


Discounts

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.
Right now, Congress is reviewing a proposal to eliminate every federal employee’s most basic rights on the job. If this becomes law, you will have almost no recourse to contest a wrongful termination or suspension.
We need you to call 888-775-3148 NOW and tell Congress: oppose any version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that includes provisions to take away civil servants’ rights!
Here’s what you can do right now to protect your rights:
Tell Congress: My rights are NOT negotiable! Call 888-775-3148 NOW
In solidarity,
AFGE
Dear Chicago Federation of Labor Affiliates
May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is a celebration of workers that takes places all across the world. Join the Chicago Federation of Labor, Illinois Labor History Society and Jobs with Justice at the site where it all began as we continue the fight for workers’ rights.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Noon to 2:30 p.m.
Haymarket Memorial
Corner of DesPlaines Street & Randolph Street
The event will feature speakers, live music and international delegates from the World Federation of Trade Unions.
Multiple events at multiple city locations are planned. Click here for details and updates on Facebook!
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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