Union Feds March Against Scapegoating

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

One thousand federal employees – led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) – took their case to Capitol Hill Tuesday to put a face on the federal workforce, reports Federal News Radio’s Meg Beasley. "We are not these high-dollar paid people that a lot of people think federal employees are," said Wayne Marion, president of the AFGE Local 331 at the Perry Point, Md. Veterans Affairs healthcare system. "We are working class people. We are taxpayers. We are the American people that make this country run." Marchers held signs and chanted, "They say take back - we say push back!", and "What time is it? Union time!", as they crossed the Upper Senate Park and gathered outside Russell office building. AFGE and several other employee unions are concerned that lawmakers are blaming federal employees for the country's deficit and other government problems. AFGE president John Gage said the "baseless, un-factual verbal attacks" are the worst he has seen in his 20-year career representing government workers. "Some of the lawmakers are looking at federal employees as a scapegoat, as part of the problem rather than part of the solution that we are," said Dan Doyle, an Environment Protection Agency employee and president of AFGE Local 1995 in Morgantown, W.Va. "They need to realize that we are the critical infrastructure for this nation's government and that attacking federal employees is hurting that infrastructure." Click here for the complete story on Federal News Radio’s website. - photo courtesy AFGE