CONTRACT UPDATE- DECEMBER 26, 2018
BACKGROUND
Over the last few months, AFGE has been fighting an uphill battle with the Administration and the Agency. In July, the Agency unilaterally implemented the terms of three Executive Orders designed to shut down the Union and eliminate important workplace protections for all employees. The Agency unilaterally changed our ground rules for contract bargaining, intended to undermine our ability to negotiate on level ground by reducing bargaining sessions and refusing to cover certain negotiation costs. The Union lost significant preparation time and had to enter negotiations with a smaller team. Further, SSA’s initial contract proposals mirrored the terms of the Executive Orders, which made its anti-employee and anti-union position clear.
AFGE sued the Administration over the Executive Orders and won. On August 25, 2018, a U.S. district court judge invalidated much of the Executive Orders as unlawful. SSA rescinded the Executive Order terms it had already implemented and reverted back to the negotiate ground rules, though damage was done. The Union returned to the bargaining table demanding that SSA revise its contract proposals to reflect the court decision. When SSA finally provided revised proposals in September 2018, SSA maintained its most egregious proposals to dramatically slash representational time, eliminate space for representational work, and eliminate employee rights to challenge unfair appraisals, unfair award decisions, and unfair removals through the grievance and arbitration procedure. In response, the Union filed a grievance over the Agency’s continued adherence to invalidated provisions of the Executive Orders. In addition, the Agency proposed to strip negotiated telework rights and leave decisions on telework policy entirely to the discretion of management. Despite the severe anti-employee and anti-union environment, the Union nonetheless went to the bargaining table to secure employee rights and protections.
In October and November, the Union and the Agency agreed on Articles 3 (Employee Rights), 16 (Training), and 31 (Leave). Importantly, the Union saved the language in Article 3, Section 2.A which requires management to treat employees fairly and equitably in all aspects of personnel management, and without regard to protected class status. As the parties began to focus on Article 9 in November, the Agency abruptly changed its behavior with the Union. Despite the progress that the parties had made in October and November, the Agency alleged that the Union was not bargaining fast enough. The Union retorted that the ground rules give the parties until March 1, 2019 to bargain, and that the parties had just reached agreement on three articles, in addition to numerous articles in prior months. Regardless, the Agency showed no interest in the Union’s proposals the rest of the week, and demanded the mediator release the parties to the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP). The Union opposed this request based on the ground rules and the Agency’s bargaining behavior.
