BORDER PATROL HUMBLED BY TRUMPERS AGAIN
Once it endorsed Trump in the 2016 election, the Border Patrol Council was rewarded by him with the most lavish collective bargaining agreement ever negotiated in the federal sector. (It was particularly sumptuous for the union leadership that was given near-endless amounts of official time. See our 2019 post entitled, “Trump Pay Off Border Patrol Union.”) But things have not gone so well for them since, as seen this week when Trump’s two FLRA appointees overturned a union arbitration victory.
The agency deviated from its established disciplinary procedures on July 6, 2022 and again on October 7, 2022 without notice to or bargaining with the union. On November 8, 2022 the union filed a grievance alleging a contract violation as well as a failure to bargain ULP. The agency waited until the middle of the arbitration proceedings to announce that suddenly it was claiming the matter was not arbitrable because the contract required grievances be filed within 30 days of the violation, which it believed was July 6. However, because the parties’ stipulated issue statement for the arbitrator did not empower him to address any procedural objections, he ignored the last-minute timeliness complaint—as any reputable arbitrator who knows the law would.
Although the agency whined to the FLRA by filing exceptions, I would have bet that all Trump appointees know that the Border Patrol union leadership are close friends of The Boss. So, imagine my surprise when I read FLRA trashed the union’s victory by sending the case back to the arbitrator with instructions to overlook the agency’s errors of not raising its timeliness objection during the grievance process or even including it in the jointly stipulated issue statement.
Apparently, the two Trump FLRA appointees are unaware that when someone screws with the Boss’s buddies/supporters/donors, he does whatever is needed, whether that be a pardon for federal crimes, increase in a buddy’s right to pollute the environment, or even sending troops into battle. Perhaps one or both of Trump’s appointees will soon announce a need to spend more time with their family or the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to be appointed as ambassador to some impoverished, war-torn, disease-ridden nation on his “BS Nation” list.
This has to be upsetting to the union leadership who broke with, and arguably screwed, every other union in the country in 2016 to support Trump and give him a very big boost into office as the immigrant enemy the country needed. After all, since retaking the White House our Golden Leader has appointed a DHS Secretary with no law enforcement credentials and a predisposition to spend gobs of the Border Patrol budget on her personal image and pleasure. It followed that up by taking BP Agents away from their homes posts to fly around the country with armed, but poorly trained, sotrm-trooping ICE folks arresting and shooting at American citizens. And finally, by shutting down the immigrant have flow, Trump has set up the union’s members for huge RIF’s when the DC political tide turns.
For details about the case, check out DHS and AFGE, Border Patrol Council, 74 FLRA 3432(2026). And one final note to the Border Patrol Council, you did what a lot of unions failed to do when you raised the ULP issue. That will get you into court down the road, if needed, to stop the offensive practice change of having disciplinary matters determined by people not wearing the uniform, e.g., Schedule F or political appointees, who are more likely to sacrifice an employee for the PR value. My tip is that you need to call whoever in the White House basement is assigned to take care of The Boss’s election endorsers. Have them order Kristi to modify the contract to give you six months to file a ULP claim through the grievance procedure, not the 30 days that applies to just contract violations.
