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.

SOLIDARITY FOREVER? MY TUCKUS!!! “Solidarity forever” is one of the great labor songs. It praises unions for uniting all their members together as equals—the ultimate democracies and the polar opposite of top-down corporate control systems. It is also a PR … Continue reading

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | 1 Comment

IT IS “FOLLOW THE UNION MONEY” TIME AGAIN Want to know how your union is spending dues money, e.g., who is getting paid what, which outside contractors have been hired, how often the union went to arbitration last year, etc.? … Continue reading

Posted in Reports/Finances | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHAT SHOULD A UNION’S INTERNAL DISCIPLINE PROCESS LOOK LIKE? Union leaders as well as members are equally capable of violating the law, regulation or even their own union constitution. Consequently, all unions have a process outlined in their constitution and … Continue reading

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | 1 Comment

JOAN, ETHEL, FEDSMILL AND TEMPORARY PROMOTION BACK PAY Almost 18 months ago, on July 29, 2022, we spelled out why OPM was wrong to prohibit paying  employees detailed or otherwise assigned to higher graded work for more than 120 days … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pay, Higher Graded Details | Tagged | 2 Comments

UNION WIN OF THE CENTURY? For years now, there have been about 4,000 employees at the National Institute of Health (NIH) just outside Washington, DC who have been eager to organize a union.  Their colleagues at the Food and Drug … Continue reading

Posted in Organizing | Tagged | 1 Comment

ARRRRRRGH, SHAPE UP, FLRA! YOU JUST ALLOWED FED SECTOR SEX SLAVERY  Earlier this month, FLRA upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that the union loses the right to file a grievance over a continuing violation of a contract, regulation, or law when … Continue reading

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | 2 Comments

FILE THESE GRIEVANCES NOW The Supreme Court is considering whether an employee can file an EEO charge when an employer merely reassigns the employee to significantly less desirable work—without a reduction is pay. To date, most courts have required that … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHAT A UNION THAT AFGE IS This past summer we posted a few articles about how hypocritical it is for a national union officer to fire any employee for other than just cause (or something like it) and without appeal … Continue reading

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RETROACTIVE PAY FOR TEMPORARY PROMOTION & $377,000 MORE What do you do if your supervisor dumps a bundle of higher graded work on you, but refuses to give you a temporary promotion for doing it? Fight! That’s what you do. … Continue reading

Posted in Higher Graded Details | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHY PROBATIONERS SHOULD JOIN THE UNION Although the urban rumor is that probationers have no way to challenge an agency when it terminates them, experienced union reps know that is far from the truth.  In fact, we just saw a … Continue reading

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