Statement of Eddie Eitches, Candidate for First Vice President

I am running for state first vice president because I have unique skills which will
help NARFE Virginia at both the Federal and Virginia Commonwealth levels. In
other words, I can complement the skills that our other Virginia Federation officers
have as we continue to support Federal retirees, annuitants, and workers at this
very challenging time.

I attended Columbia University, graduating in 1971 Summa Cum Laude and Phi
Beta Kappa. I then went to Harvard Law School, where I served as Executive
Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Law Review, graduating in 1974 with classmates Chuck Schumer and Mitt Romney.

After law school, I worked as an attorney adviser to Steven Nye, a Gerald Ford
appointee, at the Federal Trade Commission. In 1978, I moved to the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) to run a program that attempted to
end redlining. We failed because Fannie Mae was a better lobbyist. I then did
partially USAID-funded work at HUD, designing squatter resettlement programs.
The Reagan administration asked me to stay as a non-supervisory GS-15 litigator.
In 1989, the lawyers sought comp time, a result of erratic schedules. HUD
Secretary Jack Kemp, former president of the AFL Players Association,
recommended that we form a union. Once we elected to unionize, we chose to be
part of the much larger non-professional (AFGE) union and I became a union
steward. In 1999, I was asked to lead a slate to challenge the union leadership and
all nine of our candidates won.

For the next sixteen years, I served as the president of the HUD union, first at the
HQ level and then the national council. We not only improved working conditions
at HUD but also furthered. HUD’s mission We became the first agency to provide
free Metro, student loan and childcare subsidies, compressed workdays, and four
day telework. We initiated a program (“Emerging Professionals Program”)
enabling skilled support staff to move into program positions. With the Deputy
Secretary’s office, we developed a mechanism (“Personnel Clearing House”) to
enable employees to choose to move laterally to program positions throughout the
agency: this won the SFLERP award for best example of cooperation in the
Federal government. I was the chief negotiator of the 2015 collective bargaining
agreement, a model for many agencies, which was renewed at HUD on December 12, 2024, and is set to continue until 2029. That said, the present administration is violating some articles, including dues deduction.

In April 2016, I retired from the Federal government after 42 years of service, the
point at which my CSRS pension was maximized. I joined NARFE because
NARFE works more effectively for retirees and annuitants than unions do. I
immediately became a VP of Chapter 489, McLean-Great Falls and its legislative
chair. Soon thereafter I was elected the second vice president of our Virginia
Federation. During my tenure as the Federation officer, I led the development of a
comprehensive state legislative program and reactivated the state PAC. We
attempted to rate State legislative incumbents as National does in providing an
objective tool in deciding with our chapters which candidates to support through
PAC funds.

I continue to work as a NARFE legislative liaison to Senator Kaine, whom I have
known for forty years. I am proud that he led passage of the Social Security
Fairness Act, which eliminates WEP and GPO. We are now attempting to prevent
the majority’s attempt to increase the cost of our contribution and possibly make
more dramatic changes in our healthcare benefits.

For the last three years, I have chaired the FCDC Labor Caucus. All Fairfax
County residents and workers can attend caucus meetings. Our Caucus helped in
developing state legislation that allows counties to choose to allow their workers to
unionize, which Fairfax County did. Now, Fairfax County police, firefighters,
professional and non-professional school workers and general county employees
are union and have completed collective bargaining agreements. Our April FCDC
Labor Caucus meeting focused on the plight of Federal workers and retirees., I
invited NARFE’s John Hatton to participate but he had a schedule conflict.
Some have suggested that I downplay my union work. In response, I quote our
president, Bill Shackelford, on President Trump’s recent attempts to reject
collective bargaining agreements: “NARFE is not a union that engages in
collective bargaining on behalf of our members, but this action penalizes our union
allies for standing up for the federal community we jointly represent. We stand
with those allies in strong opposition to this action.”  The unions and NARFE have
never worked better together.