Posted on June 16, 2020 by AdminUN

“CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT” (CoE) V. “WORKING CONDITIONS (WC).” WHY BOTHER?

When first we read AFGE and DHS, CBP, 70 FLRA 501 (2018) we were left wondering why Abbott and Kiko were trying so hard to justify another exception to a union’s right to bargain over midterm changes.  You may remember that case held unions only had the right to bargain before the change was implemented if it changed CoE, but not if it only changed WC. This was so important that the two Trumpettes opened themselves to bar charges by deceitfully manipulating a quote to make it seem as if the High Court agreed with their view—when in reality the Court held precisely the opposite according to a unanimous decision of three federal appellate judges.  That is a lot to risk when what Abbott and Kiko were trying to do looked like it could already be accomplished by an agency claiming the change was de minimis. There is 16 years of case law holding that is a legitimate exception to the right to bargain and providing practitioners solid examples and criteria for applying the exception.  But then it came to us what all this deceit and obfuscation was really about? Continue reading →

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Posted on June 16, 2020 by AdminUN

A NEGOTIATOR’S CASE STUDY

Just passing along a tip to other lifetime union negotiators.  Check out “Will There Be a 2020 Season” from yahoo.com. It tells an interesting tale of how the professional baseball players have boxed in the owners with potential ULP claims despite the owners’ greater wealth and bargaining power. Fed unions can do the same if they know the case law.

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Posted on June 12, 2020 by AdminUN

WILL THESE FED UNIONS STAND AGAINST THE CONFEDERACY? 

There is a lot of passion right now on changing the names of those military installations named after confederate leaders.  But we have yet to hear from the unions that represent employees at these installations.  Their voices are particularly important for a few reasons.  First, they would represent the local residents rather than far away media, politicians and social activists.  Second, military protocol prevents the uniformed employees from speaking out as a group on the issue, leaving the civilian work force as the next best surrogate spokespersons. Third, if unions truly believe they are in business to promote the dignity of people then there is no better example of an institution that debased people. Fourth, there is a great alternative source of names for these installations that would actually boost the dignity of the bases. Here is a list of those installations where unions should be moving aggressively for name changes: 

  • Fort A.P. Hill – Virginia 
  • Camp Beauregard – Louisiana 
  • Fort Benning – Georgia 
  • Fort Bragg – North Carolina 
  • Fort Gordon – Georgia 
  • Fort Hood – Texas 
  • Fort Lee – Virginia 
  • Fort Pickett – Virginia 
  • Fort Rucker—Alabama 
  • Fort Polk –Louisiana 

But here is the soul crushing reason why unions must stand up and fight for these name changes—or admit they are pretenders in the fight for human dignity.  Continue reading →

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Posted on June 10, 2020 by AdminUN

ABBOTT & KIKO PANTSED

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just pantsed the two Trumpian toadies by not just overturning their decision in AFGE v. FLRA, Civ. No. 19-1069 (6/9/20), but also engaging in what amounts to a  public disrobing by a federal judicial panel. The three judges unanimously stripped the Abbott & Kiko decision for all to see that the two Trumpettes not only lacked elementary legal writing skills, but also even minimal legal integrity.  This is the FLRA decision that held–over Dubester’s strong and wise objection– that while unions were entitled to negotiate over changes in “conditions of employment,” they could not bargain changes in “working conditions.” Given the distinction between the two terms was and is vague, you would have thought Donald’s dupes would have explained to agencies how to practically distinguish between the two. But as the court pointed out “…the Authority fails to explain the differences between the terms or how the alleged differences matter….”  What Abbott & Kiko did is like a grammar school student tasked with homework to explain the difference between a coat and a jacket and simply turning in a paper declaring that they are different because the letters in the two words are mostly different.  But the Abbott-Kiko blunders did not stop there as the court went on to write that – Continue reading →

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Posted on June 8, 2020 by AdminUN

CORE UNIONS LIST DEMANDS TO RETURN TO OFFICE

Twenty-four (24) unions that form the core of the federal employee labor movement as members of the Federal Workers Alliance, composed of unions in and outside of the AFL-CIO, have listed for the Administration the 11 working conditions that must be provided  for their members to return to federal office space.  They 11 are listed below along with the names of the unions that are working together on this. It is unlikely that the agencies, much less the political administration, will agree simply because the Alliance said these are the conditions.  Unions have a struggle ahead of them which will require that they use all the tools available to them to achieve these goals.  For example, demanding to bargain over the issues that are negotiable, helping high risk employees file FMLA and Reasonable Accommodation requests—and grieve if necessary, publicizing through picketing that the building is unsafe, enlisting the help of local Congressional reps and media, etc. At a minimum, unions need to notify unit employees what the agency should be doing to protect them and asking for their support. Continue reading →

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Posted on June 8, 2020 by AdminUN

IRS FOOLISHLY BARRED FROM PURSUING RICH TAX CHEATS

Tax cheats are important to union officials because their theft is one of the major reasons feds do not get proper annual pay increases or enough staffing to do the job. The Dept. of Treasury has reported that 879,415 “high income” Americans did not even file tax returns recently, costing the government $45.7 billion in taxes. The reason this happen is that IRS’ staff has been systematically reduced by those in Congress who consider it their primary duty to take care of the rich beyond excessive direct tax cuts.  For example, in 1995 IRS had 113,643 employees to tend to the filings from 265 million citizens.  But after a lot of rhetoric attacking IRS without a single proven allegation of wrongdoing, Congress has reduced the IRS staff over two decades to 73,519 in 2018 despite the population having grown by 62 million Americans. These fictitious attacks on IRS were led by Sen. Roth, (Rep. DE) and Congressman Darrell Issa, (Rep. CA).  In a perfect world, all unions would ban together with other organizations hurt by this theft to insist that Congress restore IRS funding.  Not only would that slash tax cheating by the rich who do not even bother to file returns, but it would also boost funding for the many federal programs that help the people at the income levels of their union members. Unions are not going to get this problem fixed if they continue to do in the future what they have done in the past. Someone needs to make forming a large alliance for change a passionate project.

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Posted on June 1, 2020 by AdminUN

UNION REP TEST #7 (Probationary Employee Rights)

Newly hired probationary employees sometimes decide not to join the union because they think it cannot do a thing for them if they are fired.  They could not be more wrong about that. Test your own knowledge of all the appeal routes available to probationers to challenge a dismissal.  Read through the list below and mark whether probationers can appeal to a neutral outside the agency in that situation or not. The answer are at the end of the test situations. Continue reading →

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Posted on June 1, 2020 by AdminUN

IS ROCKET BARGAINING LEGAL?

One of the two parties involved in negotiating a term agreement is usually far more eager to get the deal done ASAP than the other one.  When the FSIP is loaded with anti-union political operatives, rather than actual labor relations professionals, as it is today, the eager party is management. And the fastest way to get a final deal is to propose in ground rules bargaining that once the negotiation begins it continue nonstop until FMCS mediation has concluded.  That is then followed by a momentary pause before FSIP takes over and rubber stamps whatever the agency is demanding. If the union will not agree to that voluntarily, the agency asks the Panel to impose it. It is a great scheme for management, but is it legal?  There is good reason to believe it is not legal for the agency to insist to impasse on a schedule that rockets the union through the bargaining process to which it is entitled by statute. For example, … Continue reading →

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Posted on May 27, 2020 by AdminUN

TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDERS HOG TIE AGENCY GROUND RULE NEGOTIATORS

Traditionally, there are four things agencies want from unions when bargaining ground rules for reopening a term agreement. This is particularly true during times when the FSIP is heavily biased against unions, e.g., 2001-08, 2017 to the present, etc. But, the President’s anti-union executive orders have made it almost impossible to get those concessions from unions now. Chalk that up to a big dose of irony or just plain old lack of forethought, but the result is the same.  Agency negotiators are hog tied by their own President if unions want to use the power Trump unwittingly gave them. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 27, 2020 by AdminUN

ACCOMMODATING COVID-19 AT-RISK EMPLOYEES (EEOC GUIDANCE)

We like to let our subscribers know when something pops up on the web that should be useful to them.  This piece, posted by the folks at California Dental Association, offers some practical advice about how at-risk employees can be COVID-19 accommodated during this period.  With the more and more Feds being recalled to their job sites every day, this issue is bound to come up in most bargaining units.  You might want to send members an e-mail telling them that if they are in the at-risk group, they should contact the union for help. Here is where you can find the post.

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