The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

O ne of the frustrating realities that AFSA faces every day is that, unlike private-sector labor unions, we lack lever- age. Whenwedisagreewithamanagement policyor seek to change something, we cannot summonourmembers to strike, stage awork slowdown, or organize a sick-dayprotest. Notmany of ourmemberswouldbewilling togoout andpicket theCStreet entrance of the Department of State. We are highly unlikely to sue theU.S. government in federal court. In some cases, we have limitedoptions for filing institutional grievances, unfair laborprac- tice petitions, or impasse disputes, but these are slow, cumber- some processes that rarely bring about the kinds of sweeping changes many of our members believe are necessary to address major concerns affecting the Foreign Service career. Mostly, we must rely on our ability to persuade department management that a particular change would facilitate the goals of the Secretary of State, would save the department money or would significantly advance the interests of the Foreign Service. Our strength lies in the fact that we can claim to speak for the vastmajorityofmembers of our profession, which includesmany of the same seniormanagement officials sitting across the nego- tiating table from us. But sadly, in recent years this has often been insufficient to bring about results. Persuasion and appeals to fairness have not succeeded in getting the department to budge on many of the action items on the “wish list” that AFSA submitted to the direc- tor general just over a year ago. Moreover, increasingly, the things thatwe are trying toobtain for ourmembers require legislative action. Muchof ourpersonnel system—salary, assignments, promotionnumbers, leave, trans- portation/shipping rules — is dictated by the provisions of the Foreign Service Act, which only Congress canmodify. Some of our regulations dependon the laws governing all federal employ- ees. And, of course, any initiative involvingmoney requires con- gressional authorization and appropriation. Unfortunately, few members of Congress pay much atten- tion to the unique concerns of the Foreign Service because we constitute such a thin sliver of the federal work force andbecause we are alreadyunfairlyperceivedas anoverpaid, pamperedminor- ity. We barely number 13,000 in total, and we have no natural constituencywithin the general public. Even including thousands of FS retirees and familymembers, there are not enough cham- pions of the Foreign Service in any one legislative district tohave much impact on the support of any singlemember of Congress. There is a way, however, for us tomaximize the influence of the Foreign Service and to increase our chances of getting both department management and Congress to sit up and pay more attention toour demands: bymobilizing ourselves as a small but important special-interest group. We are, after all, a unique corps that plays a critical role in representing our coun- tryoverseas. AFSAmembers all over the world need to start writing letters and e-mails directly to department man- agement and to Congress about the issues that they consider vital. We atAFSAhear fromourmembers all the time about their concerns over hot-button issues such as Iraq, directed assignments, unfairness in bidding rules, limited promotion opportunities and the dwindling family-friendliness of the Foreign Service. AFSA brings all these issues to depart- ment management. Maybe now it’s time for theDG, the under secretary for management and the Secretary of State’s office to start receiving hundreds of e-mails and letters on these subjects. A groundswell of direct communication from the people of the Foreign Service would be hard for senior officials to ignore. At the same time, the 13,000-plus active-duty members of the Foreign Service at State andother agencies hail from every corner of our country and couldbe quite effec- tivebywritingdirectly, en masse, to their respective members of Congress on key issues. (Just don’t do it on government letterhead, from government e-mail accounts or on government time!) For example, there are bills beforeCongress that would grant our long-sought goal of overseas comparabilitypay, aswell as other objectiveswe have fought for, suchas taxbreaks for civilians serv- ing in combat zones, changes in maternity/paternity leave rules governing federal employees and provisions to allow same-sex partners of federal employees to enjoy certain family benefits. Letters or e-mails from Foreign Service employees around the world to their respective members of Congress could help push the latter to get on board with these initiatives. For more infor- mationabout specific bills that affect the ForeignService andhow to reachout to the appropriatemember of Congress tourge sup- port, please contactAFSALegislativeAffairsDirector IanHouston (houston@afsa.org ). A mass letter-writing campaign might give a fresh impetus toour agenda. We at AFSAwill keep fighting the good fight, but AFSA’s lobbyingeffortsneedaboost fromthe articulate, persuasive and usually not very shy people of the Foreign Service. V.P. VOICE: STATE BY STEVE KASHKETT Time to Mobilize NOV EMB E R 2 0 0 7 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 57 A F S A N E W S Increasingly, the things that we are trying to obtain for our members require legislative action.