The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) is proud to announce that the union experienced record-breaking membership growth in 2017, achieving 6.5% net growth in the twelve-month period ending in December of last year. These are the biggest net gains in membership that NFFE has achieved in any calendar year in the last two decades.
“We are extremely proud of what NFFE was able to achieve in membership growth in 2017,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “At the start of last year we set a goal of achieving 6.5 percent net growth nation-wide in 2017. That was a very ambitious goal for us, but we knew that if we executed our plan, we could achieve our goal. It took a truly remarkable effort from all of our leaders across the country – local leaders, council leaders, and national leaders – but together we made membership growth a top priority, and together we achieved our goal. I am so proud of what we accomplished together in 2017.”
While 2017 was a tremendous growth year for NFFE, the recent acceleration in membership recruitment is a continuation of a trend that has lasted for more than a decade. In fact, in the ten-year period from 2008-2017, NFFE has grown a remarkable 38 percent!
“I want to thank everyone that helped this union grow in 2017 and over the last decade,” Erwin continued. “We would not have seen anywhere near this rate of growth if it were not for the dedicated local lodge officials and members who made it their duty to talk about the important work our union does every day and bring new members into our union. We did this together, and everyone deserves credit for the achievement. A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to everyone who is part of the NFFE family. We did it!”
With this membership growth, NFFE is now able to make critical investments to further improve the services the union provides NFFE-IAM members every day. For example, with increased membership, NFFE has more bargaining power nation-wide, more capacity to fight for federal employees in the halls of Congress and with the administration, the ability to offer new and better trainings, and the ability to add new and better supplemental benefits. All of these things, and more, are possible when membership is on the rise.
While NFFE leaders are now able to look back on 2017 with a sense of pride in achievement, NFFE is determined to not rest on those accomplishments.
“We have some good momentum going, and we are going to make sure that momentum continues,” said Erwin. “We understand that the stronger our membership, the stronger our collective voice, and we are living in a time when we need our collective voice to be as strong as possible. We raised the bar in 2017, and now it is time to raise it again. We are determined to make 2018 another great year for membership growth in this union.”