AFSCME Locals Strategize Against Attacks on Federal Workers
Thursday, July 28, 2011
(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