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.

WHAT TO DO WHEN MANAGEMENT MOVES TOO SLOWLY? What would you do if an employee came to you as her union rep to complain that it took three weeks for the agency to act on her complainant about a manager … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

AND THIS IS WHY YOU NEED UNIONS At some point after the new White House Lord of the Manor arrived in 2017 word came down to the VA that some unnamed folks in the chain-of-command wanted to look tough on … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law, FLRA | Tagged | 1 Comment

THE “DESIRED POSITION” YIELDS 13 YEARS OF BACK PAY Amanda was reassigned to a position that she was not able to do as a result of her disability. When she asked for a reasonable accommodation, the agency merely pointed to … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Disabilities, EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

LOOK WHO WANTS TO SLIT YOUR THROAT After you have read the news story we have linked to here, remember that federal employees have regularly rescued his state from multiple hurricanes, bring over a billion dollars of revenue annually into … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

HOW TO ADD CLOUT TO YOUR GRIEVANCE Wouldn’t you love to make a grievance twice as worrisome for management and give the grievant the chance to get a much bigger payoff than a simple allegation of a contract violation? Well, … Continue reading

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | 2 Comments

WHAT THE “H” “E” DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS IS THIS FLRA? The Authority just dismissed a union’s claim that management had unilaterally implemented a change and, in the process, jumbled 40 years of labor law precedent. I am talking about the case … Continue reading

Posted in FLRA | Tagged | 7 Comments

CONGRATS TO NFFE FOR ORGANIZING YELLOWSTONE Everyone is out there trying to convince unorganized workers to join their union.  In the federal sector, some unions have directors of organizing with budgets, organizing staff, and IT support–and still do not succeed.  … Continue reading

Posted in Organizing | Tagged | Leave a comment

HOW TO RIG A NATIONAL OR REGIONAL UNION ELECTION I can think of more than half-dozen tricks that incumbents or those favored by the “powers-to-be” can use to get a large advantage in multi-local elections.  But I want to focus … Continue reading

Posted in Elections/Voting | Tagged | Leave a comment

FEDERAL COURT HIGHLIGHTS ANOTHER WAY UNIONS CAN OVERTURN EMPLOYEE TERMINATIONS An arbitrator blundered, a federal court spotted his blunder, and unions should make sure arbitrators give their members the full benefits of the law. In this case, an agency terminated … Continue reading

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

THERE IS SOMETHING ROTTEN AT DODEA I once worked at the DoD Education Activity (DODEA) as a management official and to this day have enormous respect for its top leader’s integrity and values. But between the EEOC decision covered in … Continue reading

Posted in Promotion/Hiring | Tagged | Leave a comment