'An Act of Retaliation': EPA Suspends 140+ Employees for Signing 'Declaration of Dissent'

Former federal employee and member of AFGE here.

My experience with AFGE is that they are maliciously incompetent at their jobs. I worked for 6 months and never heard from the union ONCE, despite reaching out multiple times. Turns out, everyone from the local (1533) had left the union around 2 years before I'd started. The national office just ignored the problem, and purposefully left everyone covered by that local completely unrepresented.

After 6 months of gaslighting, contract violations, and hazing, I'd had enough, and started standing up for myself. I started invoking my Weingarten rights. I started quoting specific sections of the contract. I kept sending emails to the national office for my union.

I was fired less than a week later for "rocking the boat" and making a complaint outside my chain of command. I was a civilian, and I did not have a "chain of command".

About a week after I'd been terminated, the national office FINALLY assigned a union rep to my local. What did the rep finally tell me? While I was correct that I was entitled to union rights as a probationary employee (it was specified in the contract), the union didn't have the funds available to fight for me, so they wouldn't. The most they would do is help me draft complaints about my treatment, which would at best result in a "posting" for the base i worked at. A "posting" is a letter they have to hang on the wall saying what they did and how they'll try their very best not to do it again.

No compensation. No justice. No accountability.

Fuck AFGE sideways for taking my dues and refusing to fight for me. I hope every last one of you gets terminal stage five asshole cancer.

6 comments

Sounds Iike MAGAts in action.
Isn't some of this an indictment of the federal worker unions? Shouldn't the federal gov't been ground to a halt by cross-agency strikes by now? What's the unions' strategy here?
- Former federal employee and member of AFGE here.
  My experience with AFGE is that they are maliciously incompetent at their jobs. I worked for 6 months and never heard from the union ONCE, despite reaching out multiple times. Turns out, everyone from the local (1533) had left the union around 2 years before I'd started. The national office just ignored the problem, and purposefully left everyone covered by that local completely unrepresented.
  After 6 months of gaslighting, contract violations, and hazing, I'd had enough, and started standing up for myself. I started invoking my Weingarten rights. I started quoting specific sections of the contract. I kept sending emails to the national office for my union.
  I was fired less than a week later for "rocking the boat" and making a complaint outside my chain of command. I was a civilian, and I did not have a "chain of command".
  About a week after I'd been terminated, the national office FINALLY assigned a union rep to my local. What did the rep finally tell me? While I was correct that I was entitled to union rights as a probationary employee (it was specified in the contract), the union didn't have the funds available to fight for me, so they wouldn't. The most they would do is help me draft complaints about my treatment, which would at best result in a "posting" for the base i worked at. A "posting" is a letter they have to hang on the wall saying what they did and how they'll try their very best not to do it again.
  No compensation. No justice. No accountability.
  Fuck AFGE sideways for taking my dues and refusing to fight for me. I hope every last one of you gets terminal stage five asshole cancer.
- Most unions seem willing to roll over and die at this point. I'm very disappointed
  
  That's not good because they should be a major speed bump on the road to fascism.
Time for more people to sign it and act on it, then.