AFGE seeks to build on the organizing success from 2023

Picture of awfblog awfblog January 10, 2024

General Recruitment America's Work Force Union Podcast Government Health, Welfare, and Safety AFGE Contracts

Guest Name:

David Cann

Guest Website:

Guest Social Media:

Supportive Documents:

Director of the Membership and Organization Department of the American Federation of Government Employees, David Cann, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the union’s best year for member growth in over a decade. Cann also talked about educating members to prevent anti-union attacks and what the plan is to continue last years organizing success.

In 2023 AFGE experienced a 5 percent growth, the largest year of growth in over a decade. Texas and Florida were two of the largest growing states after rallying together while under attack from legislators seeking to stamp out workers' rights, Cann said. The strategies, tactics and organizers' attitudes have led to national organizing success. Cann talked about how the pride displayed by members helped reinforce the importance of the work being done to protect federal employees.

Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina recently tried to decertify the union. Members rallied together to prevent the decertification and push back the anti-union efforts by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. An understanding of the protections and benefits unions provide and continuously educating the workforce on ways unions are helping workers are what contributed to the success of the AFGE in the vote, Cann said.

The new year brings new goals for organizing for the AFGE. One of the goals is to take in a number of new units in the United States and abroad. Cann discussed improving the density of membership, because with more members, the union can gain more bargaining power. Improving the techniques for remote organizing will be the key to reaching remote workers, Cann added.

For more on the AFGE’s organzing plans, please listen to the show above.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

AFGE seeks to build on the organizing success from 2023

SUBSCRIBE ON:

Helmets to Hardhats assists veterans find a career in the trades

Strengthening the future of the UA through a commitment to training

Safety on the job sets Iron Workers apprentices apart from others

RECENT EPISODES

Helmets to Hardhats assists veterans find a career in the trades

Strengthening the future of the UA through a commitment to training

Safety on the job sets Iron Workers apprentices apart from others

SUBSCRIBE

NEWSLETTER