Posts tagged union negotiations
WA Supreme Court OKs ‘secretive’ process for state worker union negotiations
July 1, 2025 // “That occurs once the operating budget has passed both houses of the Legislature and been signed by the governor or been allowed to become law without the governor’s signature,” wrote Justice Steven Gonzalez in an opinion agreeing with the majority. Justice Sal Mungia was the lone dissenter. Mungia wrote the exemption ended when the Office of Financial Management and the union reached agreement, not when the governor signed the budget months later. “The people have the right to know what their government is doing. That value is the basis for the Public Records Act,” Mungia wrote. “(T)he Fund was entitled to the requested information.”
IRS workers only had to show up to work once a week in person, before Trump took over
April 18, 2025 // Last December, a bombshell report from Ernst’s office found that a measly 6% of the federal workforce showed up “in-person on a full-time basis.” Almost one-third of federal workers were remote on a full-time basis at the time, marking a steep decline from the pre-pandemic era in which only 3% teleworked daily, according to the report. Ernst has clashed with the IRS repeatedly, including over watchdog findings last July that current and former workers owed $46 million to Uncle Sam in unpaid taxes. “This adds insult to injury to the fact that the agency is filled with tax cheats,” the Hawkeye State senator added, referring to the collective bargaining deal. “I have a laundry list of reforms to fix America’s least favorite government agency.”
Chair Foxx Demands Answers on Biden, Harris Use of Taxpayer Dollars to Boost Government Unions’ Priorities
October 9, 2024 // The total compensation paid to DOL, NLRB, and EEOC employees to negotiate collective bargaining agreements or to work with federal labor unions; Travel and lodging expenses paid or reimbursed to DOL, NLRB, and EEOC employees and union staff in order to negotiate collective bargaining agreements; Expenses paid for retaining experts, factfinders, mediators, and arbitrators relating to collective bargaining agreements or disputes; Cost of administrative support and purchasing supplies—including acquiring technology—to administer collectively bargained agreements; The fair market value of space controlled by the federal agencies provided to labor unions; Expenses paid for “official time;” The number of hours DOL, NLRB, and EEOC employees spend on official time, as well as the number of employees who use official time—particularly those who spend more than 50 percent of their hours on official time; and Penalties levied related to collective bargaining with labor unions, including but not limited to arbitration awards or monetary settlements provided to workers or unions because of unfair labor practices related to collective bargaining.
EXCLUSIVE: House GOP Presses Biden-Harris Admin To Disclose How Tax Dollars Are Funding Union Activism
October 9, 2024 // “The Biden-Harris administration has also covered up the practice of ‘official time,’ which permits federal employees to engage in union activities during work hours instead of focusing on the public service they were hired to do,” the committee’s letter to the Department of Labor reads. “Federal agencies and unions negotiate over issues most taxpayers would consider a waste of time and attention. Examples include the addition of 14 inches in the height of cubicle desk panels, designated smoking areas on an otherwise tobacco-free campus; and federal employees’ right to wear shorts, sweatpants and spandex at work.”
Biden Names Veteran Union Official as Labor Policy Adviser
August 22, 2023 // Danaher until last Friday served as labor policy adviser at the Transportation Department, consulting with Secretary Pete Buttigieg on recent labor negotiations critical to supply chains involving freight railroads, West Coast ports and talks between United Parcel Service Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He also served on the administration’s supply-chain task force. “Brendan has been a trusted adviser to me and our entire Department during our ongoing work to help transportation workers secure the wages, benefits, and safe conditions they deserve,” Buttigieg said in a statement. Before joining the Biden administration, Danaher worked for two decades at a number of labor organizations including the AFL-CIO, Transport Workers Union and the American Federation of Government Employees.
Unions push back on Biden plan to bring federal workers back
August 9, 2023 // Biden has directed Cabinet officials to “aggressively execute” plans to reinstate in-person work for federal workers this fall, more than three years after the administration maximized telework policies amid the COVID pandemic. Axios first reported the stepped-up callback Friday, citing a memo from White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. Biden pledged in his State of the Union address that “the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person,” and the adminisration has followed followed by slowly transitioning to more in-person work. In April, instructions for agencies to end maximum telework and create plans to bring people back to the office were sent out by the Office of Management and Budget. A report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that out of the 24 federal agencies, 17 of them estimated that they used 25 percent or less of their headquarters buildings capacity.
Wabtec-union negotiations set to begin; both sides hopeful about talks
April 25, 2023 // Slawson, who led what was described as one of the nation's largest industrial strikes in several years, won't make an absolute promise that a strike couldn't happen again. But he expressed optimism in a recent interview with the Erie Times-News.
Next up for US unions: Major contracts for 700,000 workers
September 20, 2022 // Each of these unions seek not only lucrative contracts but significant changes in work rules and assurances of job security that could make it difficult to avoid work stoppages.
Minnesota Nurses Association votes ‘overwhelmingly’ to authorize strike
August 16, 2022 // Minnesota Nurses Association representatives are expected to address the strike authorization during a news conference Tuesday morning. Mary C. Turner, North Memorial, Children’s Minneapolis, Essentia St. Mary’s, Twin Cities Hospital Group
EEOC, federal employee union locked in dispute over return to work plans
May 13, 2022 // Workers at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will return to the office at least one day a week starting May 16. After a month, in-person work will go up to two days per week for EEOC employees. In response, the American Federation of Government Employees has filed an unfair labor practice complaint, saying that EEOC did not finish union negotiations before announcing the re-entry. The agency is using 2022 re-entry plans as a test run to inform changes to its in-person work policies for next year.