Posts tagged FLRA
A Union Says the National Park Service Violated the Law by Allowing an HR Official to Pursue Decertification After Her Promotion
October 11, 2022 // The allegations stem from an employee who was part of a newly consolidated bargaining unit at the agency’s Blue Ridge Parkway facility in North Carolina and filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to decertify the union, which is organized as part of AFGE. The FLRA found an absence of precedent with regard to whether its rule barring decertification petitions within one year of a union election applies in cases where multiple bargaining units are consolidated under the umbrella of one union.
FREEDOM FOUNDATION FILES AMICUS BRIEF WITH THE FLRA IN UNION DECERTIFICATION CASE
September 22, 2022 // In an amicus brief recently submitted to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), the Freedom Foundation supported a federal employee seeking to establish that the agency’s rules impermissibly limit the ability of her and her colleagues to decertify an unwanted union.
Blue Ridge Parkway Employee Challenges Federal Agency Decision Blocking Right to Vote Out AFGE Union
September 9, 2022 // Her brief, filed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, challenges the FLRA’s dismissal of a “union decertification petition” seeking an election to remove the union. Lamm and her colleagues signed the petition after FLRA officials administratively merged her work unit with another without any vote by her and her fellow employees on the new arrangement. Union officials and the FLRA then cited the merger as a reason to block the decertificiation vote the workers requested. The brief challenges the FLRA’s suspect position that, under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Act, an employee-requested election to remove a union can be blocked after a union is installed by agency fiat through “unit consolidation.” The only “election bar” authorized by the statute is one for 12 months after employees have voted to install a union by secret ballot, the brief argues.
FLRA backs union’s decision to dump local
August 26, 2022 // FGE Council 118 President Chris Cane told the Washington Times, “AFGE and the AFL-CIO became far-left organizations a long time ago. They don’t care about workers. They only care about their far-left agendas and politics.” Because AFGE disdained interest, the local will not automatically become independent. Instead, the union will be totally disbanded and all collective bargaining agreements voided. Should they choose to unionize, the unit will have to start from scratch with an entirely new union organization effort, election process, and contract negotiation.
U.S. agency heads can’t review extended bargaining agreements – court
August 16, 2022 // A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down a federal labor board's Trump-era guidance that made it easier for federal agencies to make changes to union contracts that are extended beyond their expiration dates while a new agreement is being negotiated. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with three major federal-worker unions that challenged the Federal Labor Relations Authority's 2020 guidance, which said agency heads can review and alter bargaining agreements that are subject to "continuance clauses." Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, Circuit Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao, National Treasury Employees Union v. FLRA, U.S. Court of Appeals, Kathryn Bailey of the National Treasury Employees Union, Deputy Solicitor Rebecca Osborne, Joseph Busa of the U.S. Department of Justice,
Biden administration abolishes ICE labor union
August 12, 2022 // AFGE moved to “disclaim” the ICE employees this summer after the council filed a complaint claiming gross mismanagement and hostile intentions at AFGE. AFGE President Everett Kelley said the ICE Council wasn’t a good partner in the labor movement. FLRA Regional Director Jessica S. Bartlett agreed to AFGE’s request in a decision Thursday, saying that ICE also sided with AFGE in its battle to ax the council. disclaimer of interest, Chris Crane, whistleblower retaliation, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, strip clubs, pursuing prostitutes,
Largest Federal Workers Union Begins Process to Legally Separate ICE Officers Unit from Parent Union
July 14, 2022 // “It is clear that the AFGE Council 118 remains steadfast in their desire to no longer be a part of AFGE or the broader labor movement,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision to disclaim interest in this unit. While we had hoped to avoid this outcome, today’s action begins the process of granting Council 118’s request.” AFGE National President Everett Kelley
Op-ed: Small Business Administration should fight for entrepreneurs, not unions
June 24, 2022 // Nonetheless, a recent Freedom Foundation analysis of SBA’s PPP loan database identified 223 loans totaling $36.1 million made to labor unions and related organizations between March 2020 and March 2021 that, as mostly 501(c)(5) nonprofit groups, were not eligible to participate in the program. The recipient list included a dozen teachers unions and advocacy groups, such as the Michigan Education Association and the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association, ironically among the fiercest champions of lockdown policies, the effects of which PPP funds were intended to alleviate. Alabama State Employees Association, Maryland Public Employees Council, Alaska AFL-CIO, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Isabel Guzman, Small Business Committee,
FLRA Control Returns to Democrats After Senate Confirms Biden Nominee
May 16, 2022 // With the addition of another Democrat at the FLRA with a background of working for unions, federal agencies can anticipate a change in the direction from that which emerged under the Trump administration. The approach will be to expand bargaining and the role of unions in agencies rather than focusing on the prior approach of seeking to limit the role of unions and emphasizing “efficient government”.
Unions oppose employee rights with false claims re: Janus
March 21, 2022 // Vincent Vernuccio, testifying in support of SB 511, said, “ensures that public employees are informed about their First Amendment right to choose whether to pay union fees and further allows them to exercise this right at any time. This right is guaranteed to them under the U.S. Constitution and recognized by the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME.” Vernuccio is an attorney and labor policy senior fellow with Workers for Opportunity, a national project of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.