The American Federation of Government Employees gathered their faithful in Washington on Feb. 8 for its annual Legislative and Grassroots Mobilization Conference with all the fervor of a church revival.

With passionate speeches from AFGE president J. David Cox; Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.; Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.; and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the union laid out its goals for 2016.

Here are five takeaways from AFGE's general session:

1. The magic number is 5.3

The 2017 federal budget proposes a 1.6 percent raise for federal employees. While that's more than the 1.3 percent feds will get this year, Cox said it's not nearly enough.

"I don't about you, but I am sick and tired, damn sick and tired, of pay freezes and pathetic penny-Anny pay raises," he said in a general session speech.

"Over the past six years, pay has gone up by 3.3 percent while the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan has risen by 20 percent, putting us deeper in the hole."

Cox said AFGE would propose a 5.3 percent pay raise for 2017, conceding that some may think him a "jolly fellow" for the number, but he thought it wasn't far off from what federal employees should have gotten to make up for years of pay freezes and a government shutdown in 2013.

"I think that we are clearly putting on the record that we are owed the 5.3 [percent raise]," he said in a media session following the speech. "We may not get 5.3, I'm going to be very honest, but we are going to be working like hell to get more than 1.6."

When asked about whether AFGE would support Rep. Gerry Connolly's, D-Va., FAIR Act, which proposes a 3.8 percent raise for federal employees and both Holmes and Cummings supported in their remarks to the union, Cox said he wouldn't turn it down, but that the spending crunch of sequestration that has dogged federal employees needs to stop.

2. Force of the Future

The battle royale for AFGE, at least in the near future, appears to be the Force of the Future, a Department of Defense proposal to reform its personnel system that Cox said recalled the old National Security Personnel System and put it "on steroids."

The AFGE president said the union was continuing to negotiate with the Pentagon on Force of the Future, but still favored implementing the proposed appraisal system called "New Beginnings" across the entire DoD workforce.

"We've spent five years on this 'New Beginnings', this new performance management system in DoD," he said. "It's set to go into effect this year. I think they are only going to put in for management employees, but it should be in effect for rank-and-file employees. We believe it's a good product, we've worked very hard on it and that it would deliver the results that everyone wants."

3. VA accountability bills are a bridge too far

Another bone of contention for AFGE is a spate of accountability bills related to scandals within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cox said in the media session, that while the union supports accountability for the scandals, he feels reform measures, like the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 went too far in making it easier to fire managers at the agency and were designed to unduly take away workers' collective bargaining rights.

"They start with managers, but it didn't take them very long to go [after] rank-and-file," he said. "To have a good VA, you've got to have a good staff. How are you going to even get managers to work at the VA if they have no rights and they can go work at DoD and have rights? AFGE wants good managers at the VA."

4. The TSA

One of the bigger battles for AFGE this year remains the Transportation Security Administration. Cox called it "the worst government agency in the country."

The union is still fighting to negotiate a contract with the agency, one that Cox said is integral to ensuring TSA employees have the same rights as other federal employees.

"Right now, TSA, they do not have a grievance procedure," he said. "They have some kind of in-house dispute resolution, which TSA is refusing to codify and put into the collective bargaining agreement. They don't have MSPB rights. We are working very hard with deputy secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas to try and get some of those type of things corrected."

Cox said he had hopes for legislation that Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., introduced on Feb. 8 to reform the TSA, including granting agency employees Title 5 status.

5. Retirement benefits

One of the big legislative goals for the year, Cox said, will be to keep new employees from paying a higher retirement contributions rate, which is a common bargaining chip with Republicans looking for budget victories.

With the Obama administration winding down, the AFGE president said he didn't see much of a threat to contribution rates, but would still fight to keep them from rising.

"I'm reasonably hopeful that we are not going to see any increase [in contribution rates] this year," he said. "Not that something won't be introduced, but I believe that there are enough folks that'll fight back. The administration, OMB, OPM, every time I've met with them, I've said that is a line in the sand that you must draw. And must draw it as hard and sharp as you can draw it."

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