Author Archives: AdminUN

About AdminUN

FEDSMILL staff has over 40 years of federal sector labor relations experience on the union as well as management side of the table and even some time as a neutral.

FLRA MAKES CREDITING PLANS NEGOTIABLE But don’t look for a formal FLRA decision stating they are. Look instead at the reasoning FLRA used when ruling union crediting plan proposals were not negotiable. FLRA forces management to negotiate over something in … Continue reading

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FORCING AGENCIES TO RESTRUCTURE JOBS The labor law gives management the right to assign duties to a position, which totally prevents a union from proposing that the job be restructured for any purpose, e.g., greater efficiency, upward mobility, or even … Continue reading

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WHAT SHOULD NATIONAL UNION EXECUTIVE BOARDS BE DOING? There are several kinds of executive boards in the corporate and non-profit worlds ranging from the merely ceremonial rubber stamp varieties to those that engage in the active oversight management of the … Continue reading

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THE OTHER OVERTIME REMEDY There is an on-going fight between labor and management as to what is the correct remedy when a supervisor fails to give an employee an overtime assignment s/he was due under law and/or the contract. Management … Continue reading

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QUIZ: HOW DO UNION STAFFERS INFLUENCE LOCAL ELECTIONS? Let’s start with a hypothetical. Assume that the local’s election of officers is coming up in three months and that the only member who can beat the current local president is waffling … Continue reading

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CAN SOLAR PANELS BOOST UNION MEMBERSHIP? One way unions attract new members is by offering benefits, especially economic benefits, only to members. The benefit must be attractive by itself, the savings substantial, and the deal limited only to members. But … Continue reading

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TRANSGENDER FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WINS DISCRIMINATION CASE The Washington Post just published a story about how the U.S. Special Counsel convinced the Dept. of Army to correct the harm done to a transgender employee from “frequent, pervasive, and humiliating” gender-identity discrimination. … Continue reading

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BID & ROTATION DYNAMICS The Panel just issued a decision dealing with the right of AFGE Correctional Officers to bid into various assignments by seniority. (AFGE, 2014 FSIP 48) NTEU CBP Officers and several other law enforcement groups have similar … Continue reading

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DEVELOPING NATIONAL UNION LEADERS FROM WITHIN Running a national labor unions well demands a lot of skill. AFGE, for example, has an annual budget of over $100 million, 300,000 members, and thousands of locals involving almost every government agency. Even … Continue reading

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CAPE COD LAWYER RESCUES DISABLED CBP OFFICERS Not long ago we posted a story entitled, “MSPB Recklessly Denies CBP Officers Disability Rights,” which described a new MSPB decision holding that it was not (and likely would never be) a reasonable … Continue reading

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