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.

Posted on May 2, 2012 by AdminUN

WHEN ARE UNION-EMPLOYEE CONVERSATIONS CONFIDENTIAL? The short answer is, “Most times, but not always.”  The FLRA rolled out a decision recently making that crystal clear by endorsing management’s right to force a union representative to reveal to its investigators what … Continue reading →

Posted in ULPs, Union Rights | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Posted on April 23, 2012 by AdminUN

HOW SENIORITY IMMUNIZES MANAGEMENT The various employment civil rights acts work by forcing managers to make a choice when they select employees for promotion, awards, etc.  Ironically, making decisions based on seniority gives management near total immunity. Here is how.

Posted in Bargaining, EEO/Discrimination, Promotion/Hiring | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Posted on April 23, 2012 by AdminUN

TEST YOURSELF #2-  Strategic Negotiability Decisions Assume that after a week of bargaining over a management-proposed mid-term change, management tells you that one of your four remaining unagreed proposals is non-negotiable?  This is an important proposal to you and you … Continue reading →

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Posted on April 23, 2012 by AdminUN

MAKING NEW PROPOSALS AFTER BARGAINING BEGINS There is a little-known court case that authorizes union negotiators to make totally new proposals in the middle of negotiations.

Posted in Bargaining Law, Bargaining Proposals, Strategy/tactics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

SECRET SERVICE’S SILLY SEX STORY Brace yourself, America—and especially federal employees. The culture war is about to flare to near-nuclear levels over the recent Secret Service Agents’ interaction with a salacious slice of Columbia’s service sector. First there will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action, Religion | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

TEST YOURSELF- A New Kind of Posting Starting today we plan on posting fact patterns that will give you a chance to challenge your knowledge of labor/employment laws, regulations and strategy. Each will deal with a situation union representatives are … Continue reading →

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration, Test Yourself, ULPs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

TEST YOURSELF #1- The Late Bargaining Demand How do you respond when an LR specialist rejects your request to bargain over a management-proposed space change because your demand was a day or two late under the contract? Here are a … Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining, Grievance/Arbitration, Test Yourself, ULPs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

MSPB’S 13TH DOUGLAS FACTOR MSPB and virtually every arbitrator use the 12 so-called Douglas factors to decide whether to mitigate an adverse action penalty.  (See a complete list of the Douglas factors at the end of this posting.) It is … Continue reading →

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Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

THANKS FOR THE INTEREST Just thought we would share some in-house news we are excited about. FEDSMILL.com has been operating for a little over six months now and thanks to you we have a mailing list of subscribers and others … Continue reading →

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Posted on April 16, 2012 by AdminUN

CONGRATULATIONS AFGE AND NFFE AFGE just filed its annual LM report revealing that the number of dues paying members rose by almost 9,000 over last year’s report for a total of 289,023 dues paying members.  

Posted in Membership Building | Tagged , , | Leave a comment