Labor In The News: Federal Workers Turn to Local Union Leaders

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“At the Department of Housing and Urban Development one morning last week, AFGE Local 476 President Eddie Eitches (right) walked the corridors, trying to buck up HUD workers with word of new concessions wrung from the agency,” writes Washington Post reporter Steve Hendrix in his March 25 report on how federal workers are turning to their union leaders as sequester furloughs loom. “Hey, brother, how are you doing?” Eitches asked an employee in the elevator. “What do you think of the agreement?” The employee, Victor Powell, had not heard of it. Eitches, a quick-talking, constantly moving former HUD litigator, described negotiations that had reduced the number of furlough days between April and September to seven and ensured that they applied equally to managers and the rank and file…click here for the complete Post report. Photo: Eitches meets with Maurice Jones, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Matt McClain/Washington Post