Jeffrey Jones - AFGE Local 0515

Still unsure if your federal retirement plan is truly set up for long-term security?

Many federal employees wait too long, miss key rules, or overlook strategies that could make a major difference in their future.

Now is your chance to take control.

Join this Exclusive Workshop for AFGE Members focused on Retirement Planning & Financial Strategies designed specifically for federal employees. Learn how to avoid costly mistakes, maximize your benefits, and build a smarter retirement plan.

📅 Sunday, April 12th, 2026
⏰ 2:00 PM
📍 Miami VA Medical Center

Hosted by Jeffrey Jones, President of AFGE Local 0515

Secure your spot today: https://tr.ee/O7o4c1

Or scan the QR code to register instantly.

Learn Today. Retire Smart.

🏛️ AFGE Local 0515 Members — Register now: https://tr.ee/O7o4c1

Seats are limited. Don't wait.

PWR Retirement Group is bringing a FREE exclusive workshop to Miami, and if you're a federal employee, you need to be in the room.

📋 Retirement Planning & Financial Strategies for Federal Employees
📅 Sunday, April 12th, 2026 ⏰ 9:00 AM
📍 Miami VA Medical Center 1201 NW 16th Street, Miami, FL 33125

Hosted by Jeffrey Jones, President of AFGE Local 0515 — a leader who knows what federal employees face and what they deserve to understand before they retire.

You've spent your career serving. Now it's time to make sure your benefits, your TSP, and your retirement plan are actually working for you.

AFGE Local 0515 members — this one's for you.

I'm hosting a free workshop at the Miami VA Medical Center on Sunday, April 12. Doors open at 9:00 AM. Lunch is on us.

This isn't a seminar where someone reads slides at you for two hours. This is a real conversation about the benefits you've earned — and the ones you might be leaving on the table.

Here's what we're covering:
✅ Workers' Compensation & FMLA — your rights when you're injured or need leave
✅ Disability Retirement Benefits — who qualifies and how to apply
✅ Human Resources Consultation — get your questions answered face to face
✅ ORA Portal — how to navigate it without the runaround
✅ Retirement Planning — whether you're 5 years in or 5 years out
✅ FEGLI — what you're paying vs. what you actually need
✅ How to grow your TSP to a million dollars — it's possible, and we'll show you how
✅ Tax Reduction Guidance — keep more of what you've earned

I partnered with PWR Retirement Group to bring this to you. They specialize in federal benefits education across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. No sales pitch. No pressure. Just the clarity you deserve.

I didn't get to save for retirement until my 20th year of service. I've been at the VA for 34 years.

I don't want you to make the same mistake I did. Start now.

📅 Sunday, April 12, 2026
🕘 9:00 AM
📍 Miami VA Medical Center — 1201 NW 16th St, Miami, FL 33125
🍽️ Free lunch included

Register now 👉 https://tr.ee/O7o4c1

📞 (202) 359-9000
📧 [email protected]

Tag a coworker. Share this with your unit. Send it to someone who's been saying "I'll figure out my retirement later."

Later is now.

— Jeffrey Jones President, AFGE Local 0515

Don't let anyone tell you your union is gone. It's not.

TSA managers are using the DHS shutdown to spread lies — telling transportation security officers that their labor rights have been terminated.

That is false.

AFGE's contract covering 47,000 TSA employees is still in effect. Period.
Here's the timeline — because the facts matter:

March 2025 — Secretary Noem tried to cancel the contract. AFGE sued.
June 2025 — A federal judge blocked the termination with a preliminary injunction.
December 2025 — Noem tried to cancel it again. Anyway. Despite the court order.
January 2026 — The court shut that down too. Ruled our 2024 collective bargaining agreement remains in force.

Four attempts to kill this contract. Four times AFGE fought back. The contract stands.

AFGE Council 100 President Hydrick Thomas said it directly — AFGE is still your union and your union rights are still intact. Agency leaders and the Trump administration have made numerous attempts to terminate our contract and they have not succeeded.

This is exactly why misinformation is dangerous. When your manager tells you the union is finished — and you believe them — they win without ever going to court.
Don't believe what you hear. Believe what the judge ruled.

If you're a TSA officer or any federal employee with questions about your rights — talk to your union rep. That's what we're here for.

Over the past year, this administration has tried to make the workplace feel impossible. Through it all, you keep showing up. That's who you are.

Now know this — your union keeps showing up too.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/dont-believe-what-you-hear-tsas-labor-contract-remains-in-force/

One year ago, they were escorted out of their offices with 15 minutes notice.

Nearly 16,000 USAID employees — most of them working overseas — terminated. Contracts canceled. An entire agency dismantled by executive order.

One year later, those same workers showed up again. Not to their desks. But to each other.

On February 27, fired USAID employees, foreign service officers, contractors, and partners gathered outside the agency's headquarters in Washington. Not to mourn. To recommit.

AFGE Local 1534 President Mike Henning told the crowd something every federal employee needs to hear:

This administration doesn't want you to feel powerful. They don't want you to have agency to take collective action. Our unified efforts are the greatest threat they face.

He's right.

And he said something else — if you don't have a union where you work, start one. If you don't like how your union is working on your behalf, change it. You still have agency. You can make change.

That's the message. Not defeat. Not silence. Power.

AFGE and AFSA sued the administration for illegally shutting down USAID. The appeal is heading to the D.C. Circuit on April 23.

These workers dedicated their careers to serving this country and the world. Being fired didn't change that. Nothing will.

As a union president, this is what I know — they can take your badge. They can lock your office. But they cannot take your voice. Not if you refuse to give it up.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/fired-feds-still-dedicated-to-foreign-aid-mission-despite-usaid-dismantling/

Federal prisons are in crisis. And instead of fixing it, they're making it worse.

Over 1,400 Bureau of Prisons staff left last year. One in five correctional officer positions sits empty. Nurses, cooks, and teachers are being pulled from their jobs to guard inmates because there aren't enough officers to do it.

Congress told BOP to keep at least two correctional officers per high-security housing unit. Multiple facilities aren't even meeting that basic standard.

So what did BOP leadership do? They cut retention bonuses — pay cuts of up to 25% for more than half the staff. Then they canceled the collective bargaining agreement with AFGE's Council of Prison Locals, the union representing over 30,000 officers and staff.

You can't solve a staffing crisis by paying people less and taking away their rights.
Four members of the House Judiciary Committee are now demanding answers from BOP Director Marshall — how does the agency plan to recruit, retain, and protect the people running these facilities?

The lawmakers said it plainly: the termination of the CBA eliminates employees' ability to protect themselves and the people incarcerated in these facilities.

This isn't just a labor issue. It's a public safety issue. Understaffed prisons are dangerous — for the officers, for the inmates, for everyone.

Every federal employee deserves a voice at work. Especially the ones walking into a correctional facility every morning.

AFGE's Council of Prison Locals is fighting this in court. Oral argument is scheduled for April 30.

We don't stop.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/lawmakers-seek-details-on-bop-plan-to-address-staffing-crisis/

No paycheck. Again.

DHS funding ran out on February 14. Tens of thousands of federal employees have been working without pay ever since.

TSA officers. FEMA workers. Coast Guard staff. All showing up. All doing their jobs. None of them getting paid for it.

This isn't the first time. These same workers survived a 43-day shutdown last fall. A 4-day shutdown earlier this year. And now this.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley said what we're all thinking — our members are tired of being forced on this roller coaster every time elected officials fail to do their jobs.

There's a fix. It's called the Shutdown Fairness Act — S. 3168 and H.R. 7137. It would guarantee federal employees get paid in full and on time during every shutdown.

No more missed rent. No more choosing between gas and groceries. No more being punished for Congress's failures.

Government shutdowns are harmful to federal employees, their families, and our economy. No employee should go without a paycheck on payday.

Call your representative. Call your senator. Tell them to pass it.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/afge-calls-on-congress-to-pay-dhs-employees-during-government-shutdown/

A setback. Not a surrender. Not even close.

A federal appeals court lifted the injunction that was blocking Trump's executive order — the one designed to strip collective bargaining rights from over 950,000 federal employees by calling every agency a "national security" operation.

Here's what they want you to think: the union lost.

Here's the truth: this case is far from over.

The Ninth Circuit didn't rule on whether the executive order is legal. They ruled on whether the injunction should stay in place while the case continues. That's it.
And here's what they don't want you to notice — the court sided with AFGE on something huge. They confirmed that federal courts have the right to hear this challenge. The administration tried to block that. They lost.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley said it clearly — when the full record is developed, we will prevail. We will continue to build our case and pursue every legal avenue available.

This is how the fight works. You don't win every round. But you don't stop showing up.

AFGE hasn't stopped. We won't stop.

As your Local 0515 President, I want every federal employee to understand — your right to organize, to bargain, to have a voice at work — that's not something any executive order can erase. Not while we're still standing.

And we're still standing.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/afge-remains-in-the-fight-despite-lifting-of-injunction-blocking-trumps-unionbusting-executive-orders/

Telework is back for 38,000 SSA employees. The arbitrator said so.

SSA tried to eliminate all telework last year to comply with an executive memo ordering everyone back in-person full time. One problem — they had a contract with AFGE that said otherwise.

On March 11, Arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled SSA violated its collective bargaining agreement. The order is clear: restore telework to pre-March 2025 levels and stop violating the contract.

That's two agencies caught breaking their telework agreements in one month. HUD got the same ruling in February.

This is why your contract matters. This is why your union matters.

AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe said it right — the case for restoring telework has never been stronger. Three decades of proven results.

Higher productivity. Better recruitment. Better retention.

When they tell you the contract doesn't matter — show them this.

Your union negotiated it. Your union enforced it. Your union won it back.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/major-afge-win-as-arbitrator-orders-ssa-to-reinstate-telework/

One month. Three missed paychecks. Zero excuses.

The DHS shutdown just hit the one-month mark. TSA officers, FEMA employees, Coast Guard staff, and CISA workers are still showing up — still keeping this country safe — without being paid.

It's gotten so bad that Denver International Airport is asking the public to donate grocery and gas gift cards to TSA officers. Food banks in Maryland are preparing hundreds of food boxes for officers at Baltimore's airport.

Read that again. The people protecting you at the checkpoint can't afford groceries.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley put it plainly — repeated pay interruptions drive experienced employees out of public service and discourage the next generation from stepping forward. You cannot run a modern government on uncertainty and promises of eventual backpay.

And now some people want to use this crisis to push privatization? TSA Council 100 President Hydrick Thomas had the right answer — the problem is political dysfunction, not the existence of a federal workforce.

Congress has a solution sitting right in front of them: the Shutdown Fairness Act (H.R. 7137 / S. 3168). It would ensure federal employees get paid during every shutdown — this one and every future one.
Pass it. Now.

As a 34-year federal employee, I know what it feels like when the system treats you like you're expendable. You're not. None of us are.
Share this. Call your representative. These workers can't wait any longer.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/afge-ramps-up-pressure-to-pay-workers-as-dhs-shutdown-reaches-one-month/

320,000 VA employees just got their contract back.

On March 13, a federal judge ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate AFGE's master collective bargaining agreement — the contract VA Secretary Doug Collins tried to terminate last August.

The court found the termination was motivated by our union's history of speaking up against harmful changes at the VA.

Let me say that clearly: they tried to silence us because we refused to stay quiet.
It didn't work.

NVAC President MJ Burke said it best — the backbone of the VA isn't the executives at headquarters. It's the housekeepers, claims processors, cemetery caretakers, police officers, clinicians, and support staff who show up every single day.

That's who this victory is for.

As a 34-year VA employee, I've seen what happens when workers lose their voice. This ruling makes sure that doesn't happen — not today.

We are still here. We've always been here.

🔗 https://www.afge.org/article/afge-va-contract-restored-in-major-win-for-workers-veterans/