Delegates at the 2024 43rd National Convention voted in new leaders of the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
Everett Kelley was elected as the union’s national president on Aug. 14, and Kendrick Roberson as the national vice president for women and fair practices. Delegates also reelected Eric Bunn Sr. as the national secretary-treasurer. Kelley has been an AFGE member since 1981 and served as president since February 2020.
With securing close to 59% of the vote, Kelley thanked convention attendees in Las Vegas for trusting him to serve another term. “I want to thank the AFGE delegates who put their trust in me to continue leading this great union for another term,” Kelley said. “The theme of our convention is ‘Together We Rise, United We Triumph,’ and I look forward to working with all of our members to continue building on our tremendous successes in the months and years to come.”
During his tenure as president, Kelley has helped generate record-breaking organizational growth, secured new contracts to increase workers’ protections and rights, and worked on significant policy and legislative victories, such as the largest federal employee raise in 40 years.
Bunn, who has served as the national secretary-treasurer since April 2020, also received high vote numbers, close to 68%. He once served three consecutive terms as national vice president for District 14. Roberson has been a member of AFGE Local 2429 since 2016 and once served as the chair of the AFGE YOUNG National Committee after being elected in 2020.
For the national race for national vice president for women and fair practices, Roberson was elected with nearly 54% of the final vote.
With more than 1,300 delegate convention attendees, labor unions have been a hot topic during the 2024 political season. According to KUCB, after executive orders signed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump took away the power of federal unions, members have been fearful of what will happen to their liberties if Trump is placed back in the White House.
His administration diminished their ability to bargain contracts and limited union representatives’ time assisting with member complaints. However, the Biden-Harris administration shed some light on the issue, as Vice President Kamala Harris played a pivotal role in returning federal employee unions. “Things have been kind of night and day different under this administration versus the previous administration,” Britta Copt, an Environmental Protection Agency veteran, said.
The 900-page plan, Project 2025, put together by the conservative Heritage Foundation, laid out troubling details of how a GOP administration would expand the president’s power and gut the federal workforce.
Tryshanda Moton, a senior aerospace engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says that would be scary. However, while holding a union leadership role with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Moton said she is willing to do what it takes to ensure Harris is the new President of the United States.
“We’ve sworn an oath to the Constitution to be representative constituents for the American public, and we don’t want to be replaced,” she said during a “Labor for Harris” Zoom call.
