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.

GRIEVANCE STRATEGY OPTIONS TO CONSIDER  (Part 1) Most labor-management agreements list a few simple items that must be addressed to file a valid grievance, e.g., 1- name of the grievant, 2- agreement article and section violated, 3- date of violation, … Continue reading

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BIG TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE WIN FOR FEDS You have heard us describe other major employment law victories for federal employees delivered by Gilbert Employment Law (GEL). But this may top them all given that it overturns a Reagan Administration rule … Continue reading

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TRUMP TEAM’S TORMENT OF CBP GROUP TRASHED The 4th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals just trashed an MSPB decision that upheld the right of Trump’s appointees in DHS/CBP to punish whistleblowers. It seems that some employees in the CBP Weapons of … Continue reading

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FMLA OFTEN REQUIRES PERFORMANCE STANDARD ADJUSTMENTS Often an employer must adjust an employee’s performance standards once it approves the employee’s FMLA leave request.  Not long ago a Federal Circuit Court spelled it out for LR practitioners on both sides of … Continue reading

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HOW TO PROTECT A UNION STAFFER’S CAREER AFGE seems to be the only federal sector union that values all its paid staff members (BU & NBU) enough to protect them from arbitrary and abusive treatment.  Consequently, union staffers themselves need … Continue reading

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HAVE YOU TAKEN THE FEDSMILL CHALLENGE YET? None of us in the business of representing employees knows it all.  So, whenever we have an opportunity to learn something that got by us in the past (or maybe we have just … Continue reading

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TEN REASONS TO BE A UNION REP There are lots of good reasons to be a union rep, whether you get involved in grievances, negotiations, arbitrations, employee meetings, or information gathering & analysis.  Here are ten that we hope lead you … Continue reading

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THINGS THAT BUG ME ABOUT UNIONS I was born into a family of union activists and devoted over 40 years of my own life to working for unions, but there are a few things about them that truly “get my … Continue reading

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SSA HQ AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES GET $22 MILLION IN BACK PAY Why?  Because for years the agency discriminated against them when performance awards were handed out. If your union is not doing a simple statistical analysis of how awards are distributed … Continue reading

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WHAT IS “SAFE LEAVE” It is something the pro-employee White House is urging federal agencies to adopt—and that means your union should be pursuing implementation of the President’s order ASAP lest.  The best explanation of this concept was issued by … Continue reading

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