WHEN UNION PRESIDENTS SEND GIFTS TO AGENCIES

Remember the old movie line, “Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings?” Well, it came to mind this morning as I thought about those times when union presidents get a hormone rush or adequacy-anxiety attack and terminate staffers for any reason other than a capital offense.  It effectively gives federal agency LR shops a wonderful gift—or what you might think of as a special set of wings. If the staffer has been around the union long enough, it is often a million-dollar gift. Here is what union leaders hand over to agencies.

1. National union reps most often have much more experience than agency LR reps who have been in the business the same number of years.  For example, an agency LR rep might negotiate a term agreement once every three years. In contrast, during that time the union rep has probably done four or five term contracts.  Moreover, s/he has faced a variety of agency negotiators giving the union rep much broader exposure to management bargaining tactics.
2. National union reps tossed out the door even though they often know critical and sensitive things about the union.  For example, think about the staffer who is on the brink of leading the union’s negotiations. S/he knows which proposals are serious and which ones are a bluff, knows what actions the union is prepared to take to pressure the agency, knows which demands are backed up by evidence and which have no evidentiary basis, etc.
3. National union reps also know things about the union’s weaknesses.  For example, are the large union locals opposed to something the small locals want? Does one of the union’s bargaining team local leaders have personal problems or a stronger challenger for the local presidency? Does s/he know about the flaws in one or more of the cases going to arbitration?
4. The capriciously terminated national union rep also often turns into not a mere adversary on the other side of the table, but an enemy looking for a pound of flesh. That can come from embarrassing union team members at the table, ratting one out to internal affairs, openly discussing at any LMR meeting things the union president would rather not have publicized about which local presidents are favorites and which ones are targeted for replacement, or budget schemes kept secret from the members, etc.

A union president would go to jail if s/he sent an agency a million dollars from the union treasury just to satisfy some ego urge.  Yet, that is precisely what they do when they hastily toss staff members out the door without trying all corrective measures to retain that asset. Thankfully, union presidents cannot act impulsively on the union’s non-supervisory employees because those folks have the right to challenge discipline to an outside neutral arbitrator.  But that creates a major piece of irony for unions. It means that when the union president wants to satisfy a craving the easiest path to take is to fire a non-supervisory employee—who ironically got that job because they were considered more skilled than those still in the unit and who are privy to more information about the union. Those are most often the folks the union has invested years of salary developing—and who are the most attractive hires for agencies.

This drain on union talent and resources is only going to stop when union members demand the same protection for supervisory staff as non-supervisory staff have. Until then, agencies are going to reap enormous benefits at the union  members’ expense.