American Federation of Government Employees

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**AFGE**

American Federation of Government Employees
Founded	August 18, 1932
Members	600,000
Country	United States
Affiliation	AFL-CIO
Key people	John Gage, president
Office location	Washington, D.C.
Website	www.afge.org

The American Federation of Government Employees is an American labor union representing over 600,000 employees of the federal government. (State and municipal employees are represented by other unions, most notably the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)). It is a member of the AFL-CIO. Its current president is John Gage.

It represents employees of all parts of the Federal Government except the United States Postal Service, which has two unions.

For administrative purposes it is organized geographically, for representation purposes it is organized by Federal Agency.

Twelve district offices, directed by a national vice president for each district, provide support services to locals. The national vice presidents and the executive officers comprise AFGE's policymaking body called the National Executive Council.

Agency-wide bargaining councils and individual locals are the means of collective bargaining with the U.S. government. Councils are centered on the agency they represent. Various councils represent different agencies. Council 220, for example, represents Social Security Field Offices.

Unlike their private sector union counterparts, AFGE and other federal sector unions do not have the power to strike and have no mandatory dues rights. Despite these limitations the federal sector unions represent a larger percentage of their workers than do modern public sector unions.