Posted on March 10, 2026 by AdminUN

TDY POV/PARKING FEES: WEBSITE ESTIMATIONS V. REALITY

Terri, a Dep’t. of Interior employee, took an Uber to the airport for  her four-day trip.  When she filed a voucher asking for the agency to reimburse her $40.00 costs, it refused to pay.  It alleged that if she had taken a cab, Uber or similar ride to the airport it would only have cost her $16.74. It based that on a website estimation of what the cost of the trip would have been on average. The employee appealed to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) which is where feds take travel disputes if they cannot grieve the agency’s denial. The Board slapped Interior down and ordered Terri fully paid.  But it is the reasoning it used that is important because we would not be surprised if other agencies are also using website estimations to reject employee travel claims. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 4, 2026 by AdminUN

NFFE WINS AGAIN—AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN

NFFE just announced it latest organizing victory adding another 174 workers to its Forest Service unit, but the even better news is that NFFE has won 60 straight organizing drives in 2025 and has already added 10 more to that streak. That kind of success is unheard of and an enormous testament to what the national leadership is doing there.  It is also further evidence that The King of the golden gilded, bordello-like White House has created a Trump Bump for unions. Congrats NFFE.

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Posted on March 4, 2026 by AdminUN

BORDER PATROL HUMBLED BY TRUMPERS AGAIN

Once it endorsed Trump in the 2016 election, he rewarded the Border Patrol Council with the most lavish collective bargaining agreement ever negotiated in the federal sector. (It was particularly sumptuous for the union leadership that was given near-endless amounts of official time. See our 2019 post entitled, “Trump Pay Off Border Patrol Union.”)  But things have not gone so well for them since, as seen this week when Trump’s two FLRA appointees overturned a union arbitration victory. Continue reading →

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Posted on February 17, 2026 by AdminUN

20+ FLRA PRECEDENTS UNION NEGOTIATORS MUST KNOW

Having spent over 30 years as a union’s chief negotiator,  I am convinced that for a union to succeed at the table it needs to know ever bargaining right it has under law. Otherwise, it is going to miss an opportunity, fall for a management trick, or embarrass itself.  For example, a union-hating DHS negotiator convinced the FSIP to take quick jurisdiction over the ground rules (GR) for reopening our term contract that the union did not want reopened anytime soon.  As expected, the Panel screwed the union by ordering us to accept management’s proposed GR despite our argument that they were riddled with gaps and ambiguity. When DHS negotiator called to gloat and arrange a signing date, he offered to clarify some provisions and fill some gaps if we signed immediately. BANG! BIG MISTAKE! I HAD HIM!  I said, “Sure, just send over your proposals and thanks for being so reasonable.”  When he sent his proposed changes, I sent back counter proposals rather than sign them as he expected. Why? Because a little-known piece of case law held that he had just reopened negotiations—something the management negotiator did not know. His error required management to go back to the bargaining table before any FSIP decision had to be implemented.  The agency fired him when it found out how badly he had blundered and the union got the bargaining GR it wanted and ultimately a very good new contract.   We have pulled together almost  two dozen critical bargaining case law precedents that, if used, boost union bargaining power. Just click here

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Posted on February 16, 2026 by AdminUN

NTEU’S BOARD VOTES FOR LESS MEMBER DEMOCRACY

It was bound to happen that leaders would start to copy Trump’s control tricks, but it is sad to see a union leader doing it to her members.  One of the most fundamental elements of democracy within a union is the right of a member to file charges against the union president for violating law, regulation, or union policy. Given that union president’s are predisposed to reject any claims they did wrong –as we all are, democracy requires that the member have the right to appeal the president’s dismissal of charges to the executive board and on to the convention. If there is no right of appeal, by definition you have an autocratic president—or to be more blunt, you have a Mini-Trump. NTEU’s national executive board just voted to make its president’s dismissal of charges unappealable to the board or the convention. Here is the very crafty way they did it. Continue reading →

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Posted on February 12, 2026 by AdminUN

AFGE LED THE WAY ON TELEWORK TERMINATION REMEDIES

Last week NTEU announced it had just won several arbitrations overturning the nutty White House “vengeance-against-feds” decision to unilaterally terminate telework programs throughout government. Great legal work. In assume other unions are having similar success and that is wonderful. But the real measure of whether unions are successful with these grievances will be whether they get tangible remedies that will make members cherish them even more.  My all-time favorite telework remedy was won by AFGE in a case entitled, HUD and AFGE, Local 3856,  66 FLRA No. 23 (2011).  FLRA upheld the union’s grievance wherein “the Arbitrator directed the Agency to compensate teleworkers for additional mileage travel expenses agreements (the travel-expenses remedy) that they incurred as a result of not being able to telework under the terms of their prior agreements.” KA-CHING, KA-CHING.  But there are also some other great remedies to be had.  For example,…   Continue reading →

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Posted on February 12, 2026 by AdminUN

WHERE ADA MEETS FMLA

The Deakins law firm just posted a useful advice memo written for managers.  But, it is just as useful for union reps facing a situation where an employee needs time off (or more time off) due to a medical or psychological condition.  It is entitled, “ADA Meets FMLA: Where They Overlap and Where They Diverge.”  We recommend you forward it to whoever in your local deals with disability and FMLA claims. Better yet, pass it along to members to alert them to the possibilities when these crises arise in their families.

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Posted on February 10, 2026 by AdminUN

DEFECTIVE SICK LEAVE RESTRICTION OVERTURNED BY FLRA

A Department of Army supervisor ordered an employee to provide medical justification for any sick leave despite the fact that the labor agreement said the agency had to have “legitimate reasons” to do so and warn the employee in advance of imposing the restriction.   When the union grieved and took the case to arbitration, the arbitrator held the agency had no apparent legitimate reason nor had it counselled the employee in advanced  of the restriction.  Given the ”we hate all union employees” mentality of the White House and its appointees we expected FLRA to find some reason to overturn the arbitrator. But, lo and behold, it did not and its reasoning is worth remembering for when a similar situation arises in your unit.  Continue reading →

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Posted on February 5, 2026 by AdminUN

FSIP REJECTS AGENCY’S CWS  “ADVERSE IMPACT” CLAIM

While there are cob webs all over the FLRA headquarters thanks to our President’s decision to slow down the administration of justice, some decisions do manage to break free of the morass. A recent one came from the Impasses Panel when an agency tried to reduce the number of employees who would be allowed to continue on a Compressed Work Schedule. The agency claimed that if it could not reduce the number it would create “an adverse impact,” which is the statutory term for the sky is falling, babies are dying, and zombies will be everywhere. Fortunately, the law and regulation require that an agency carries the burden of proving that.  When the Bureau of Prisons tried to do that, the Panel outlined why it failed-giving unions a little more clarity on where to punch holes in an agency’s claim.  Below is the core of the Panel’s reasoning. Continue reading →

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Posted on February 5, 2026 by AdminUN

MILITARY LEAVE DIFFERENTIAL PAY USERRA VICTORY

People get called up for active military service for a variety of reasons ranging from being assigned to the front lines of a battle to providing direct or indirect support for soldiers in battle to attending a school required for a pending promotion. One of the benefits of those activated is that law requires that their military pay be supplemented by their agency to equal what they were being paid in their federal civilian position. That is called differential pay. See 5 U.S.C. § 5538(a) When a VA civilian employee was selected for promotion to an officer position, he was required to attend Officer Candidate School. However, when he asked the VA to provide him differential pay, it refused claiming the type of service he would perform while activated did not qualify for differential pay. The employee appealed to MSPB because even though he was not heading into a war zone or combat, Trump’s White House had proclaimed the country was under a “national emergency” at the time.   Here is the Board’s reasoning. (Given all the national emergencies Trump declares from week to week, union’s would be wise to  circulate this information among members to make sure they get what they deserve.) Continue reading →

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