It's been a while.

The State Department is still moving along with a rather checkered record dealing with employees. It seems that the Department seems most interested in keeping the GS-06s and below in line. The word on the street is that management in OBO is trying to fire a GS-03 for not working hard enough. Hum. The tales we could tell of managers who are mismanaging who are protected at all cost. That is one of life's little ironies.

AFGE 1534 tries but is surely our numbered and out foxed most of the time. Most Department employees realize that associating with AFGE is not the road to career enhancement. That is because AFGE is trying to stand up for the small fish who the Department wishes to fry. Barack Obama's goals for hiring are tossed to the wind in those cases because nine times out of ten the employee being fired or forced out is minority or has a disability.

I was an exception to that rule.

News from AFGE National

President Obama Wants to Hire 100,000 Employees with Disabilities: President Barack Obama July 26 issued an executive order directing agencies to hire 100,000 people with disabilities over the next five years in an attempt to make the federal government a model for the employment of individuals with disabilities. President Obama said President Bill Clinton first set a five year goal of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities in the final year of his administration, but the Bush administration did not follow up. President Obama directed the Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget, Labor Department, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to design model recruitment and hiring strategies for agencies to use to increase their employment of people with disabilities within 60 days. Within 120 days after OPM has set forth strategies, each agency will develop an agency-specific plan for promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities, who currently represent just over 5 percent of the nearly 2.5 million federal employees. The president said agencies should increase their use of Schedule A excepted service hiring authority to hire more people with disabilities, and increase their participation in internships, fellowships, training and mentoring programs.

AFGE: EEOC's 45th Anniversary Should Mark End of Backlog: As the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is kicking off its 45th anniversary celebration, the agency should use this opportunity to mark the end of backlog and hire enough employees to do the work so that people who've filed discrimination claims don't have to wait nine months or more for help, said Gabrielle Martin, president of AFGE's National Council of EEOC Locals. EEOC's 2011 budget request confirms that the small civil rights agency faces an influx of more than 100,000 newly filed discrimination charges and an equal or greater backlog. A multi-year hiring freeze resulted in the loss of over 25 percent of the EEOC employees, mostly frontline staff. Despite recent hiring, net staffing increases have barely budged. Congress has also charged the EEOC with enforcing three new laws.
"The backlog not only delays help to workers facing discrimination, but it can affect the quality of service," Martin said. "Unfortunately, we're seeing the same old management pressure on EEOC employees to dump cases off the books before the end of the fiscal year. The focus needs to be on the sharp contrast between this anniversary hoopla and the real challenges."

A New Newsletter for AFGE Local 1534

AFGE Local 1534 has been reviewing its roll and finding its way at the State Department. As the editor of the Eagle I have suggested to the leadership that AFGE move to an on-line format for the Eagle.

Department employees should use there home computers to read the Eagle. The plan is to make the Eagle an on-line means of communication that allows AFGE members to keep in touch with the goings on in our agencies or in the general union activity.

As for me -- I am retiring from the State Department as of July 31 but have offered to stay on as the editor of the Eagle. I will be working with the officers of AFGE to help make this union the kind of organization that it is supposed to be -- one that looks after the welfare of government employees and understands their needs.

Dorie Southern