Posted on January 9, 2025 by AdminUN

IT IS “FOLLOW THE UNION MONEY” TIME AGAIN

Want to know how your union is spending dues money, e.g., who is getting paid what, which outside contractors-consultants-counsels have been hired, how often the union went to arbitration last year, etc.? Well, as of December 31st each year union whose fiscal year ends in October—and most do, file reports with the Dep’t. of Labor detailing all that. And all those reports are available to you on the web.  Here is how to access your union’s report or any other unions. Continue reading →

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 18, 2024 by AdminUN

FMLA TO CARE FOR SIBLINGS?

We have said it before and will say it again.  Fedsmill is not a legal advisor.  We will leave that to your union lawyers. Fedsmill, on the other hand,  advocate for things that help federal employees and unions, whether they are sure winners or not. So, if we run across an idea, we will likely pass it on to you to try. One such idea came across our screen this morning in the form of a post from the FMLA Insight folks.  They advised their readers of a court decision upholding the right of a private sector employee to use FMLA to care for a sibling. You can click on the story which is entitled,  “No Sibling Rivalry Here: Court Green Lights Potential FMLA Leave for Siblings.”  We recommend you look through it and probably let folks in your  a bargaining unit that the union is likely to go to bat for them if they are in a similar situation.

Posted in FMLA | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 16, 2024 by AdminUN

A “TIGHTY WHITEY” AND WORKPLACE RETALIATION

We have written about the advantages of alleging reprisal/retaliation claims whenever you represent an employe complaining about workplace harassment. Check out this January 2023 post. But it never hurts to remind reps of that, especially when you can do so with a easy to remember story.  The folks over at Constangey, Brooks, Smith & Prophete just published a story about an employee wearing only a tighty whitey at his workplace.  It is a very quick read and one we recommend you click over to check out.

Posted in EEO Harassment, Retaliation | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 10, 2024 by AdminUN

CONGRATS TO AFGE LEADERS AT SSA ON TELEWORK MANEUVER

They just signed a deal with SSA management to keep telework in place for six more years.  While that is not fool-proof protection against Shadow President Musk’s ranting about forcing all feds back to their offices, it is the next best thing.  Management will be required to bargain with unions before they can terminate telework, whether the union has a contract guarantee of it or not. But a contract like this will give the union extra arguments to insist that telework stays in place at least until the contract terminates.  Under the FLRA’s latest decision about the remedy for when an agency unilaterally terminates telework, a premature change would cost agencies dearly. Click here.

Posted in Telework | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 10, 2024 by AdminUN

OVERHEARD AT LUNCH; BRACE YOURSELVES UNIONS

Last week I met a friend for lunch at a little place in Washington, D.C. and overheard some very troubling chatter from an adjacent table.  Given the city is overrun with Congressional members, staffers, lobbyists, and other wanna-be policy wonks, loose lips are everywhere, especially with a White House transition in the offing. The three nearby chatty characters in question were talking about Trump’s team considering a proposal to furlough almost all IRS agents to give the country a one-year holiday from deep state audits. Continue reading →

Posted in Furloughs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 2, 2024 by AdminUN

WHAT IS AN AGGRAVATING FACTOR?

Looks like we Feds are going to be dealing with a lot more adverse actions soon if Trump’s Department of Efficiency has its way. Given that MSPB just issued a new precedent setting adverse action decision this is  a great time to begin brushing up on defenses that unions can raise to help employees. And that brings us to the concept of “aggravating factors.”  Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on November 19, 2024 by AdminUN

HAD A GREAT TIME …

last week meeting with 35 union reps from around the country to review and discuss about two dozen legal precedents and tactics they can draw on to deal with the upcoming Trump Administration’s certain assault on unions, unions reps, and employees.  Lots of different unions represented and lots of ideas shared. Wish we could share what we discussed, but now is not the time to alert the Trump folks to what awaits them.

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on November 19, 2024 by AdminUN

THE CHERNOBYL INCIDENT AT NRC

There is a mushroom cloud climbing into the sky over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that was triggered by management’s incompetence. NRC fired an employee for unacceptable performance back in 2018 and now must pay her around a million dollars in back plus retro leave earnings, etc. because the MSPB ruled its entire performance appraisal system sucks.  The decision lays out some standards MSPB demands appraisal systems meet before agencies can terminate employees that all unions should make sure their own agencies’ system meet. It is my guess there are a few agencies out there that similarly fail to have a legal critical element system.. Here are some details from Latisha A. Zepeda,  v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2024 MSPB 14 (October 30, 2024).  Continue reading →

Posted in Performance | Tagged | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment