Take Action In April: Meet Face-to-Face with Your Lawmakers During the April Recess

 

Your Representative and Senators will be back home during the April Congressional Recess.  The House breaks from April 5-April 16 and the Senate breaks from April 12-16. This is a critical time to schedule face-to-face meetings with your lawmakers to follow up regarding EEOC’s March 25, 2004 Appropriations Oversight Hearing. It's critical because Representatives and Senators begin writing and voting on bills in the last week in April that will affect your pay and benefits, put you at risk of being contracted out, and impact your rights on the job. So we can't miss this opportunity to lay out our positions on the issues we care about such as restricting funding for a privatized EEOC national contact center, gutting the federal sector EEO process, lifting our hiring freeze to replenish our offices with permanent, not term, employees, and providing our employees adequate office space and working conditions to serve the public.

Stewards are encouraged to try something a little different during the April Recess. Invite your Representative and Senators to join you at your workplace to talk with members directly about our concerns. An on-site event in a room packed with members gets a lawmaker's attention. It sends a strong message that we care deeply about EEOC issues and we're willing to turn up the heat if our concerns are not addressed.

If you feel more comfortable conducting a traditional meeting at the lawmakers office, that's fine. The point is to meet with Representatives and Senators back home in April before they sign off on EEOC’s FY 05 budget request and start writing legislation that will determine our pay, benefits and job security, possibly for a long time to come.