Posted on August 15, 2014 by AdminUN

CONGRATS TO IFPTE

There are several unions that specialize in representing federal employees, e.g., AFGE, NFFE, and NTEU.  You could even say that they dominate the federal sector union landscape.  However, the IFPTE continues to rack up organizing victories in the federal sector.  It latest involved hundreds of NASA employees.  We are delighted any time federal employees decide to unionize, but IFPTE’s continued victories raise an intriguing question.  Why are employees scattering themselves across a wide variety of unions, such as SEIU, AFSCME, LIUNA, IFPTE, NNA, etc. rather than seeking help of the three better-known fed sector unions? Any thoughts?

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Posted on August 14, 2014 by AdminUN

FOLLOW THE MONEY

AFGE has done it, NFFE has too, and now NWSEO has as well. They have all “put their money where their mouth is” and admitted that “it takes money to make money.”  The point is that each of them has offered a $100 incentive for every new member.  It is hard to imagine a national union leader preaching the importance of membership growth without putting a triple figure incentive in place to help local leaders actually recruit.  While getting an immediate $100 pay off merely for signing up with the union is hardly the best reason to join a union, it seems to work.  AFGE has used its $100 Bonus Bucks program, along with other mechanisms, to double the number of union members over the last decade or so.    If a union’s leadership will not fund at least a $100 rebate program then it should stop pushing (nagging?) local leaders to get more members. If it will not do it at least to try to revive the union’s zombie locals, the leadership is cheating all the more successful locals that have to make up the funding zombies do not provide.

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Posted on August 14, 2014 by AdminUN

WE LIKE THIS WEB PAGE

Every once in a while we run across a particularly good web site and when we do we try to share it with everyone as a potential model for what others could do.   This week the AFGE HUD Council’s page caught our eye because of what members find when they click on “Bargaining” in the menu bar.  The council not only provides readers with an update on all the bargaining it has and still is doing, but it has organized it in a very logical and attractive manner—as opposed to a mere chronological listing of MOU after MOU.  Congrats, Council 222.

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Posted on August 14, 2014 by AdminUN

WANT TO BE A LABOR LAW EXPERT?

Here is one way to take a large step in that direction. The FLRA General Counsel’s Office recently posted its “Unfair Labor Practice Case Law Outline.”  It is 108 pages of summaries of recent and precedent-setting case decisions dealing with every ULP that local union leaders typically encounter. We recommend that the top representatives of every local page through the entire thing to refresh their recollection of the key points of law and download or bookmark a copy to use as the first resource to check when confronting a potential ULP.

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Posted on August 14, 2014 by AdminUN

IFPTE ASSEMBLES FREE TRAINING POWERPOINTS

PowerPoint presentations have become the work horse of nearly every training session.  They make the presenter and union president look professional, they focus everyone in the room on the same message at the same time, and they are worlds cheaper to produce than training manuals. That’s why we recommend you visit the IFPTE, Local 12 web site.  The local has assembled on one page six PowerPoint presentations FLRA prepared that any union local can use to train its stewards and reps.  And when we say “use,” we mean more than using them unchanged.  Nothing bars any local from putting its own coverage on the presentation, modifying it to add references to local agency problems, updating it, inserting art or case problems, etc.

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Posted on August 11, 2014 by AdminUN

10 BARGAINING ISSUES AROUND PHASED RETIREMENT

Now that OPM has finally issued regulations to implement the phased retirement program (PRP), it is time for unions to prepare bargaining demands. Here are some that would be on our list. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 11, 2014 by AdminUN

LEO, AUO, FLSA and 5 CFR 610

When can a federal law enforcement officer (LEO) claim FLSA time and one-half overtime pay if he already is paid administratively uncontrollable overtime (AUO) to work hours beyond the normal 40 hour shift? Continue reading →

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Posted on August 7, 2014 by AdminUN

A “UNILATERAL CHANGE” GRIEVANCE TIP

Assume that your contract has a clause that mirrors the statutory obligation to bargain, i.e., it obligates management to notify and bargain over any midterm changes in working conditions before implementing them.  Further assume that management makes a unilateral change and you decide to file a grievance charging it with violating the statutory obligation to bargain found at 5 USC 7116(a)(5).  Can you figure out what you just did wrong? Continue reading →

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Posted on August 5, 2014 by AdminUN

NLRB ORDERS MAKE WHOLE REMEDY FOR WEINGARTEN VIOLATION, BUT WILL FLRA?

What’s the remedy when an employee is terminated for refusing to participate in a disciplinary investigation of his/her behavior, despite the fact that the employer refused to give the employee a reasonable opportunity to get a union rep involved?  In the federal sector FLRA has rejected a “make whole” remedy reinstating the employee or giving back pay because it claims it needs to balance the government’s need to be efficient with the employee’s statutory rights. Check out AFGE, 55 FLRA 1250 (2000) for the Authority’s rationale. However, the NLRB has just decided that a make whole remedy is appropriate not just when management refuses to let the employee have a union rep, but also when it fails to give the employee reasonable time to get one. Check out the Labor Relations Today story describing the Board’s decision. It will be interesting to see if the Authority follows the Board because we at FEDSMILL have no clue as to why it interferes with agency efficiency to reinstate an employee when he is terminated due to an agency’s illegal unilateral change in working conditions, but not when his other statutory rights are violated. Given the Board’s decision, union reps should be demanding a full “make whole” remedy any time the so-called Weingarten right is violated–at least until we see if the Authority follows or rejects the Board’s thinking.

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Posted on August 2, 2014 by AdminUN

SPECIAL COUNSEL BREACHES CBP’S HUMAN RESOURCES BUNKER

We have been saying it for a while.  The HR/LR operation at Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has little respect for the law. Check out these two FEDSMILL postings: CBP/DHS, LIKE A FISH, IS ROTTING FROM THE HEAD FIRST and LR’S BIGGEST LOSERS. AFGE and NTEU deserve credit for pursuing CBP’s illegal/improper personnel actions like a hungry junk yard dog.  They sank their litigation teeth in nearly a decade ago and have not let go while they wait for FLRA and possibly the courts to tell CBP leadership that this game is over and it is time to start writing checks to all the employees it cheated out of money.  But now the two unions have a new ally that has opened a third front for CBP’s besieged HR leaders.  The U. S. Special Counsel has opened an investigation into alleged deliberate efforts by a former Commissioner and his HR folks to ignore merit rules to give three people very high paying CBP jobs. We do not know the status of the investigation, but we did notice on USAJOBS.gov that CBP is looking to fill a recent vacancy in its top HR job. Stay tuned for an update on the Special Counsel investigation as well as any resolution of the multi-million dollar grievance claims the two unions have pending.

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