Posts tagged National Park Service
What Got Cut from the White House Spending Bill That Benefits Federal Employees
July 11, 2025 // The Senate stripped out: Changes to FERS contributions and pension formulas The at-will employment requirement for new hires The MSPB appeal fee Provisions affecting federal labor unions
Targeting DOGE, labor group puts up billboards warning of heat deaths at national parks
June 6, 2025 // The National Parks Conservation Association, an independent advocacy organization, estimates that around 2,500 employees — roughly 13% of the National Park Service’s staff — took buyouts or accepted early retirements or deferred resignations as part of DOGE’s efforts to significantly slash the size of the federal government. There are concerns that deep cuts across the National Park Service could jeopardize public safety.
Workers in Yellowstone vote to unionize
July 28, 2023 // The Yellowstone organizing committee said in a statement that the effort was driven by “low pay, unmanageable workloads, high rent, a stifling hierarchy” and other issues that has the workforce in the first national park “struggling.” “The resulting high turnover negatively affects the park and the public’s experience of it,” union organizers said. Out of 81 votes cast, 66 were in favor of unionizing and 16 were against, according to organizer Mark Wolf, a former park worker for six seasons, according to the Billings Gazette. Some participants had trouble voting because of their isolated location and limited connectivity, he added. Supervisors were excluded from the vote.
COMMENTARY: Biden vs. workers’ right to vote out unions
June 28, 2023 // Despite the recent outrageous FLRA ruling, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys who have been providing free legal assistance to Blue Ridge Parkway employees seeking a vote to decertify AFGE bosses, currently led by petitioner Lauren Labrie, are optimistic a vote will happen soon anyway. But regardless of the outcome, this battle exposes the depth of the Biden administration’s contempt for employees’ right to make a free choice about whether or not they want a union.
National Right to Work Foundation Blasts FLRA Ruling Trapping Blue Ridge Parkway Employees in Union
June 7, 2023 // FLRA merged two work units at union officials’ behest with no worker input, now cites merger to deny worker request for vote to remove union
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.
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.