining rights for the 40,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs). Thanks to the hard work of AFGE’s dedicated TSOs and other AFGE activists, on April 2, 2009, The Transportation Security Workforce Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 1881) was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Nita Lowey (D,NY-13), Bennie Thompson (D, MS-2) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D, TX-18). This critical piece of legislation grants TSOs the same collective bargaining rights and workforce protections as other federal workers and ends TSA's Performance and Accountability Standards System (PASS). Due to PASS' flawed nature and outrageous subjectivity, TSOs have been denied countless thousands of dollars in increased wages. The assault on the nation's TSOs must come to an end. Act now to encourage your lawmaker to support H.R. 1881:  http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/TSA1881

 

  • Veterans Deserve Quality Health Care. That’s why AFGE is working hard to ensure that the frontline employees who care for our veterans have a voice in the safety and quality of the services they provide. Legislation recently introduced in the Senate (S.362) and the House (H.R. 949) would ensure that all of VA’s front line Title 38 health care professionals have the same collective bargaining rights as other federal employees have. Help guarantee that VA health care workers can advocate on behalf of our veterans for safe and quality health care by visiting: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/VACampaign2009

 

  • Freedom to Join a Union: AFGE has also joined with the AFL-CIO in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field for workers who try to join a union. The Employee Free Choice Act would reform the current broken systems that favors big business and doesn’t protect workers. To take action on this campaign, please visit: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/efcanow  

Get Active Now:

 

Your activism last year helped to create the opportunity to move this long overdue legislative agenda. Now we need your continued activism to make it a reality. We need AFGE activists like you to call and write their lawmakers, set up face-to-face meetings back home and contribute to AFGE’s Political Action Committee (visit: http://www.afge.org//Index.cfm?Page=PoliticalActionCommittee . That’s the only way we will hold the lawmakers we helped elect accountable.  It’s how we ensure lawmakers deliver on their promises to make government work for all of us.  AFGE members across the country are already answering the call to action to advance AFGE’s legislative initiatives. Volunteer to join them right now: http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?page=volunteer .

 

Building Effective Volunteer Programs: Spotlight on Local 916: Tinker Air Force Base

 

AFGE Members from Local 916 (Tinker AFB) gather at an event for Representative Dan Boren (OK-2)

 

AFGE Local 916 (Tinker AFB) is located in Oklahoma City, OK, one of the most politically conservative states in the nation – Voters chose to make Oklahoma a Right to Work state in 2001. In this challenging anti-union, political atmosphere, Local 916 has developed a political action program that incorporates bi-partisan relationships with Congress, close work with the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO and the Oklahoma City Central Labor Council, and an innovative, incentive-based volunteer program.  The Insider recently sat down with Local 916’s Political Coordinator, Bryan Jackson, and asked him about the development of the Local’s political action and volunteer programs.

 

Why and how did you set up the political program at Local 916?

 

 We were frustrated about getting the same handful of people to come to our various political events over the years. Not only was it frustrating to our leadership, but our activists were beginning to burn out as well. We needed to develop a way to motivate our membership to volunteer more, so we came up with our "Working Families Initiative Program". We made T-shirts specifically for our volunteers to wear to promote our efforts and also created a prize system, which consists of gathering points for volunteering for various political events throughout the year. Along with our t-shirts, we worked with the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO and the Oklahoma City CLC to provide other prizes, such as gas cards and gift certificates to the AFL-CIO online store. The ultimate prize was for the top volunteers, whom we declared our "Working Families Champions" to attend the annual AFGE Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. as representatives for our Local.

 

Tell us how your point system works and how it increases volunteer participation?

 

Well, it's pretty simple. The volunteers are given one point for each activity – we call it a volunteer shift -- they volunteer for. It could be a phone bank, a labor walk or some other activity around the Local.  If a volunteer decides to work more than one shift for a given activity (usually 4 hours) they receive a second point. This point per shift concept was important to encourage volunteers to work double time during the crucial part of the get-out-the-vote activities we participated in during the 2008 elections.  I would post an updated volunteer point standings roster weekly and it started to take on a game-like quality, with people pushing each other to show up and work as long as possible. Some of our volunteers earned 3 points (working 12 hour shifts) in the final two days of the election.  The goal of this system was to get our volunteers competitive with each other, and it definitely paid off. We ended up with about six times the volunteers that we had during the 2006 election cycle.

 

Your Local is located in one of the most conservative states in the nation. Why do you think your program has been successful in such a tough political environment?

 

When I took over our legislative program, the first thing I did was insist that our local remain non-partisan. We didn't care about whether a candidate had a “D” or an “R” next to their name. It was simply what could this person do for our members at Tinker AFB. We made sure not to alienate people from any party and I think that has really paid off in bringing in our volunteers.

 

Our volunteer pool consists of conservatives, moderates, progressives, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, all working for the common goal of electing candidates that will work for the working families at Tinker. By taking this approach, you eliminate debating all of the "wedge issues" that divide so many people. This tactic may agitate the various political parties, but we are here to represent our members, not a particular party.  An example of this was our endorsement of ultra conservative Republican Congressman Tom Cole and conservative Democratic Congressman Dan Boren.

 

How many volunteers and volunteer actions (walks, phone banking, rallies) did they participate in?

We had 34 volunteers for calendar year 2008, who took over 200 volunteer actions. They worked for several different political campaigns, including Obama for President, Andrew Rice (R) for US Senate, Tom Cole (R-4) for Congress, and Dan Boren (D-2) for Congress. These volunteers worked precinct walks every weekend, as well as phone banks and stuffing envelopes.

 

Did you work with the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO and Oklahoma City CLC?

 

The State AFL-CIO was focused on local and state races and we focused on the federal ones. We coordinated our efforts and managed to work several races at the same time. They provided us with a ton of information as well as weekly drawings for AFL-CIO online store gift certificates.

 

I'm rather proud to say that the AFL-CIO was pleased by our legislative program and recognized us along with the Transportation Workers Union as the best programs in the state.

 

Tell us about the "Crash the Party" program your Local is currently working on.

 "Crash the Party" is something to keep our volunteers motivated during the off election years like 2009 and it gives our Local a voice in the political parties. We simply went out and recruited our volunteers and other members to become elected officials within their respective parties. Our goal is to get as many members elected into precinct, county, and statewide delegate positions as possible.

 

To date, our program has been extremely successful. On April 4, 2009, seven of our members were elected as voting delegates to the District and State conventions and three more were elected to alternate positions. One member was also elected chair of the Lincoln County Democrats. To date Local 916 members account for 10 state and district delegates, 16 precinct officers, and 1 county chair.

 

I'm hoping this will pay off come 2010 by helping us to recruit volunteers and send a message to the candidates that the dominate union for political activity in Oklahoma is AFGE.

 

 

And we want to hear from you. Do you have a story about volunteering? E-mail us at: afgepac@afge.org  

 

With your help and time, 2009 will be the year for government employees. We’ll win collective bargaining rights for TSOs and all Veterans Affairs employees. We’ll reform the contracting-out process to ensure it’s fair. We’ll get fair pay raises and better benefits. But, we can’t do this with out you.