People shop at the exchange at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Hundreds of Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees at sites in the Kaiserslautern Military Community voted Dec. 15, 2023, to join the American Federation of Government Employees. (Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Nearly 400 Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees at sites in the largest overseas U.S. military community have elected to join a federal workers union, which sees the vote as the first step in expanding its presence in Europe.
The new American Federation of Government Employees unit will cover 389 nonappropriated-fund employees who work at 11 AAFES sites in the Kaiserslautern Military Community, union officials said in a statement.
In a Dec. 15 election held by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, eligible employees voted unanimously to be represented by the union, according to the statement.
The newly formed Kaiserslautern unit is affiliated with at-large Local 14. Members will automatically be covered under the master labor agreement between AAFES and the union, officials said.
Shoppers wait in the checkout line at the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center exchange at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees at sites in the Kaiserslautern area are joining the American Federation of Government Employees after voting Dec. 15, 2023, to unionize. (Stars and Stripes)
“We are excited to welcome this new group of employees to the AFGE family,” Ottis Johnson Jr., the national vice president for District 14, said in a statement following the vote.
“These workers will be in a better position to fight for improvements at the worksite by leveraging the bargaining power of 750,000 federal and D.C. government employees.”
The Kaiserslautern vote was the first of several to be held at various locations in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, where federal workers lack union representation, according to the statement.
The Defense Health Agency and Defense Logistics Agency are some of the organizations where elections are anticipated, AFGE said.
The Dec. 15 election was the first since an announcement by the union last year that it planned to expand representation to federal employees in Europe.
The headquarters of the American Federation of Government Employees in Washington, D.C. Nearly 400 Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees at sites in the Kaiserslautern Military Community in Germany have elected to join the union, marking the first of what is expected to be a series of elections aimed at expanding its representation in Europe. (AFGE)
The push into Europe was prompted by dozens of complaints from military civilian workers, according to the union.
Among the complaints is a practice known as bait-and-switch, in which civilians move overseas to take a job offer, only to be placed in a different position once they arrive, the union said.
Inconsistencies over contract extensions also are a point of contention for Defense Department workers in Europe.
“Federal employees have every right to join a union and bargain collectively for better working conditions, whether they work stateside or overseas,” AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in the statement.
