Posted on March 6, 2016 by AdminUN

DO UNION ATTORNEY FEES VIOLATE NONMEMBERS’ CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS?

Labor unions are breathing a sigh of relief now that Justice Scalia chose an ultra-rightwing meeting of animal killers to steal the spotlight by following the groups’ prey to another place.  He looked like a sure vote to uphold a claim by the Christian Educators Association that it violates California public school teachers’ Constitutional rights to force them to pay any union dues, even reduced dues. They claimed that one way or another their dues enable a union to spend more money on lobbying causes and election campaigns that the teachers might oppose as individuals. It occurs to us that there just might be the same problem with attorney fees collected by federal sector unions. Here is how we reach that conclusion. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 4, 2016 by AdminUN

EEOC UPHOLDS LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION VIOLATION

When a private contractor being audited by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) complained that he could not understand the federal employee auditing him, the management ordered the employee to communicate all messages through a supervisor.  Apparently, the contractor had problems dealing not only with the employee’s accent, but also her written communications.  EEOC had no problem, however, in ruling the agency had discriminated against the employee based on national origin. It ordered the agency to examine the damage done the employee, including emotional damage, and to pay her compensatory damages.  They can be as high as $300,000 and attorney fee awards can be in the same financial range. The agency lost the case because it did not investigate the contractor’s complaint to see if the employee’s communications were unintelligible, nor did it offer any evidence that anyone else in the agency or that the employee dealt with complained. (See Gennie L. v. Ashton Carter, DOD, EEOC Appeal No. Appeal No. 0120122795 (2016)) EEOC’s position in language problem cases is that employer’s must have legitimate business reasons to base an employment decision on linguistic characteristics and those reasons must justify any burden placed on the employee.

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Posted on March 4, 2016 by AdminUN

A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE MAKES $6.4 MILLION

And this guy wants to lower federal employee pensions. Read for yourself from the N. Y. Times.

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Posted on February 28, 2016 by AdminUN

ANOTHER EEOC GUIDE

Just a few days ago we pointed you in the direction of the AFGE Guide to Fighting Discrimination as a great source for employees and their union reps embarking on an EEO charge. But we don’t want you to think there are no other great sources for the inexperienced layperson entering the EEOC maze. Here is another one we really like called EEO21.com.

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Posted on February 27, 2016 by AdminUN

CBP’S HAIL MARY PASS BLOWN DEAD

You needn’t have stayed on top of federal sector labor relations developments over the last decade to know that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is involved in a ton of litigation with the unions representing its employees, namely, AFGE and NTEU. Nor did you need high reading comprehension skills to pick up that the agency has lost almost every one of those fights before arbitrators and the FLRA. We have been wondering what the agency would do once it was out of appeal options and starring a few multi-million dollar back pay orders in the face, and we got our answer not long ago. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Posted on February 27, 2016 by AdminUN

SELL-OUT UNIONISM

Assume for a minute that something like this message popped up in our mail last weekend: “My union won a huge arbitration case for a group of us whose career ladder promotions have been habitually delayed. I was supposed to get a back pay check for $40,000.00, but I just got notice that the union was settling on $.50 cents on the dollar. I am *^#@& angry that it gave away $20,000 of my money and probably another $60.00 a month in my retirement check.  What can I do about it?” Obviously, the employee thinks his union sold her out, but what is the answer to her question? Continue reading →

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Posted on February 22, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW SPECIFIC MUST GROUP GRIEVANCES BE?

Is the following a legitimate grievance: “Local X007 alleges on behalf of impacted employees that the agency violated the compensation rights of employees at various offices over the last six years and asks that those employees not only receive back pay with interest but that the agency also pay any attorney fee entitlements and change its compensation system to avoid similar errors in the future. Joey Baloney will represent the union and can be reached at JBaloney@erolz.com.” Continue reading →

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Posted on February 22, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW TO CHANGE UNION AFFILIATION

On March 28, 1988, NAGE Local R14-146 was certified as the exclusive representative of a unit of health care employees at the U.S. Public Health Service, Indian Health Service Hospital, Shiprock, New Mexico, including employees who work at the Teecnospos Clinic in Arizona. There are approximately 332 members in the unit.  On May 21, 1997, a notice to all Local R14-146 members was posted throughout the Northern Navajo Medical Health Center (Health Center) advising them of a special meeting. The notice stated that the purpose of the special meeting was to discuss and vote on changing the Local’s affiliation. Thereafter, the special meeting was held and the members who were in attendance voted unanimously (23-0) to change the unit’s affiliation from Local R14-146 to LIUNA. A petition to effect the change in certification from Local R14-146 to LIUNA was filed by its Chief Steward. Can the votes of just 23 people move a local from one union to another? Continue reading →

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Posted on February 22, 2016 by AdminUN

WOW! AFGE’S GUIDE TO FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION 

AFGE has published online a 170-page roadmap to the EEO complaint process for employees and union reps that underscores two things about the union. First is its obviously deep commitment to civil rights issues.  This is not something that was pulled together overnight by one person. It reflects a great deal of experience and insight about how to fight discrimination.  Second is its policy of empowering reps and employees by putting the information out there for them to tap into anytime they wish.  The union could have sent out word that when members and reps have questions they can track down a staff person to get the answer. That is a great way to keep local folks dependent on the union staff, whether at the national, district or council level. It also helps keep the electorate more manageable. But, instead, it did what it so often does not just for its own members, but everyone in government by posting it online. Thanks, AFGE. Attached is a copy of the Table of Contents for the Guide to give you a quick sense of how valuable this is.  We recommend that union reps post the link to their Favorites tab. Continue reading →

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | 1 Comment

Posted on February 15, 2016 by AdminUN

OFFICIAL TIME, TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT AND UNION INVESTMENTS

Even a quick review of the latest LM-2 and IRS 990 reports filed by unions reveals that some federal sector unions have a lot of money in the bank at not just the national level, but also at the council and local level. We are talking millions and tens of millions. We applaud the political and investment skills it must have taken to generate these assets from dues and other sources. But, unions should not be blind to the fact that fat investments accounts year-after-year are only begging for agencies to use those unspent nest eggs against unions when they propose agencies pay the expense of their official time, travel and per diem costs. Continue reading →

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