More from Legislative Advocacy Week 2025

By Steven Hard, GESTA Executive Vice-President

On February 11, 2025 nearly 100 IFPTE members, including GESTA, marched on Capitol Hill with 2,000 other federal employees, trade Unionists and the public to protest the illegal actions of the Trump Administration.

GESTA President, Tryshanda (Trysh) Moton, and I both attended the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) 2025 Legislative Advocacy Conference held February 10-14, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Nearly 100 IFPTE Local leaders and members from across the United States and across multiple sectors, came together to take their concerns to our elected lawmakers. We urged Congress to “do their job”, by exercising their authority as the legislative branch to block the unconstitutional actions of the Trump Administration.  While we prioritized urging Congress to block the frenzy of illegal actions being taken by the Administration (you can read more about the details of GESTA's  conversations with individual lawmakers in my prior Legislative Week blog post), GESTA and IFPTE members also provided lawmakers with IFPTE’s point papers listing all of our legislative priorities. GESTA also had the opportunity to hear from multiple speakers during the conference, and participated in a march and rally on Capitol Hill.

The Legislative Advocacy Conference began on Monday, February 10th, with welcoming notes from IFPTE President Matt Biggs, and Secretary/Treasurer Gay Henson. IFPTE Legislative Director, Faraz Khan, then discussed various legislative issues affecting IFPTE Membership and there current status in Congress. Khan emphasized that the civil service, the federal workforce, and federal employee unions all work in the public interest. And that collective bargaining and federal employee unions are critical partners in achieving an efficient, effective, and accountable federal government. For these reasons he called on Congress to reject all attempts to eviscerate the already fragile due-process protections of federal workers and their unions and to protect union official time.

There were a series of other speakers during the conference, including Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). Serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s 11th District, Congressman Connolly, ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, discussed the specific actions he’s planning to undertake to defend against the legislative onslaught to come against federal workers and their unions. Representative Fitzpatrick discussed the importance of labor unions in maintaining and growing the middle class, and reinforced his support for the Public Sector Freedom to Negotiate Act. Senator Collins discussed President Trump and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal workers, the Administration’s effort to cut off funding approved by Congress for essential governmental services and the effort and need for Congress to work in a bipartisan fashion to protect all workers, especially federal workers and the work they do for the American public.

Other speakers included the Plate Printers Union, IFPTE Local 2 President Bob Suplee and Vice President, Chuck Wheelock, who spoke about a recent contract fight with the Treasury Department and the role that the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), IFPTE, and labor solidarity played in their campaign. Their talk “Solidarity Makes a Difference” focused on the importance of standing for workers rights and how they succeeded in winning their contract battle by sticking together. Jennifer Dorning, President of the Department of Professional Employees, shared her perspective on the critical role that women play in legislative advocacy and the successes observed in advancing women’s issues through policy and action, particularly in the evolving political landscape under the Trump Administration. AFL-CIO Legislative Director, Jody Calemine, touched on the priorities of the new administration, how we can be effective in advocating to Congress, and how labor and a government that works in the public interest can survive the Trump Administration. Lastly, IFPTE Media Consultant, Jamie Horowitz highlighted some of the major changes in media and how these could impact on our efforts to move legislation.

An IFPTE Federal Caucus event was held on Tuesday, February 11th, which was an opportunity for all the federal sector locals to meet with the Eastern Federal Area and Western Federal Area Vice Presidents, Ben Emmel and Jamie Uyeunten. We gave reports and discussed issues happening at our local levels. Additional keynote speakers gave talks about broader issues affecting federal workers. The IFPTE Legal Council, Teresa Ellis, provided updates on recent court case filings in conjunction with other groups, like American Federation Of Government Employees (AFGE) and Democracy Forward (joined by former Acting Director of Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Rob Shriver, as Managing Director of its Civil Service Strong initiative). A joint class action lawsuit was filed earlier that day asking for injunction relief and damages with notification of class acceptance forthcoming. Another suit was expected to be filed in the DC district court with the Machinists Union, along with a few lawsuits related to Schedule PC and lead by National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), AFGE, and Democracy Forward. A final lawsuit on the unlawful removal of government officials was also mentioned, but surprisingly Ellis had not seen any cases yet filed on the return-to-office mandate.

During the lunch break on Tuesday, nearly 100 IFPTE members marched on Capitol Hill to rally with upwards of 2,000 other federal employees, trade Unionists and the public against the illegal actions of the Trump Administration. The theme of the rally was “Justice Takes Action: Standing Up For Our Rights”. AFGE President Everett Kelly, along with Matt Biggs, and other dynamic labor leaders, fellow union and coalition family members spoke about safeguarding the civil service and preserving the rights of federal workers.

The Federal Caucus resumed in the afternoon with other speakers including National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Executive Director, Steve Lenkart, who talked about Schedule F – now called Schedule PC, for ‘Policy Career’, and the incongruency of claims by the Administration that the federal government is  “out of control” when it has been steadily shrinking over the past 40 years. He also pointed out that approximately 1/3 of federal workers are democrats, 1/3 are republicans, and 1/3 are independents. William Attig, Executive Director of the Union Veteran’s Council, spoke about the ‘Helmuts to Hardhats’ program for veteran welders and argued that veterans are affected by these attacks on government employees more than any other group in the federal sector. AFGE Director, David Cann, also spoke about a new ‘E-Dues’ program to facilitate collection of dues as an electronic alternative to automatic dues deduction through payroll. This would benefit us in in the case of a future executive order calling for the abolishment of automatic union dues deductions from payroll.

A congressional reception was scheduled for Tuesday evening in the Dirksen Senate Office building sponsored by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), however 5” to 6” of snowfall that afternoon put a damper on the attendance of other members of Congress and their staff.  Trysh and I took advantage the time however, to strategize with other NASA union members.