Updates
17 JULY 2026
Another deadline was passed without any update and without any lease signed. This comes after months of broken promises by the Agency to provide transparency, frequent updates, and consideration for employee concerns. However, the Union leadership and its members made their own promises and they kept them:
This fight is not over. We know that management is meeting with outside architecture and real estate brokerage firms as I type this email. But our efforts were not in vain. We now have the backing of significant labor groups such as the Seafarers. We have the backing of power players at every level of government from Representative Malliotakis to New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin. We are taking our grievances to an arbitrator who has overseen thousands of public sector cases. We will use all of these connections and legal avenues to make sure that the move stops, and if it continues, that there is accountability for it.
We will start this new phase of our campaign with a rally to celebrate the women in labor with special guests including Julie Menin. This rally will be held in front of 26 Federal Plaza on Thursday, July 23rd at 12:00 PM.
The Union welcomes Colonel Swenson to the New York District and looks forward to working with someone of his caliber and reputation. We will work with him to ensure continued transparency in the months to come.
Another deadline was passed without any update and without any lease signed. This comes after months of broken promises by the Agency to provide transparency, frequent updates, and consideration for employee concerns. However, the Union leadership and its members made their own promises and they kept them:
- The Union forced transparency through FOIA requests and independent investigations https://www.ifpte98.org/foia-documents.html
- The Union forced accountability through its legal efforts. There is now an GAO investigation requested and we prevented the leadership from unlawfully signing a lease this past Wednesday. Press Release: Goldman, Schumer, Gillibrand Call for Investigation Into Trump Admin Plan to Move Army Corps of Engineers Offices From NYC to New Jersey
- The Union has ensured their members were heard by broadcasting our concerns everywhere. By working with elected leaders and community groups, USACE leadership was confronted and encouraged to reconsider office space in Manhattan. A side effect of our efforts is that our leadership has ended a long-standing silent era with Congressmembers and community groups.
This fight is not over. We know that management is meeting with outside architecture and real estate brokerage firms as I type this email. But our efforts were not in vain. We now have the backing of significant labor groups such as the Seafarers. We have the backing of power players at every level of government from Representative Malliotakis to New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin. We are taking our grievances to an arbitrator who has overseen thousands of public sector cases. We will use all of these connections and legal avenues to make sure that the move stops, and if it continues, that there is accountability for it.
We will start this new phase of our campaign with a rally to celebrate the women in labor with special guests including Julie Menin. This rally will be held in front of 26 Federal Plaza on Thursday, July 23rd at 12:00 PM.
The Union welcomes Colonel Swenson to the New York District and looks forward to working with someone of his caliber and reputation. We will work with him to ensure continued transparency in the months to come.
10 JULY 2026
Reddit Post on r/USACE
Yesterday marked 4 months since USACE Management first announced that the New York District and North Atlantic Division employees were going to move to an exclusively commercial building in New Jersey. USACE leadership was not able to give consistent answers to employee concerns. Just to catch you all up to speed, the long and somewhat baffling journey to this point can be summarized in the myths and facts list below.
Elected leaders at all levels of government and all parties agree: this doesn't make any sense. Whomever this is benefitting, it ain't us.
Reddit Post on r/USACE
Yesterday marked 4 months since USACE Management first announced that the New York District and North Atlantic Division employees were going to move to an exclusively commercial building in New Jersey. USACE leadership was not able to give consistent answers to employee concerns. Just to catch you all up to speed, the long and somewhat baffling journey to this point can be summarized in the myths and facts list below.
- MGMT Claim #1: ...New York District must move to a more cost-effective location...
Union Response: Moving exclusively to a commercial building from a federally-owned space is by itself not cost effective. - MGMT Claim #2: We will be procuring this lease with Title 10 Authority. We intend to follow all regulations and seek all necessary approvals.
Union Response: Setting aside whether this authority is appropriately applied to headquarters buildings and not just field offices, as of today, no report has been sent to Congress as per 10 U.S.C. 2662. They have signaled that they are looking to continue with the move anyway, meaning that they don't intend to follow at least one regulation. - MGMT Claim #3: "We intend to keep employees informed. Relevant documents that can be made public will be provided.
Union Response: Management hasn't conducted a town hall in months, given an update, or provided any documents except through Union-led FOIA requests. - MGMT Claim #4: GSA will not renegotiate the current lease.
Union Response: Documents received through FOIA requests show that there were only two emails sent to GSA, asking what space is available in Newark and what payments we owe GSA if we hypothetically were to move out of our current space (over $5 million in renovation costs as of May, 2026). The Agency either never tried to renegotiate or they are illegally withholding communications from our FOIA request. - MGMT Claim #5: We are committed to meeting our obligations in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Union Response: The Union was supposed to be afforded a chance to pre-decisional meetings. The Union was supposed to be able to complete negotiations of impacts & implementation before the move planning goes forward. The Union was supposed to be informed of any management proposals that will impact the work-life balance of the employee. Did they? No. - MGMT Claim #6: The only cost-benefit analysis we are doing is whether the number associated with the rent goes down. This doesn't consider the costs to the agency, federal government, or the taxpayer.
Union Response: Not only is this a really weird way to do a cost-benefit analysis, several options were presented by employees through FAQs and other means that show options in Manhattan with a rental cost reduction of 30% as required. These options were not considered to our knowledge. - MGMT Claim #7: Office space in New York is not feasible.
Union Response: We found millions of square feet of federally-owned properties in Manhattan available. All of these will be significantly cheaper than moving to a commercial space in New Jersey.
Elected leaders at all levels of government and all parties agree: this doesn't make any sense. Whomever this is benefitting, it ain't us.
1 MAY 2026
Speech at Post-May Day March Gathering at UFT Building by Daniel Kim, President IFPTE Local 98
I would like to thank the UFT; I would like to thank the CLC, the labor community, and all our allies for a great May Day March. We, the Army Corps employees, took a hit this year. I mean, this guy right here (points to poster of Russell Vought), he cancelled all our funding during the government shutdown [originally appropriated] to specifically manage the shipping channels for the NY NJ Harbor, the busiest port in the East Coast. Right now, I'm wearing red for the feds who are having their contracts ripped up by Secretary Hegseth as we speak.
Just two months ago, we were told by our Secretary of the Army to move out of our New York City offices, which are federally-owned spaces, to a commercially-owned property in New Jersey for "cost-saving purposes". Now, nothing against New Jersey; 40% of our bargaining unit lives in New Jersey, they love it very much, and all power to them. But this move is clearly designed to make us quit. Already our union has gotten requests for resume-building exercises because people are starting to question their future in this Agency.
We help bring commerce into our region through our dredging and shipping channel maintenance efforts. We help your communities through flood control projects. And when 9/11 happened not too far from here, our employees helped ferry Manhattan residents [and workers] to safety, and we helped deal with the rubble after the attack. This push to relocate us was a slap heard across our offices, and it struck a nerve. Our workforce, both union and non-union, got together to say, "NO MORE." After discussing the issue with Congress, thanks to all of our union members for helping us doing, a bipartisan group including GOP members of the NY State delegation asked, "Why?" And to this day there is no good answer, because there is no good answer.
They claim they are saving taxpayer money, they claim they are making the government more efficient, and they claim they are rooting out waste when everything we know of the past year shows that it is the complete opposite. And we are asking all of New York City and the entire Northeast in general, when, God Forbid, another Hurricane Sandy comes to our shores, do you want your public servants to get to your neighborhood within the next hour? Or do you want to wait until our Agency to try to settle a contract with a private corporation whose only goal is to profit and not serve our communities.
Thanks to the efforts of the Federal Unionists Network, our Union members, and everybody in the labor community including [those at] the CLC, we have brought everybody's attention to this issue. Congress is angry right now; the NY State Senate is angry right now; everybody is angry; the labor community is angry. And it has caused our management to panic.
And right now, we are ramping up the next steps of our campaign. We are going to pursue an aggressive legal strategy, we are going to ramp up our public outreach efforts, and we are going to collaborate with the good people of New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut to make sure that this move does not happen.
I want to speak personally for a bit. When I originally joined the Army Corps, I was told by my peers in the private sector "Oh! You're taking a big paycut!" "Oh! This will do nothing for your career." But that's not the reason why I do this. My parents brought me and my siblings to this country in the hopes that it was a safe, stable, and prosperous country. I wanted to make sure that their dream, as well as the dream of every person who has made America their home, a reality.
We have been told that we have no voice, no say in the matter. It is time that we prove them wrong.
Speech at Post-May Day March Gathering at UFT Building by Daniel Kim, President IFPTE Local 98
I would like to thank the UFT; I would like to thank the CLC, the labor community, and all our allies for a great May Day March. We, the Army Corps employees, took a hit this year. I mean, this guy right here (points to poster of Russell Vought), he cancelled all our funding during the government shutdown [originally appropriated] to specifically manage the shipping channels for the NY NJ Harbor, the busiest port in the East Coast. Right now, I'm wearing red for the feds who are having their contracts ripped up by Secretary Hegseth as we speak.
Just two months ago, we were told by our Secretary of the Army to move out of our New York City offices, which are federally-owned spaces, to a commercially-owned property in New Jersey for "cost-saving purposes". Now, nothing against New Jersey; 40% of our bargaining unit lives in New Jersey, they love it very much, and all power to them. But this move is clearly designed to make us quit. Already our union has gotten requests for resume-building exercises because people are starting to question their future in this Agency.
We help bring commerce into our region through our dredging and shipping channel maintenance efforts. We help your communities through flood control projects. And when 9/11 happened not too far from here, our employees helped ferry Manhattan residents [and workers] to safety, and we helped deal with the rubble after the attack. This push to relocate us was a slap heard across our offices, and it struck a nerve. Our workforce, both union and non-union, got together to say, "NO MORE." After discussing the issue with Congress, thanks to all of our union members for helping us doing, a bipartisan group including GOP members of the NY State delegation asked, "Why?" And to this day there is no good answer, because there is no good answer.
They claim they are saving taxpayer money, they claim they are making the government more efficient, and they claim they are rooting out waste when everything we know of the past year shows that it is the complete opposite. And we are asking all of New York City and the entire Northeast in general, when, God Forbid, another Hurricane Sandy comes to our shores, do you want your public servants to get to your neighborhood within the next hour? Or do you want to wait until our Agency to try to settle a contract with a private corporation whose only goal is to profit and not serve our communities.
Thanks to the efforts of the Federal Unionists Network, our Union members, and everybody in the labor community including [those at] the CLC, we have brought everybody's attention to this issue. Congress is angry right now; the NY State Senate is angry right now; everybody is angry; the labor community is angry. And it has caused our management to panic.
And right now, we are ramping up the next steps of our campaign. We are going to pursue an aggressive legal strategy, we are going to ramp up our public outreach efforts, and we are going to collaborate with the good people of New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut to make sure that this move does not happen.
I want to speak personally for a bit. When I originally joined the Army Corps, I was told by my peers in the private sector "Oh! You're taking a big paycut!" "Oh! This will do nothing for your career." But that's not the reason why I do this. My parents brought me and my siblings to this country in the hopes that it was a safe, stable, and prosperous country. I wanted to make sure that their dream, as well as the dream of every person who has made America their home, a reality.
We have been told that we have no voice, no say in the matter. It is time that we prove them wrong.
1 APRIL 2026
We are in the news! Through IFPTE International, Politico, a favorite publication of elected leaders and staffers, has dedicated a section of their New York Playbook to the possible office relocation (Source: Politico, scroll down to section titled "ARMY CORPS ON THE MOVE"). We are expecting an article from Newsday in the coming days and more to come after the Easter weekend. We also know that aside from the Congressional Letter, other members of congress are personally reaching out to ASA Telle and USACE personnel to ask questions.
For your situational awareness, the moves next will include, but not be limited to, the following:
Solidarity,
IFPTE Local 98
We are in the news! Through IFPTE International, Politico, a favorite publication of elected leaders and staffers, has dedicated a section of their New York Playbook to the possible office relocation (Source: Politico, scroll down to section titled "ARMY CORPS ON THE MOVE"). We are expecting an article from Newsday in the coming days and more to come after the Easter weekend. We also know that aside from the Congressional Letter, other members of congress are personally reaching out to ASA Telle and USACE personnel to ask questions.
For your situational awareness, the moves next will include, but not be limited to, the following:
- We are hosting a Strategy/Power Mapping workshop on Monday April 6th at 6 PM and then a potential second workshop on Thursday April 9th at 6 PM. This workshop will be facilitated by a member from the FUN NYC Hub and the goal will be to identify key stakeholders/allies we should be engaging as part of the campaign. This will involve mapping USACE work in the region and then identifying research and outreach needs. Please respond to this email if you want to join the workshop.
- Our FOIA request has a tentative response date of 4/22. We will need help going through the FOIA documents and identifying potential issues. We are also in the process of filing FOIAs for other Agencies that may be involved in this move.
- We are continuing to maintain and host new meetings with elected leaders at the federal, state, and local level.
- If you want to join those calls as a constituent or a union member, please let us know.
- If you know of any personal connections to politicians or community groups that would be affected by this move, also please let us know.
Solidarity,
IFPTE Local 98
31 MARCH 2026
Thanks to your efforts and the help of IFPTE International, a bipartisan letter was sent to ASA Adam Telle and GSA Administrator Ed Forst. The letter hit a lot of big concerns from membership regarding (but not limited to) the lack of transparency, the negative effects on our projects, and employee attrition. We thank the offices of Rep. Goldman, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Rep. Malliotakis, and Rep. Suozzi for leading the charge on this effort and working on our behalf. Our discussions with other offices also indicated that they may not be far behind.
This is an important first step in our fight against this ill-advised office relocation. What we do in the next month will also be a critical next step to find all the pressure points for the decision makers and make this move worse for them than it is for us. We will need your help for managing these congressional contacts, reaching out to stakeholders, establishing public relations, and organizing a possible legal battle to stop this move. If you want to be a part of this campaign in any way, reach out by replying to this email, talking to your union representative, or participating in this Action Network Letter Campaign.
In these uncertain times, there are still reasons to be hopeful for this workplace, for your public services, and for this country. The biggest of those reasons is you.
Solidarity,
IFPTE Local 98
Thanks to your efforts and the help of IFPTE International, a bipartisan letter was sent to ASA Adam Telle and GSA Administrator Ed Forst. The letter hit a lot of big concerns from membership regarding (but not limited to) the lack of transparency, the negative effects on our projects, and employee attrition. We thank the offices of Rep. Goldman, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Rep. Malliotakis, and Rep. Suozzi for leading the charge on this effort and working on our behalf. Our discussions with other offices also indicated that they may not be far behind.
This is an important first step in our fight against this ill-advised office relocation. What we do in the next month will also be a critical next step to find all the pressure points for the decision makers and make this move worse for them than it is for us. We will need your help for managing these congressional contacts, reaching out to stakeholders, establishing public relations, and organizing a possible legal battle to stop this move. If you want to be a part of this campaign in any way, reach out by replying to this email, talking to your union representative, or participating in this Action Network Letter Campaign.
In these uncertain times, there are still reasons to be hopeful for this workplace, for your public services, and for this country. The biggest of those reasons is you.
Solidarity,
IFPTE Local 98
