American Federation of Government Employees

Based on Wikipedia: American Federation of Government Employees

Here's a peculiar fact about American democracy: the people who process your tax returns, inspect your food, and guard your borders are legally forbidden from going on strike. If they do, it's not just a fireable offense—it's a federal crime. And yet, despite this remarkable constraint on their bargaining power, over 820,000 federal workers belong to a single union that has, for nearly a century, found ways to fight for their interests without ever walking off the job.

That union is the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE.

The Strange World of Federal Labor Relations

To understand AFGE, you first need to understand how profoundly different federal labor relations are from the private sector. When workers at an auto plant or a hotel want to pressure their employer, their ultimate leverage is the strike—the withdrawal of their labor. This weapon has shaped American labor history from the Pullman Strike of 1894 to the teacher walkouts of the 2010s.

Federal workers gave up this weapon more than a century ago.

The Lloyd–La Follette Act of 1912 established the basic framework that still governs federal employment today. It granted postal and federal employees the right to join and form labor organizations—a significant victory at a time when many employers violently suppressed union activity. But the act also explicitly prohibited strikes against the federal government. Congress reasoned that government services were too essential to be disrupted, and that the government, as an employer, was fundamentally different from a private company. It couldn't go out of business, couldn't be forced to the bargaining table by market pressures, and served the public rather than shareholders.

This prohibition isn't merely theoretical. Under current federal law—specifically 5 U.S.C. § 7311 and 18 U.S.C. § 1918—striking against the United States government is a criminal offense. The most dramatic enforcement of this prohibition came in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who had walked off the job. They weren't just terminated; many were permanently banned from federal employment.

So how does a union function when it can't strike?

Collective Bargaining Without the Nuclear Option

The answer lies in a complex system of negotiation, arbitration, and legal maneuvering that has evolved over decades. President John F. Kennedy fundamentally transformed federal labor relations in 1962 when he issued Executive Order 10988, which granted federal employees the right to collective bargaining for the first time. Before this, federal unions existed but had little formal power—they could advocate and lobby, but agencies weren't required to negotiate with them.

Kennedy's order changed that calculus. Suddenly, federal agencies had to recognize unions and bargain in good faith over working conditions. The right to bargain was codified into law by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, a piece of legislation that AFGE itself helped to draft. This law created the framework that still governs federal labor relations today.

The system works like this: federal unions negotiate contracts covering everything from work schedules to grievance procedures to workplace safety. When negotiations reach an impasse—when the union and the agency simply cannot agree—they don't resort to strikes. Instead, they turn to the Federal Services Impasses Panel, a government body that can impose binding settlements. Disputes over contract interpretation go to binding arbitration. Unfair labor practice charges are adjudicated by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, an independent agency that functions somewhat like the National Labor Relations Board does for the private sector.

It's a system designed to ensure that the government keeps functioning while still giving workers a meaningful voice. Whether it achieves that balance is a matter of considerable debate.

Born from a Split

AFGE's origin story reflects the messy, contentious nature of labor organizing. Federal workers had been organizing for years before AFGE existed. The Knights of Labor, one of America's earliest major labor federations, represented some federal workers in the late 19th century. By 1917, a union called the National Federation of Federal Employees—NFFE—had received a charter from the American Federation of Labor, the dominant labor organization of the era.

But the relationship between NFFE and the AFL grew strained. The NFFE wanted independence; its leaders chafed at AFL oversight and its requirement to pay per capita dues to the national federation. In 1931, NFFE voted to leave the AFL and become an independent union.

Not everyone agreed with this decision.

In August 1932, local unions that wanted to remain affiliated with the AFL broke away from NFFE and formed a new organization: the American Federation of Government Employees. They adopted a motto that captured the essential logic of collective action: "To Do For All That Which No One Can Do For Oneself." Their original emblem featured a shield with stars and stripes and the words "Justice, Fraternity, Progress."

The timing was significant. August 1932 was the depths of the Great Depression, with unemployment approaching 25 percent and the economy in freefall. The federal workforce was one of the few sources of stable employment in America, and federal workers had reason to fear pay cuts and layoffs. A union offering collective protection had obvious appeal.

AFGE started with just 562 members. Four years later, it had 37,199 members organized into 328 "lodges"—what we would now call local unions. The term "lodges" reflected the fraternal organization traditions that influenced early American unionism; AFGE wouldn't switch to calling them "locals" until 1968.

How AFGE Is Organized

Understanding AFGE's structure helps explain how it operates. The union is essentially a federation of federations—a layered system that reflects the sprawling complexity of the federal government itself.

At the base are the locals, which can represent workers at a single agency or multiple agencies. A local at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Cleveland might represent nurses, custodians, and administrative staff. A local in Washington, D.C. might represent workers across several small agencies.

Above the locals sit the "Councils of Locals," which coordinate bargaining at major agencies. The largest of these is the National VA Council, which represents workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs—the federal government's second-largest agency after the Defense Department. In 2024, approximately 42 percent of AFGE's entire membership came from VA employees. This concentration gives you a sense of where federal workers are actually located: despite the popular image of Washington bureaucrats, a huge proportion of the federal workforce works in healthcare, serving veterans at hospitals and clinics across the country.

The geographic layer of organization divides AFGE into twelve districts, each with its own regional office. These districts reflect the distribution of federal employment across the country. District 2 covers the northeastern states from Maine to New Jersey. District 5 covers the Southeast plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. District 11 stretches from Alaska down through the Mountain West and out to Guam and Okinawa—a reminder that the federal government employs workers in some surprising places.

At the national level, AFGE is governed by a National Executive Council consisting of a President, Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President for Women's and Fair Practices, and twelve district Vice Presidents. This structure balances national coordination with regional autonomy, allowing the union to pursue national policy goals while remaining responsive to local concerns.

Fighting Without Striking

If AFGE can't strike, how does it actually win anything for its members?

The answer is: slowly, through multiple channels, with a mix of negotiation, litigation, and political pressure.

The litigation strategy proved particularly effective in the 2000s. The George W. Bush administration attempted to create new personnel systems at the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security—systems that would have weakened union protections and given management more unilateral authority over hiring, firing, and pay. The Defense Department's version was called the National Security Personnel System; Homeland Security's was called MaxHR.

AFGE fought both systems in court, arguing that they violated federal labor law. The union won a series of lawsuits that suspended key components of both systems. It wasn't a clean victory—the litigation dragged on for years, and the Bush administration implemented parts of the systems before the courts intervened. But AFGE ultimately succeeded in preventing the wholesale transformation of federal employment that the administration had sought.

The union also wins through organizing. In 2011, workers at the Transportation Security Administration—the people who screen passengers at airports—voted to be represented by AFGE. This added approximately 39,000 members to the union's rolls and gave AFGE representation at yet another agency. TSA workers had previously been denied collective bargaining rights entirely; the election was the culmination of years of advocacy by the union and a policy change by the Obama administration.

The Limits of Federal Unionism

AFGE operates under constraints that would be unimaginable in the private sector. Beyond the strike prohibition, federal employees face restrictions on political activity that date back to the Hatch Act of 1939. They cannot run for partisan political office. Union dues cannot be spent on partisan political campaigns. These rules exist to prevent the federal workforce from becoming a political machine, but they also limit the union's ability to influence elections directly.

Perhaps most significantly, all federal union membership is voluntary. The law prohibits "closed shops," where workers must join a union as a condition of employment. This means AFGE must constantly convince workers that membership is worth paying for. Unlike unions in some states that can negotiate contracts requiring all workers in a bargaining unit to pay dues, AFGE must persuade each individual employee to sign up and keep paying.

The membership numbers reflect this challenge. After decades of growth, AFGE's dues-paying membership peaked in fiscal year 2018 at 332,977 members. By 2024, it had declined slightly to 319,825. The union represents over 820,000 workers in total, but less than half of them actually pay dues. The rest are covered by union-negotiated contracts but choose not to contribute financially to the organization that bargained those contracts on their behalf.

This phenomenon—workers benefiting from union representation without paying for it—is sometimes called the "free rider" problem. It's a persistent challenge for all unions that can't require membership, but it's particularly acute in the federal sector, where the law explicitly prevents any form of mandatory dues.

Contemporary Battles

The fundamental tension at the heart of AFGE's existence—between workers who want to advocate for their interests and a government that insists on uninterrupted service—continues to generate conflict. The union finds itself perpetually caught between two visions of federal employment.

One vision sees federal workers as public servants who should accept certain limitations in exchange for job security, good benefits, and the satisfaction of serving their country. This view tends to favor management flexibility and sees union restrictions as obstacles to efficient government.

The other vision sees federal workers as employees like any others, entitled to the same protections and bargaining rights as private sector workers. This view emphasizes that federal workers are often paid less than their private sector counterparts and deserve strong union representation to balance the power of their employer—which happens to be the most powerful organization on Earth.

In April 2025, this tension erupted into one of the most significant legal battles in AFGE's history. A coalition including AFGE, other labor unions, nonprofit organizations, and local governments filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and multiple federal agencies over mass layoffs of federal workers. The case, known as AFGE v. Trump, challenged the administration's authority to conduct sweeping workforce reductions and raised fundamental questions about the relationship between federal employees and the executive branch.

The lawsuit reflected AFGE's primary weapon in an era when striking is impossible: the courts. Unable to withdraw their labor, federal workers must rely on judges to enforce the laws that protect them. It's a slower, less dramatic form of labor action than a picket line, but it's the hand that history dealt federal unions.

The Quiet Power of Organization

There's something almost paradoxical about a union that cannot strike. What is collective action without the threat of collective inaction? How do workers bargain when their employer knows they'll show up tomorrow regardless of what happens at the negotiating table?

AFGE's answer has been to find power in other places: in the courts, in Congress, in the bureaucratic procedures that govern federal employment, in the simple fact that 820,000 workers organized together can make their voices heard even when they cannot refuse to work.

The union's current emblem—adopted after decades of using the original stars-and-stripes shield—shows three workers supporting a globe with a map of the United States. The accompanying motto is "Proud to Make America Work."

It's a telling phrase. Not "proud to fight for workers" or "proud to stand together," but "proud to make America work." The motto captures the essential bargain that federal workers have made since 1912: they gave up the strike, the most powerful weapon in labor's arsenal, in exchange for the stability and purpose of government service. AFGE exists to ensure that workers who accepted that bargain still have someone fighting for them—just not by walking out the door.

Whether that's enough depends on whom you ask. Critics argue that federal unions are toothless, unable to truly challenge management without the credible threat of work stoppage. Supporters argue that AFGE has won meaningful victories—blocking personnel systems, organizing new workplaces, negotiating contracts that protect hundreds of thousands of workers—through patient, persistent effort.

What's undeniable is that the union has endured. From 562 members in 1932 to over 800,000 represented workers today, AFGE has grown alongside the federal government itself. For ninety years, through depression and war, through administrations friendly and hostile, it has continued doing for all that which no one can do for oneself—just without ever going on strike.