EPA Union Girds for Contract Talks With Eye Toward 2024 (1)

The EPA’s biggest union wants to wrap up its next contract before the 2024 presidential election, for fear that an unfriendly administration will claw away rights and privileges that aren’t locked in, union leaders said.

“That is key,” said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 238, which represents roughly half of the Environmental Protection Agency’s workforce. “We have to get as much as we can as quickly as we can.”

That gives the AFGE about two years to reach a deal with the agency, said Powell, speaking on a Tuesday night conference call with ...