Following Bush’s re-election, leaders of the National
Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of
Government Employees, both of which threw their weight
behind Kerry have, pledged to continue working with the
administration and lawmakers through four-more-years of
the president’s management agenda.
In anticipation of a continuation of current reforms, AFGE
president John Gage said he hoped some of the administration’s
policies would soften now that the election has passed, and
that the president would not view his re-election as a
“mandate.”
“AFGE will continue to fight for the rights of government
employees to be able to speak out against the wrongs that
they come to witness, including in the Departments of Defense
and Homeland Security, which are in the process of developing
new personnel systems that may weaken whistleblower
protections,” said Gage.
He also said the union would continue to focus on job
competitions and retaining workers “with years of experience
and institutional knowledge within the public sector.”
NTEU president Colleen Kelley said the union would “continue
its efforts to build relationships with cabinet members,
heads of agencies and management officials who are making
the decisions about federal employee issues.”