AFGE represents some 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Our members serve in virtually all functions of government and are employed across a wide spectrum of agencies. At AFGE, we are as diverse as the services we provide.
President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13522 on December 9, 2009. In Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services, he said the purpose of the order was to "establish a cooperative and productive form of labor-management relations throughout the executive branch".
In the Executive Order, the President established the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations. Its duty is to advise the President on all matters of labor-management relations, and to actively support the construction of agency labor-management forums, address issues within an agency’s forum, provide training to enhance labor-management relations, and develop methods to better government services.
The forums are meant as a way of officially involving union representation in negotiations between workers and management to reach a fair compromise that works for all, and thus, deliver government services more efficiently.
To promote collaborative productivity, the National Council invited union representatives to participate in workgroups. Each workgroup is to give a report to the National Council that reflects the progression of the forums. Labor and management representatives have agreed to meet once a month to discuss all reports.
AFGE National President John Gage is a member of the National Council, and AFGE has worked alongside of the Council to implement the new management-partnership forums.
For more information on the Labor-Management Forums, see the AFGE FAQ.