THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 33 That is the ideal position this Association would like to take. In a situation though, and in a system where job responsibility and the excellence of the organization itself are the most attractive qualities for us, and when that has failed us as it has, then pay does become important. —AFSA Board Chair Lannon Walker, November 1968 FSJ. AFSA Becomes a Union: Four Battles The years 1971-73 witnessed four major battles for the future of the Foreign Service: the fight over the form that white-collar unionism would take in the Service; the AFSA Governing Board elections of 1971; the elections for exclusive employee representation in State, and USAID and USIA in 1972-73; and the struggle to bring the managements of those agencies to the bargaining table in good faith thereafter. … When we started there was no employee management system, and we represented no one. Today the system is enshrined in the Foreign Service Act of 1980, and we represent the Foreign Service in all the foreign affairs agencies, including commerce and agriculture. When I look back, I marvel at the dedication and energy of those who accomplished so much in such a short time. How did it happen? I believe the basic answer is volunteers. … Hundreds of Foreign Service people—a significant part of an entire Foreign Service generation—gave time, genius and inspiration to the reform movement. —Ambassador Tom Boyatt, June 2003 FSJ. Shutdown Can’t Keep AFSA Down On Wednesday, Jan. 3, [1996,] AFSA and AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) sponsored a demonstration at the 21st Street entrance to the State Department to protest the ongoing budget crisis. More than 200 furloughed and excepted employees from the foreign affairs agencies attended. … Though the shutdown is now over, neither AFSA nor its members can breathe easy. The associated long-term budget and staffing implications represent the most serious challenges ever confronted by our membership. It is quite possible that the seven-year-budget negotiations could decimate the budgets of the foreign affairs agencies and put at long-term risk the important work we do for the American people and for the nation’s security. We will continue to make every effort to educate the administration and the Congress about the consequences of the budget negotiations to our national interests. —AFSA Governing Board member Angela Dickey, February 1996 FSJ. Federal Unions and USAID: The Challenge for AFSA Nearly 80 percent of all active-duty Foreign Service members join AFSA, in addition to thousands of retired members. AFSA helps with virtually any issue its members confront—security clearances or violations, denial of tenure, employment-related performance evaluation, discipline/ selection-out, pet travel, divorce, career counseling, and equal employment opportunity (EEO) and disciplinary processes. … Foreign Service members need a union, and AFSA is proud to represent them. AFSA’s role as “the voice of the Foreign Service” remains critical at USAID, where the influence and authorities of the Foreign Service have severely declined. Though USAID remains a foreign affairs agency, it no longer operates or staffs itself as an institution led by and centered on its Foreign Service. … At USAID, the Foreign Service is too often treated simply as one among the agency’s many “hiring mechanisms,” with leadership failing to invest in FSOs as career public servants— and to be very clear, the Foreign Service is designed as a career service. —AFSA USAID Vice President Jason Singer, January-February 2023 FSJ. n
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