NICE TOUCH, AFGE, AND THANKS, MARK ROTH

Normally, in any political organization the system is designed to give all the credit for anything good that happens for the members to the top elected official. While there are some legitimate reasons for that, it also has some disadvantages that we will not go into here. So, we were happy to see that AFGE gets it when it comes to giving recognition to someone other than the national president. 

If you visit the union’s law library, you will see that it is dedicated to (and named for) Mark Roth, who was the union’s General Counsel spanning four decades.  Mark’s role in federal sector labor relations was enormous whether measured by the number of FLRA cases he was involved with, the labor law precedents he shaped, discussions with folks on Capitol Hill, media and public speaking events, the influence he exerted through personal relationships on regulations coming out of OPM, or his role in identifying for the White House folks to be appointed to key posts in several Administrations.

Most experience local union leaders know that the National President of any union does very little on his/her own. So, it is a credit to AFGE and the sophistication of its culture that it so willing acknowledges that in permanent and visible way the work of others. Nice touch.