The summer of 2018 started off with a bang, that was more like a:
At 5:15pm on the Friday before Memorial Day, the President of the United States signed three Executive Orders that gutted AFGE’s ability to represent our members and removed several employee protections including – the right to be treated the same as other employees and progressive discipline. The battle was partially won on August 25 (just under 3 months later) AFGE and scores of other unions (who had sued the president and OPM) were rewarded with agreement by the judge in our case. She restored our ability to use official time to represent employees, our ability to write and file grievances on official time, and our ability to maintain offices and use of equipment on the worksite at no additional fee. AFGE continues to battle for restoration of the remaining rights.
Of course, you already know, the executive board geared up for June elections and ultimately, won by acclamation because no one ran against us. Your officers are:
President: John Copeland
EVP: Dawn Riggs
Title 38 VP: Eric Gerken
Title 5 VP: Marcelina Trawick
Treasurer: Christina McCoy
Secretary: Kelsey Allen
Chief Steward: Barry Peterson
August 13-17, members of the executive board plus two additional delegates (Carmelo Negron and Roger Sands) went to the AFGE Triennial National convention in Las Vegas. National officers were elected and the locals were successful in not incurring any additional fees from national (called per capita fees). Below are some photos from the convention:
We moved back into our union jobs on Tuesday, August 28 and were soon up to our elbows in alligators, but thrilled to be back to doing what we love.
September 3rd was Labor Day and AFGE Local 2152 proudly participated in the annual Virginia City Labor Day parade. Below are some of our photos from the event:
And now we are settling in for the fall and the continued fight to protect our VA, our employees’ rights, and our union. Given all of the attacks on VA and her employees this year (not to mention the unions), our motto until November 7 is:
