Pledge to Defend our Public Services and Workers
Take The Pledge:
We, the undersigned, stand united in defense of the public services that our communities rely on and the workers who provide them. We recognize that attacks on these services—through funding cuts, privatization, and understaffing—harm not only workers but also the people they serve.
By signing this pledge, we commit to:
- Supporting and standing in solidarity with public service workers.
- Opposing budget cuts, layoffs, and privatization efforts that weaken essential services and undermine the well-being of our communities.
- Raising awareness, taking action, and holding elected officials accountable for protecting and investing in public services.
- Advocating for policies that strengthen and expand public services, ensuring they remain accessible, high-quality, and staffed by dedicated workers.
- Our public services are the foundation of a just and thriving society. We refuse to stand by while they are dismantled. Together, we pledge to fight for the workers who keep them running and for the communities that depend on them.
Learn More:
IFPTE Local 98 represents the federal workers at the New York District and North Atlantic Division offices of the Army Corps of Engineers. In recent months we have also been supporting unionization efforts among our fellow Army civilians at the Arlington Virginia office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation (DASA (DE&C))
But on March 27, Trump launched a direct assault on federal workers by signing a presidential order to end collective bargaining at the Department of Defense (among many other agencies). We are facing one of the greatest incursions of workers rights in American history.
In The Weeks Ahead We Will Be:
- Training federal workers–our members in Local 98 and well beyond–to learn how to legally and effectively operate as a union even if management no longer recognizes us. We call this “unilateral unionism” as our response to their illegal unilateral repudiation of our rights and contracts;
- Organizing informational pickets, protests and other political demonstrations to show the public we are not resigned to these attacks. This is part of the Federal Unionists Network’s national “Let Us Work” campaign which is being organized in coalition with the national leaders of all of the major federal unions; and
- Raising money to support the intensive organizing that will be required to sustain our movement for the months of hard battles ahead. Most immediately we will be raising funds to offset legal fees, to pay organizing staff and to mobilize the largest possible showing of federal workers for May Day protests on the 101st day of this administration.
What Happens Next?
We ask you to take this pledge to stand with us–and all federal workers–in the weeks and months ahead as we organize to fight back, not only for our jobs and our rights but also for the critical services we all provide. By taking this pledge, you will receive updates and solicitations from IFPTE Local 98, and the Federal Unionists Network, which Local 98 helped form in 2023.
