The 24th annual National Association of Letter Carriers’
Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive is on
Saturday, May 14, 2016.
The 24th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive is the nation’s largest one-day, providing letter carriers, other postal employees and thousands of volunteers across the nation the opportunity to meld their forces together to conduct the drive in their local communities.
“Letter carriers touch every residential and business address in this country at least six days a week,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “and our continued effort in the fight against hunger—often in our own neighborhoods—has made us all too familiar with the staggering numbers of people in need.”
The availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for 1 in 6 Americans, many of whom are in households with at least one person working.
Last year’s drive collected approximately 71 million pounds of non-perishable food that was left in bags next to postal customers’ mailboxes. It was the 12th consecutive year that letter carriers have collected more than 70 million pounds of food, and it brought the drive’s grand total to more than 1.4 billion pounds of food collected.
The drive is held each year on the second Saturday in May, and so Saturday, May 14, has for months been circled on the calendars of hunger-relief advocates who have watched as food supplies collected during winter holiday drives dwindle day by day. The drive also comes just before many school systems end their academic years, and that often can mean a suspension in subsidized meals for many students.
The food drive’s national partners are the U.S. Postal Service, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO and Valassis.
Your Letter Carrier will collect non-perishable food left on your porch.
The Union Plus® Mortgage program, with financing available through Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, can help you purchase a home while also receiving special benefits by virtue of your union membership.
New! 2016 Cost of Living Increase Good or Bad?
February 1st, 2016 | Posted by in Benefits | Did you know? - (0 Comments)T here was good news and not-so-good news regarding the pay raise for 2016. The good news was that for the first time in six years, we finally got an increase in locality pay. In addition to a 1% across-the-board nationwide adjustment, federal employees will receive a locality increase between 0.1% and 0.6% depending on where they work.
Thirteen new localities were added this year, and all will receive slightly more than they would have if they’d remained in the Rest of U.S. locality. None of the locality increases was large. Only 0.3% of payroll was devoted to locality increases.
But the expansion of the number of localities to 13 additional areas was a tremendous achievement. Even though those localities got extremely small locality increases this year, it is important to recognize that they’re now “in the game” and eligible for bigger increases in the future. The not-so-good news was the size of the overall raise. At 1.3%, it is nowhere near enough to make up lost ground for five years of near-zero pay adjustments. The average pay gap between the public and private sectors is 35%, and despite a law instructing Congress to close that gap, small pay adjustments have grown that gap rather than shrink it. It will be up to AFGE members to mobilize support for bigger and better pay raises in the future.
The not-so-good news was the size of the overall raise. At 1.3%, it is nowhere near enough to make up lost ground for five years of near-zero pay adjustments. The average pay gap between the public and private sectors is 35%, and despite a law instructing Congress to close that gap, small pay adjustments have grown that gap rather than shrink it. It will be up to AFGE members to mobilize support for bigger and better pay raises in the future.
Dear Members:
The delegates at the 40th National Convention last August voted to make January "Data Update Month." That's why we're asking every member of the AFGE family to update their contact information so we can reach you when you're needed most.
Visit www.afge.org/update and take one minute update your contact information today.
The deadline for updating your information is January 31st, so don't delay. Write us at comments@afge.org if you have any questions or want assistance with updating your profile.
Thank you for being a member of AFGE!
In solidarity,
AFGE
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Legal Services Program
In legal matters, union members rely on expert advice. And to help find lawyers who can answer their personal legal questions, members can consult the Union Plus Legal Service. Our database of union-approved lawyers contains more than 1,700 law offices nationwide. The database also includes lawyers who focus on immigration law.
DISCOUNTS ON TEXTBOOKS
January 12th, 2016 | Posted by in College Assistance | Did you know? | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)
Book Discounts
Discount Textbooks for AFGE Families
- Save 5% on orders over $25.
- OR $10 off orders over $150
- Free shipping on orders over $59.
- eTextbooks - instant access to thousands of textbooks.
- Sell your textbooks - with free UPS or USPS shipping.
- Sign up for the first and only online rewards program for textbooks
If the local or state authorities have declared your home to be in an mandatory evacuation area and/or your home may have been flooded, you and your family may be eligible for your lodging and subsistence benefits in addition to administrative leave.
We are working with Deputy Commissioner Nancy Berryhill to identify affected employees.
If you feel you may be eligible for these benefits, please contact us as soon as possible. If you have a co-worker, who is unable to work due to the severe weather conditions, please share this information with him/her.
We have flooding in Southern Illinois and Missouri and 25 deaths caused by flooding in Missouri and Illinois. We are aware that our employees who have lost their homes due to floods are given lodging and per diem according to OPM Regulations. We have been advised that SSA is referring our employees who have lost homes to Red Cross Shelters rather than following the OPM Regulations.
RESOURCE: Handbook on Pay and Leave Benefits for Federal Employees Affected by Severe Weather Conditions or Other Emergency Situations: OPM Link to Handbook
Labor Notes 2015 Year in Review
December 28th, 2015 | Posted by in Did you know? | Events | Solidarity | UNION MADE | Your Rights - (0 Comments)Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979.
Through our magazine, website, books, conferences, and workshops, we promote organizing, aggressive strategies to fight concessions, alliances with workers’ centers, and unions that are run by their members.
Labor Notes Conferences just keep getting better. We couldn't be more excited about what's in store in 2016.
For a glimpse at the variety of troublemakers you'll meet, check out our 2015 Year in Review and consider just a few of the inspiring stories of grassroots resistance we've recently highlighted:
* Auto workers and carhaulers organizing to vote down concessionary contracts.
* Farmworkers striking for $15 an hour.
* Verizon retirees blocking trucks to defend their health care.
* Chicago high school students winning back their school librarian’s job by walking out and sitting in
Be In the KNOW! Sign UP..
December 28th, 2015 | Posted by in Benefits | Did you know? | JOIN AFGE - (0 Comments)Sign up for Updates from AFGE!
In order for you to know the latest events for your local and your agency, and to see how you and your colleagues can stand up for government workers, we need to make sure we can get in touch.
Fill in your home email address and your personal cell phone number (never your government phone), and we'll add you to our email list.
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