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Government
547 USDA Employees to Move to K.C. - or Else
2019-07-02
[Bemidji Pioneer] WASHINGTON - The Agriculture Department is offering employees a rare choice: accept a forced transfer to a post 1,000 miles away or be fired.

The Trump administration's plan to move two agencies from Washington D.C. to the Kansas City area includes a document with two blank boxes on it, sent to employees on June 13. Check one, it instructs: Accept the transfer by July 15 or "be separated by adverse action procedures."

Of the 547 employees the department wants to move for the two agencies combined, 253 are with the Economic Research Service, 77 percent of its 329-person workforce. An additional 294 are with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 93 percent of its 315-person staff. News of the move prompted a surge of support for the union. Employees at the National Institute voted 137-2 to join AFGE two weeks ago. Last month's vote at the economic service was 138-4.
I suspect the unions will not like this. More 'roughhouse negotiating'?
Posted by:Bobby

#18  And....you must become a Royals fan.

*568 file resignations*
Posted by: swksvolFF   2019-07-02 17:49  

#17  Sorry, the second sentence should read: My son has been in the Air Force for nine years.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2019-07-02 15:49  

#16  Re #14: 3dc, welcome to the world of the military. He has been in the Air Force for 9 years. He is at his third duty station: Washington state, England, and now Langley AFB, VA. He expects to be transferred again in a year or two.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2019-07-02 15:16  

#15  I'm going to Kansas City
Kansas City here I come
I'm going to Kansas City
Kansas City here I come
They got some crazy little women there and I'm gonna get me one
--------------------------------------------------
I'm gonna be standing on the corner
12th Street and Vine
I'm gonna be standing on the corner
12th Street and Vine
With my Kansas City Baby and a bottle of Kansas City wine
--------------------------------------------------
Well I might take a plane
I might take a train
But if I have to walk I'm going just the same
I'm going to Kansas City
Kansas City here I come
They got some crazy little women
there and I'm gonna get me one

***************************

Recon performed already by Fats Domino
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2019-07-02 14:40  

#14  I am for musical chairs with all gov positions. If you can't move with the job you are not the right person for the job. Right now in D.C. get fired in one gov dept and get hired in another. With regional musical chairs - fired and stay fired. Win win for the public! Sort of survival of the fittest the rest of the public has to live with.
Posted by: 3dc   2019-07-02 12:50  

#13  Taking federal Ag employees out of DC and centering them where agriculture actually exists is a good thing.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2019-07-02 11:18  

#12  Ref #11:. Add Soetoro appointed Federal judge decrees.....
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-07-02 09:41  

#11  Coming soon:.

Gummit directed transfers to KC are discriminatory and racist.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-07-02 09:33  

#10  And housing prices are a hell of a lot cheaper than around DC.

I'd take the transfer in a fucking heartbeat.

But I'm not a DC government parasite either.
Posted by: DarthVader   2019-07-02 09:26  

#9  Look at the bright side, Ag employees - lots of killer BBQ joints!
Posted by: Raj   2019-07-02 09:08  

#8  They might even have to shop at a Walmart. The HORROR!
Posted by: Frank G   2019-07-02 08:53  

#7  National People's Radio (NPR) had a long whiny piece on this. Some of the employees are disabled and can't walk the 1,000 miles to Kansas City. Others have families. Yes, families! Can you imagine families forced to live in the uninhabited prairie, hundreds of miles from the nearest Starbucks, surrounded by wild buffalo and savage Indians? Utterly heart-wrenching stuff. Maybe the Army could build a fort or something.
Posted by: SteveS   2019-07-02 08:39  

#6  the Pentagon

To someplace not in any busy 'fly over' country air traffic patterns should be a first consideration.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-07-02 08:16  

#5  That's convenient to make field trips to Ferguson MO to see first hand the fruits of USDA's largest program.

That comment will really leave a mark.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-07-02 07:32  

#4  Tough cookies! Suck it up! Get out in the field! With all the teleconferencing available today, there's no need for the centralized bureaucracy.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2019-07-02 06:13  

#3  That's convenient to make field trips to Ferguson MO to see first hand the fruits of USDA's largest program.
Posted by: Hupaith Theting3224   2019-07-02 05:31  

#2  The Trump 'long game.' Sheer genius. I hope he expands the program to include the IRS, DOE, the Pentagon, and others.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-07-02 03:23  

#1  Dept of Ag has something like 90k employees. A lot of who are food inspectors or Forestry officials and who are outside Washington DC.

Still the Washington DC offices probably have at least 5k employees so these 500+ are just a drop in the bucket.

Btw, 80% of the Dept of Ag budget goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP aka food stamp) which spends over $100 B per year.
Posted by: lord garth   2019-07-02 01:19  

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