Council President Gaines Notifies Members of Congress and Local Government Leaders

August 27, 2024 - President Gaines instructed Council 222 Legislative/Political Committee Chair Erik Jetmir to notify members of Congress and local Government leaders of Fraud, Waste and Abuse IG Complaints in HUD NSPIRE Program. Here are the letters sent August 24, 2024 (no specific order):

Mayor Muriel Bowser
Senator Brian Schatz
Senator Gary Peters
Director Johana Ayers
Congressman James Comer
Congressman Tom Cole
Senator Patty Murray
USOSC Hamptom Dellinger
Hon Matthew Graves
Dominique Blom

HUD plans to give up 60% of its office space

August 19, 2024 , Federal News Network - The Biden administration says federal agencies are getting rid of office space they no longer need, and will shed millions of square feet in the coming years, now that many federal employees are on a hybrid schedule of in-office and work-from-home days.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, as an extreme example, plans to eliminate up to 60% of its total office space footprint by 2038.

HUD plans to reduce space for its field office outside the Beltway, and consolidate four D.C. satellite offices into its downtown headquarters building.

“The reductions will achieve a more efficient utilization rate and reduce real estate spending, allowing us to redeploy funds to other higher impact needs,” the report states.

HUD occupies more than 4 million total square feet of space — which covers 80 leased buildings across the country, and four headquarters buildings. » read full article

HUD Ordered to Bargain with AFGE Over AI Use at Call Centers

UPDATE: August 20 - FLRA sends memo to HUD initiating compliance with the FLRA finding. Attached in the memo is the FLRA Notice to Employees which management must send to all employees.

July 22, 2024 - The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to return to the bargaining table with AFGE after the agency refused to bargain artificial intelligence (AI) data rights for nearly 600 bargaining unit employees at multiple Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Resource Call Centers.

HUD has been trying to implement AI within the call centers under a project called the FHA Resource Center IT Modernization. The agency sought to have employees train AI models that would eventually replicate their existing job functions. Per the GSA Centers of Excellence contract language for the call centers, this data would then be released into open-source public domain repositories for use by anyone accessing it.

Given FHA's status as the world’s largest insurer of mortgages, negotiations surrounding FHA’s Resource Call Centers directly influence employee working conditions and the availability of home financing options for Americans.

In 2021, HUD and the AFGE National Council of HUD Locals 222, which represents HUD employees nationwide, met to bargain over the changes in working conditions and reached an agreement on some proposals. But when the union requested additional information, including the statement of work, the agency denied the request, prompting the union to reach out to a mediator to help settle the issue. » Read Full Article at AFGE.org

222 President Vows To Work Towards Mutual Agreement and Reasonable Solutions

July 10, 2024 - Council 222 President Antonio Gaines e:alert to bargaining unit employees lists some of the actions the agency has taken to undermine our collective bargaining rights. President Gaines vows to continue to work towards mutual agreement and reasonable solutions. Read e:alert, go to E:alerts Page to view all alerts

What We Do

As a council we bargain for employees at a national level. We are an all volunteer organization and elect our leadership from our membership. It's very important that the best employees become union members and activists. As a bargaining unit employee, you are eligible for membership. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to talk with your Local President. Locals are the key to enforcing the benefits we negotiate at a national level. Without strong Locals, the contract is just paper.


Our Constitution       Our EO Policy       Our Contract

The Department of Labor June 2, 2006 Final Rule requires labor organizations subject to the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 to periodically inform their members of their rights as union members. The Final Rule will help ensure that federal union members are given basic understanding of 1) rights as union members; 2) responsibilities of union officers.

Civil Service Reform Act of 1878 (CSRA) - The standards of conduct provisions in this Act, among other statues, guarantee certain rights to members of unions representing Federal employees and impose certain responsibilities on officers of these unions.

Read about the CSRA| DOL 06/02/06 Federal Register Final Rule | DOL Fact Sheet | Council 222 Constitution/ByLaws | Foreign Service Act of 1980 | Congressional Accountability Act of 1995