Posted on November 7, 2024 by AdminUN

UNION NEGOTIATOR’S QUIZ

Imagine you are in this situation.  You are in term negotiations and the agency refused to bargain over three provisions that have been in the agreement for more than a decade.  It claims they are suddenly non-negotiable.  When the larger dispute went to the Panel for resolution, in line with its anti-union approach to life no matter how much it hurt employees, the Panel ruled that it would resolve all the disputes except for the ones the agency alleged to be non-negotiable. When the Panel spit out a final decision, the agency implemented it as soon as possible.  As for the three provisions the Panel did not address, the agency simply replaced the existing agreement language with its own last proposal. One of the proposals provided that employees could choose the shift they worked on by seniority, e.g., the 7 a.m. to 3:30 pm shift or the 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. shift.   What does the union do now if it believes that existing FLRA case removes any doubt about the negotiability of the proposals? Continue reading →

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Posted on November 7, 2024 by AdminUN

BOY, DO YOU NEED THIS CLASS NOW WITH TRUMP RETURNING

In his previous term, Trump turned over federal sector labor relations to deeply anti-union political operatives.  The FSIP members regularly ignored the law to screw over federal employees because most unions were unaware of how to slow them down. The FLRA overturned over 100 union arbitration victories and again most unions had not bargained contract language to slow them down.  As we have said, the upcoming FEDSMILL training program “Bargaining By The Numbers”  is going to cover over 300 legal precedents and bargaining tactics to max union bargaining power.  Among them will be about 20 slides devoted to how to stop the next round of Trump FSIP/FLRA anti-union thugs.  Still a little time to register.  Click here.

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Posted on November 3, 2024 by AdminUN

356 POWERPOINT SLIDES ON HOW TO BOOST UNION BARGAINING EXPERTISE

These slides will cover the basic legal precedents and tactical maneuvers unions need know to bargain effectively.  But they will also include legal technicalities many negotiators have forgotten and the special maneuvers the best union negotiators use when faced with a very anti-union management—or a union-hostile White House. They will be presented by a national union negotiator with over 40 years bargaining experience involving dozens of agencies.  He will add details to the slides’ content, answer questions, and orally share many of the things that no negotiator ever puts in writing. The slides and presentation will be shared with everyone attending (in person or online) the “Bargaining By The Numbers” program being put on by FEDSMILL.com and the Gilbert Training Group on November 13 and 14. If you want this information, REGISTER NOW by clicking here.

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Posted on November 3, 2024 by AdminUN

WHY EMPLOYEES NEED WRITTEN OBJECTIVE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a decision stating once again that agencies need not provide employees with written performance standards, much less objective ones. We have probably all seen standards that state some task should be accomplished “timely” or “with a minimum errors” or even “in compliance with agency manuals, policies and practices.”  This lack of clarity is particularly problematic with the so-called “generic performance standards.” The bottom line is that when standards are neither written nor objective they are anything the supervisor says they are at the moment his lips are moving. In this case, the employee was performing a certain task Fully Successfully under one supervisor for years, but as soon as a new supervisor showed up he announced she was unacceptable. So, what is a union to do about this?  Continue reading →

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Posted on October 30, 2024 by AdminUN

FLRA ADDRESSES HOW SPECIFIC A GRIEVANCE MUST BE TO SURVIVE

Not long ago FEDSMILL posted a piece entitled, “Grievance Strategy Issues- Part 4” which examined how specific a grievance must be to avoid several traps that can destroy an otherwise valid allegation.  FLRA just added its own view on this in a decision entitled AFGE, Local 1741 and DOJ, FBP, Michigan, 72 FLRA 501 (2021).  Unions had better rethink how specific their grievances are because you can bet the mortgage that agencies are going to start pounding them with this new decision to gut grievances no matter what the past practice is.  Continue reading →

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Posted on October 30, 2024 by AdminUN

IF YOU CAN’T TICK OFF AT LEAST 100 INSIGHTS ABOUT…

how to get the union the upper hand at the bargaining table, you should plug into our upcoming online training program entitled, “Bargaining By The Numbers.”  Here is a partial list of presentations on case law technicalities and tactical maneuvers that will boost the union’s clout at a bargaining table.

  • 75+ Most Significant Legal Maneuvers
  • 11+ Things to know About Particularized Need
  • 20+ Essential Elements of Ground Rule Bargaining
  • 12+ Ways To Get Share of Management’s Decision-Making Power
  • 12+ Sources of Union Bargaining Power
  • 15+ Critical Things to Know About the FSIP
  • 12+ Remedies for Bargaining Infractions
  • We are also going to cover how to turn management declarations of non-negotiability against them and the most important issues unions should be pushing for in their next term negotiations. 

Only a few more days to register.  Click here to see how. REGISTER NOW TO HELP YOUR UNION.

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Posted on October 24, 2024 by AdminUN

THE $35,000 HUG

The core of this story is simple. Jaleesa filed an EEO complaint alleging that the Agency discriminated against her on the basis of sex (non-gender-conforming woman in a same-sex relationship) when management asked Complainant not to hug her female co-worker on the workroom floor. This co-worker was also Complainant’s partner in a same-sex romantic relationship. Open and shut decision, i.e., guilty of sex discrimination. But what would the remedy be? The employee convinced EEOC to award her $35,000 for that warning about hugging her partner in the workplace. I pass this story ono to remind union reps that sometimes single, isolated events can lead to be pay-offs.   For details, check out Jaleesa P., v. Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General, USPS, EEOC Appeal No. 2024000023 (2024)

 

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Posted on October 24, 2024 by AdminUN

QUICK UNION POWER QUIZ.  REGISTER NOW!

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?

Do you know that there is a training class designed for union leaders and negotiators scheduled for November 13 & 14? It will cover much more than 100 case law precedents and bargaining tactics the best negotiators know and rely on to boost their clout. 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.” The fee is $395 for one day of the program and $775 to attend both days. You ca n find the agenda by clicking over to this post, “Bargaining By the Numbers.”  You can register by clicking here.

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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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