Federal labor union leader to step down

The nation’s largest federal employee union is losing its president. 

John Gage, who heads the American Federation of Government Employees President, announced in a letter to union members that he’s stepping down from his position.

Gage called his near-decade-long tenure as president at the union as “challenging but invigorating.”

“Along the way, there have been exhilarating wins and hard losses, one after another,” he wrote. “Always they were accompanied with the reality of the next organizing drive, the next demonstration, the next election.”

Gage, who’s 66, said he didn’t decide to step down because he wanted to retire but because he wanted to “contribute to the labor movement in other ways.”

"I have a growing family that I've kind of neglected," he told the Baltimore Sun in an interview.

In the next 10 weeks, Gage plans to wrap up his time at AFGE by completing negotiations on the organization’s first contract the Transportation Security Agency and ensuring continued representation for the union’s members.

No word yet on who’ll replace him, but Gage said he plans to leave the office of the national president in “excellent shape” for his successor.