Posted on October 22, 2024 by AdminUN

HEY, UNION LEADERS, JUST SUPPOSE SOMEONE WAS…

willing to sit down with you for two days to walk you through more than 125 of the most significant FLRA and court collective bargaining precedents.  They will include not just the well-known ones, but dozens of those not often discussed or remembered—other than by the most sophisticated contract negotiators. Those would be the ones that give the best union negotiators their “SURPRISE!” power to stop management and even the FSIP from doing the wrong thing. Now imagine that the discussion is also going to include advice on boosting union bargaining power, how to use contract drafting to reduce management decision-making control, and bargaining-related ULP remedies that most discourage agencies from ever violating union rights again. Well, that is what is going to happen at the upcoming class entitled, BARGAINING BY THE NUMBERS UNION TRAINING PROGRAM. It is scheduled for November 13 & 14, will be taught by the Fedsmill.com publisher with the Gilbert Training Group, and will be offered online as well as in a classroom for those in the Washington, DC area. The agenda is below and you can register for the course by clicking on this site. Continue reading →

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Posted on October 22, 2024 by AdminUN

TEST YOURSELF: Is There a Violation Here?

Read over the facts below and identify what, if anything, the union can do to help. The answer is provided below the facts.

FACTS: Assume that an employee’s administrative workweek starts in the wee hours of Sunday morning and goes through to midnight the following Saturday. Let’s call her Keisha Krull. During the last year, she has always had a tour of duty running from Tuesday through Saturday starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 4: 30 p.m. Those were her regularly scheduled 40 hours. However, due to extremely tight budgets, the agency’s regional manager has decided to adjust the schedules of the people in Keisha’s work unit to avoid the need to pay any overtime. The manager moved staff from the slow periods of the week to the busier periods. Keisha’s new tour was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Her hours on Monday were from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. but the rest of the week she was to work from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.  Continue reading →

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Posted on October 17, 2024 by AdminUN

BARGAINING BY THE NUMBERS CLASS READY TO GO—REGISTER NOW!

Fedsmill in cooperation with the Gilbert Training Group has designed a two-day training program (November 13 & 14) that is for union leaders and particularly negotiators. Click here to register. Given the coming presidential election and the potential for a candidate to win who has a long record of trying to crush federal employee unions this is a great time to polish your knowledge of the bargaining case law precedents.  The class will cover over 125 of them because we believe that the party that knows the rules the best has a large advantage–no matter who is in the White House. You can attend either in person or online. The fee is $395 for one day of the program and $775 to attend both days. The daily class agenda is below.  The class will be taught by the FEDSMILL publisher who has over 40 years of experience bargaining federal labor agreements. If you have questions, email us at Fedsmill@gmail.com.  Continue reading →

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Posted on September 27, 2024 by AdminUN

SAVE THE DATE- Bargaining By the Numbers Training Course

FEDSMILL.com and Gilbert Employment Law want to let you know that we have scheduled this course for November 13 & 14 and that it will be delivered online.  The course will be primarily delivered by Frank Ferris, who has over 40 years of experience bargaining federal sector collective bargaining agreements for unions and agencies–as well as litigating bargaining disputes.  He is also the author of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAW FOR THE FEDERAL SECTOR and publisher of Fedsmill.com. The fee, registration information, class topics, and other details will follow in a few days.

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Posted on September 25, 2024 by AdminUN

DID VERONICA DESERVE THIS FROM HER UNION?

Veronica worked hard and well for her union for ten years.  She won some novel cases, worked nights helping to organize a couple of new units, made over 100 overnight trips away from her children despite being a single mom, and volunteered often to hand out flyers in the early morning as part of efforts to encourage employees to take action.  There was no doubt that she was outstanding at her job. A few  years ago, she was promoted to supervise a group of business agents, and that turned out to be the biggest mistake she ever made despite excelling at that as well. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 25, 2024 by AdminUN

DAMAGE TO EMPLOYEE’S PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION COSTS AGENCY $4,000

EEOC just issued another decision awarding an employee $4,000 in damages for the “embarrassment, frustration, social isolation, and injury to his professional reputation” he suffered when his manager confronted him about his EEO charge and it turned into a “heated discussion.” Check out yet another EEO retaliation victory for an employee.  (Webster v. Panetta, EEOC Appeal No. 0120102276, 9/20/11.) (Originally posted January 26, 2012)

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Posted on September 16, 2024 by AdminUN

NEVER BORROW A STRIPPER’S VAPE PEN

A Correctional Officer at the Federal Bureau of Prisons is learning why. After a death in his family, he went to a bar, had one too many, took a few hits off a stripper’s vape pen he borrowed there and attempted to drive home.  Long story short, he wound up in a ditch, got blood tested by the troopers, and registered a positive hit for the ganja. When he tells his supervisor the next day, the agency retests him and it finds the wacky baccy as well. The employee’s explanation is that it must have come from the stripper’s gear. Between the mary jane traces in his blood and the DWI, the agency fired him and an arbitrator upheld his termination.  But in a case that has a couple of lessons for any union rep defending a terminated employee, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the  arbitrator and sent the case back to him to reconsider.  Here is why. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 16, 2024 by AdminUN

IF YOU INSIST ON BITING YOUR WIFE…

expect some job consequences if she has you arrested, especially if you are a Homeland Security law enforcement officer (LEO). When the employee reported the arrest to his supervisor the next workday, he explained that he never bit her.  Rather, he claimed she bit herself to make him look like the aggressor in the fight.  The agency removed the employee for conduct unbecoming and lack of candor. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 9, 2024 by AdminUN

AGENCY INCOMPETENCE SNATCHES DEFEAT FROM JAWS OF VICTORY

Harold, a GSA employee, filed an EEO complaint alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation (gay) and/or the intersection of his sex (male) and race (African American) when he was not selected for promotion. His case turned out to be yet another example of how unions should never underestimate or ignore the potential for agency incompetence to turn an iffy grievance into a winner. Here are some details of yet another example. Continue reading →

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

Posted on September 4, 2024 by AdminUN

QUICK UNION POWER QUIZ

Do you know the difference between these SIX contract dates: 1- Execution Date, 2- Approval Date, 3- Effective Date, 4- Implementation Date, 5- Reopener Date, and 6- Termination Date?

Do you know the FIVE routes a union can take to challenge an agency’s declaration of non-negotiability?

Do you know the TEN exceptions agencies can raise to avoid a union bargaining demand when the agency makes a mid-term change?

Do you know the TEN ways to reduce an agency’s power to make working conditions decisions without union involvement?

Do you know the FOUR elements of an agency’s notice of a proposed mid-term change?

If you do not, you should consider taking a course to be jointly offered by FEDSMILL and a highly prestigious D.C. law firm that we call “Bargaining By the Numbers.”  We have attached our original, more detailed announcement of the course below. Let us know if you are interested by sending an email to Fedsmill@gmail.com. No obligation.  We are just trying to decide whether to offer the class on-line or in person and for how many days. Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining, Training | Tagged | 2 Comments