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Let me present to you Exhibit B:<br>
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On 9/3/2012 8:40 AM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
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style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">from
the American Federation of Government Employees...<br>
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<div>-<font size="2">---Original message-----</font><br>
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<div style="padding: 0px;"><a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" title="AFGE Week in Review"
target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=8Zu/l9c4d6R1aRXuznW5npq%2BU2oxOlsS"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
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<p style="text-align: right;"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>Aug. 31, 2012</b></span></span></span><span
style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
src="http://salsa.afge.org/c/407/images/Cox4.jpg" vspace="10"
width="222" height="174" hspace="10" align="right">NP Cox: Goal Is to
Reach 300,000 Members by Next Year: </b></span>Newly elected National
President <b>J. David Cox</b> </span></span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=GhR6WFKgKwQYoysX7yoHmQqB/vgSgZoG"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">said</span></span></a><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> AFGE’s
goal is to reach at least 300,000 dues paying members within the next
year. AFGE currently has about 277,000 dues paying members.</span></span><br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;">D</span></span></b></span><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>EFCON Blitz to Kick off Next Week: </b></span>DEFCON
is launching a massive organizing effort at DoD worksites across the
country to recruit new members. The blitz will run from Labor Day,
Sept. 3, to Oct. 12. Last year’s blitzes netted over 8,000 new members
in our DoD locals. DEFCON is using this blitz as an opportunity to talk
to DOD employees about sequestration and other personnel cuts and how
they may affect their livelihoods in the future.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“DEFCON is
excited about the potential success of this blitz and the possibilities
of increasing the membership in the AFGE DOD Locals,” said DEFCON Chair
<b>Don Hale</b>. “Let's make
the DEFCON organizing blitz a success, with the participation of each
and every DOD Local's involvement.”<br>
<br>
DEFCON currently has over 50 volunteers assigned to help conduct events
across the country during the blitz. These volunteers use their own
time to assist other locals build AFGE’s membership.<br>
<br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
src="http://salsa.afge.org/c/407/images/jindal.jpg" vspace="10"
width="222" height="206" hspace="10" align="left">Louisiana Governor
Jindal Now Wants Federal Help: </b></span>Louisiana Governor <b>Bobby
Jindal</b> has been a vocal critic of federal spending, but as
Hurricane Isaac was about to make a landfall on the gulf coast state,
Jindal on Monday </span></span><a moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow"
target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=FK98WDb1etmpemcTGxzfZQqB/vgSgZoG"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">wrote</span></span></a><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> to the
president, seeking more help from the federal government. The governor
asked the president to reimburse Louisiana for the full cost of its
preparations on top of the disaster assistance the government normally
provides.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“The
State’s expenditures for emergency protective measures are already
approximately $8,000,000 and exceed the State of Louisiana’s threshold
when making a request for a major disaster declaration,” Jindal wrote.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This is
the same governor who decried federal spending, mocked a volcano
monitoring budget, but at the same time posed with a stimulus check
when it reached his state. Jindal supported his right-wing colleagues
in Congress to severely cut funding for federal programs that help
victims of natural disasters. In 2011 for example, they rejected the
administration’s budget request and slashed the National Oceanic
Atmospheric Association’s funding by $454 million. The National Weather
Service’s budget was reduced by $126 million. They also cut FEMA’s
state and local programs by $783 million and management funding by
$24.3 million. This year when Hurricane Irene devastated the east
coast, a deadly tornado hit Missouri, and an earthquake shook Virginia
in 2011, the right wing demanded that the funding for natural disaster
victims be offset with spending elsewhere.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>Texas Voter ID Law Struck Down: </b></span>A
federal court this week </span></span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=V9TedxtYwZXHimt3dEkKNwqB/vgSgZoG"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">struck down</span></span></a><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Texas’s
controversial voter ID law passed last year to suppress turnout and
exclude minorities from voting. The court ruled that the law would harm
Latinos, racial minorities and the poor.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“It
imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor, and racial minorities
in Texas,” the judges said.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Several
states have either passed or introduced similar laws pushed largely by
right-wing lawmakers and governors. The effects of the laws are already
felt in Florida where the number of people registering to vote </span></span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gCYDTSVnxYMFGdnZSecaqwqB/vgSgZoG"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">dropped
sharply</span></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;"> after the voter suppression law took
effect more than a year ago.<br>
<br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>Poll: The Wealthy Don’t Pay Enough
in Taxes: </b></span>According to a new Pew Research Center </span></span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=cFQufC598RfkmCwHXmsS7gqB/vgSgZoG"><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">poll </span></span></a><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">released
this week, 58 percent of those polled believe the rich are not paying
their fair share of taxes. Twenty six percent say they are and 8
percent say they pay too much. About two thirds feel the income gap
between the rich and the poor grew wider the past decade. Sixty three
percent say the right wing favors the rich over the middle class and
the poor. <br>
<br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
src="http://salsa.afge.org/c/407/images/afge%20history%20pic1.jpg"
vspace="10" width="300" height="172" hspace="10" align="right">80
Years of Proud History: </b></span>AFGE is 80 years old this month.
Looking back, the union has accomplished a great deal for the
government employees we represent. These advances are even more
impressive in view of hostile administrations, the restrictions against
unions, and the scapegoating of federal employees whenever the economy
tanks. The following are some of the highlights of our achievements
since the creation of AFGE in August 1932. </span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1930s and
1940s: </span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;">AFGE won improvements in sick leave,
annual leave and retirement security through political pressure since
bargaining was still a distant dream. We called for the abolition of
the so-called “spoils system,” in which federal employees were kept
beholden to the elected officials who hired them. When the system was
finally eliminated and replaced with the merit system, almost 14,000
jobs were taken off the patronage roles, giving those workers a voice
and job security. </span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1939,
AFGE won a major victory when the War Department, later renamed the
Defense Department, granted workers the right to organize. On the heels
of World War II when President <b>Franklin D. Roosevelt</b> expanded
civil service and provided paid overtime for federal employees, AFGE
won uniformity in salary increases. The union later defeated bills that
would have banned overtime pay and made union contracts illegal.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">During the
war, while private sector workers enjoyed tremendous growth in income,
government employees had their wages frozen, resulting in a 15% pay gap
by the end of World War II. AFGE lobbied hard and won a 15.9% raise for
federal employees in 1945. </span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1950s: </span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">During the
<b>Eisenhower</b>
administration, AFGE and veteran groups fended off an effort that would
have given the attorney general the right to fire workers without
describing the nature of the charges or giving the employees the right
of appeal or a hearing. The president, however, did remove the limits
on annual leave and provided lump-sum payments for the greater of 30
days or the amount accrued since the start of the year to employees
leaving federal service.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">By the
late 1950s, when pay raises had not kept pace with inflation and the VA
and others had resorted to downgrading jobs to save money, AFGE
successfully protected workers whose jobs were downgraded by ensuring
that they would not suffer pay cuts. The union also managed a 7.5% pay
raise for all employees in 1956 and a 10% raise for white-collar
employees in 1958.</span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1960s:</span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> In 1960,
AFGE won establishment of the Federal Employee Health Insurance
Program. For the first time ever, the government would pay one-third of
the cost of benefits and insurance would pay up to 80% of non-hospital
and all hospital expenses.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1962,
AFGE successfully persuaded President <b>John F. Kennedy</b> to issue
an executive order to institutionalize labor-management relations by
mandating agency heads to negotiate agreements with the unions. The
order opened the doors to AFGE organizing around the nation, and the
union membership jumped from 71,000 members in 1961 to 301,000 members
by 1970. These victories culminated in a pioneering 1966 collective
bargaining agreement between AFGE and the Labor Department, one that
would become a model for AFGE-federal government contracts for decades
to come. </span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1968,
AFGE won the passage of the Equal Pay Act, which was designed to bring
federal wages in line with the higher paying private sector.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1969,
AFGE won better retirement benefits that included a formula based on
the three highest consecutive years of service, including sick leave in
the computation to determine the multiplier, correcting the
cost-of-living adjustment formula and allowing widows or widowers to
keep benefits if they remarry. </span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1970s:</span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> In 1972,
AFGE’s intensive lobbying led to the passage of two laws that made the
entire pay process more fair for both white collar and blue collar
federal workers – the Federal Wage System for blue collar workers and
the Federal Pay Comparability Act for white collar workers.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1978,
AFGE won one of its greatest victories ever – passage of the Civil
Service Reform Act (CSRA), which expanded and solidified collective
bargaining rights and opened up the courts for contract enforcement.
The law, signed by President <b>Jimmy Carter</b>, created the Federal
Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection
Board (MSPB). FLRA oversees the rights of federal employees to form
collective bargaining units and to engage in collective bargaining with
agencies. MSPB hears the appeals of federal employees who are
disciplined. </span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">AFGE also
won a wage adjustment in 1970, resulting in thousands of federal
employees receiving millions of dollars in back pay.</span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1980s:</span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Even
though contracting out had long been a problem for AFGE, the wind-down
of the Vietnam War intensified the problem as major defense contractors
sought to shore up their declining incomes by displacing government
workers. They pressed Congress and eventually virtually every civilian
activity became subject to outsourcing under the <b>Reagan</b>
administration. But AFGE fought back, winning revisions in government
contracting regulations, standardizing cost comparisons, and forcing
agencies to maintain in-house functions when proven to be more
economical. AFGE created a headquarters capability to devise strategies
to challenge outsourcing decisions and to permit units of threatened
employees to “compete” with contractors to keep work out of the hands
of contractors.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In June
1982, AFGE signed its first national agreement with the Social Security
Administration (SSA) covering some 60,000 employees. In August the same
year, AFGE signed its first national contract with the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) covering over 125,000 employees. </span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1990s: </span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">AFGE
persuaded President <b>Bill Clinton</b> to issue an executive order
further expanding government employee bargaining rights through a new
labor-management concept called the National Partnership Council. This
improved the quality of services while reducing the number of
grievances and unfair labor practices.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After five
long decades, AFGE finally won a Hatch Act Reform bill, signed into law
by President Clinton in 1993 as the original Hatch Act had intimidated
federal workers and wreaked havoc on local political campaign. Under
the new law, federal employees could be candidates in non-partisan
elections. Off the worksite, they could voice support for candidates
and issues and hold office in political parties and clubs just like any
other American citizen. </span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">As the
Cold War came to its final end, thousands of federal workers were being
laid off. AFGE lobbied and won a $25,000 buyout, job training, extended
health benefits, and more for the affected workers. This provided the
much needed financial cushion for our members. AFGE was also
successfully lobbied for the passage of the Family Leave Act, which
gives workers the right to take time off to care for ailing family
members without the risk of losing their jobs.</span></span><br>
<b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">2000s: </span></span></b><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Since the
1950s when the military-industrial complex was in full gear, AFGE spent
years fending off efforts to wipe out civil service. When the Bush
administration took office in 2001, they began rewriting the A-76
contracting out rules to review nearly one million federal jobs for
privatization. But in 2008, AFGE won bipartisan support from Congress
to reverse a number of key rules to make competition for the work
between federal employees and contractors more evenhanded, including
the exclusion of health care and retirement costs from the contracting
out cost comparison process when contractors contributed less than the
federal government for those earned benefits. It was also the first
time that federal employees were allowed to appeal bad outsourcing
decisions to a neutral third party, the Government Accountability
Office. At our urging, Congress for the first time banned outsourcing
studies governmentwide in 2009 and permanently prohibited direct
conversions of federal jobs to contractors. AFGE also secured the first
insourcing laws ever—which the departments of Defense and Homeland
Security report have resulted in significant savings and restoration of
public control over important or sensitive functions. AFGE has been
able to keep many of these restrictions in place despite some
anti-union lawmakers’ repeated attempts to repeal them. </span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 2011,
our 10-year fight for worker rights at the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) came to an end when we finally won historic
collective bargaining rights in 2011. AFGE also won a union election to
represent 45,000 TSA officers nationwide.</span></span><br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;"><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
src="http://salsa.afge.org/c/407/images/MLK.jpg" vspace="10"
width="263" height="227" hspace="10" align="left">This Week in Labor
History: </span></span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;">August 28, 1963 - The march for jobs and
freedom—the <b>Martin Luther King, Jr. </b>"I Have A Dream" speech
march—is held in Washington, D.C. with 250,000 participating. </span></span><br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="font-family: Arial;">This Week’s Tweet:</span></span></b></span><span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> “The
reason the recovery is so slow is most Americans no longer have the
money to buy enough to create more jobs. It's inequality, stupid” ~ <a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hrc5B7%2BSEWOITmTI36%2BbwgqB/vgSgZoG">@Robert
Reich</a> <br>
<br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>Hot on YouTube:</b></span> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zAwTQtuWiKOD9i81GQL07AqB/vgSgZoG">Fake
celebrity pranks New York City</a><br>
<br>
<span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><b>Inside Government:</b></span> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=lIDuit6XAppiKeDs1%2BAh0wqB/vgSgZoG">Tune
in</a> now to AFGE’s “Inside Government” to learn more about the
federal pay freeze extension. The show, which originally aired on
Friday, Aug. 24, is now available on demand. AFGE National President <b>J.
David Cox</b> and Public Policy Director <b>Jacque Simon</b> denounced
President Obama’s decision to extend the pay freeze of federal workers
until Congress passes a new budget. Cox discussed the union’s next
steps while Simon analyzed the financial impact a continuing freeze
will have on federal employees. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President <b>Arlene
Holt Baker</b> and AFGE Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Local 556 President <b>Don Thomas </b>then participated in a special
broadcast from AFGE’s recent national convention. Holt Baker discussed
efforts to end voter suppression and Thomas highlighted the union’s
labor contract with TSA.</span></span><br>
<span
style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Listen
LIVE on Fridays at 10 a.m. on 1500 AM WFED in the D.C. area or online
at FederalNewsRadio.com.</span></span><br>
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<em>American Federation of
Government Employees, AFL-CIO 80 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001
| Tel. (202) 737-8700 | Fax (202) 639-6492 | <a moz-do-not-send="true"
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href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=4smb2iLwMmrY8L8MCtRSxgqB/vgSgZoG">www.afge.org</a>
</em><br>
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