AFSCME Locals Strategize Against Attacks on Federal Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“Everything stops. No work. No pay.” That’s how Ralph Randall (below) defines a furlough and Randall ought to know: he’s one of the nearly 900 area Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers who have been furloughed since 12:01 Saturday morning. Randall – a program management analyst at the FAA for 30 years -- joined some two dozen fellow AFSCME leaders at an AFSCME Council 26 leadership training session Tuesday at the union’s L Street headquarters. The session covered a wide range of issues, including an overview of a legislative landscape increasingly tilted against union members generally and public workers specifically. “One of the things that happens in a crisis is that people come to their union,” looking for help, said Council 26 President Saul Schniderman (at far left, above), who also heads up AFSCME 2910 at the Library of Congress. Schniderman and Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman led the group through an analysis of the challenges facing federal workers, as well as how to think strategically about solutions. Meanwhile, with the FAA shut down by Republican House leaders and 4,000 FAA workers out of work and another 90,000 construction jobs at airports around the country at risk, the AFL-CIO launched an online campaign yesterday to tell members of Congress “to get the FAA up and running again.”
- report/photo by Chris Garlock