WHAT CAN UNIONS DO ANYMORE FOR MEMBERS?

Now that Trump has declared that suddenly hundreds of thousands of feds are involved in national security work, those employees’ unions have lost the right to bargain contracts, take grievances to arbitration, and demand certain kinds of information.  Consequently, a lot of employees are probably questioning why they should bother to pay dues anymore.  Well, there are a bundle of good reasons to remain union members that The Revengernator has not taken away from employees and their unions. For example, unions can still represent employees before third party officials in the following situations:

• Suspensions of more than 14 days (MSPB)
• Demotions (MSPB)
• Terminations (MSPB)
• Furloughs (MSPB)
• Probationary Period(OSC/MSPB)
• Involuntary Resignations (MSPB)
• Privacy Act Violations (Courts)
• Suitability Denials (MSPB)
• Hatch Act Violations (MSPB)
• RIFS (MSPB)
• Step Increase Denials (MSPB)
• Whistleblowing (MSPB)
• Discrimination Based on Political or Marital Grounds ( MSPB)
• Any personnel action tainted by civil rights discrimination (EEOC)
• Reasonable Accommodation Denials (EEOC)
• Any personnel action tainted by a Prohibited Personnel Action (OSC/MSPB)
• Overtime Pay denials (OPM)
• Travel Reimbursement Disputes (CBCA)
• Violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (OPM)
• Denials of Veterans Preference (OPM)
• Retirement eligibility and Amount Disputes (OPM/MSPB)
• Health Insurance Eligibility Disputes (OPM)
• Disputes Over Debt Collections (OPM)
• Workers Compensation Claims (DOL)
• Health and Safety Problems (DOL)
• Grievances Against Agency Officials (Agency)

But unlike the days when union’s had exclusive recognition and had to represent  everyone in the bargaining unit whether they were members or not, Trump has removed that obligation on unions. Unions can cold stone ignore and step over on-members’  bleeding bodies on the floor—leaving them the only option of hiring a private attorney. Ka-ching, Ka-ching, Ka-ching.

In addition to all those rights, unions can still represent employees in the media, in Congress, in election campaigns, and in lawsuits.  Lawsuits may be the biggest blunder in the Trump order.  When unions could represent employees under the labor law, they were almost always barred from taking a dispute with an agency to court. But now that the labor law no longer applies, that restraint on unions’ ability to sue agencies is gone.

Looking down the road, I see unions encouraging members to come to them to file lawsuits whenever they find  contactors over charging the government.  If the employee is successful, s/he gets a percentage of any money the feds recapture. With Trump planning to haver private contractors do the work that was previously done by the feds he ahs fired you can expect a lot of that. You could say that Trump has just motivated federal employees to be bounty hunters. Check out this post for more details on that, “The Employee As Bounty Hunter.”