AFGE Week in Review (Aug. 12, 2009)

TSA Union Applauds Movement To Name TSA Administrator: According to the Associated Press, the White House plans to pick a former FBI agent to be the next administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. AFGE applauded President Obama plan's to tap Erroll Southers to be the head of TSA.

"We are very pleased that the administration has heard AFGE on the dire need for a TSA administrator to be appointed," AFGE President John Gage said. "We look forward to working with Mr. Southers to turn this agency around to one that its employees and the American public can be proud of."

Washington Post Flooded with TSOs' Messages Endorsing AFGE: The first time Transportation Security Officers were asked to publicly voice their union preference, AFGE emerged as their union of choice. Nearly 100 comments flooded the Washington Post's Federal Eye blog late last month in response to the blogger's question, "Which union should win the right to organize TSA employees?" These comments and endorsement from TSOs speak volumes of AFGE's representation and dedication to its campaign to win workplace rights for TSOs so that they are no longer subject to unfair and absurd rules, bias, discrimination, and management's whims.

AFGE Wins Election to Represent Last Major Group of Unrepresented EPA Employees: AFGE recently won in an election for the professional employees of the Environmental Protection Agency Region IV, Atlanta, including the employees of the Environmental Services lab in Athens, Ga., and various outstationed employees across the South. There are nearly 600 engineers, scientists, attorneys and other professional employees in this newest bargaining unit for our EPA Council, which has a plan to establish AFGE as the union for all EPA employees across the country. Dr. Priscilla Oliver and Ray Gregory were grass-roots leaders in campaigning for the "AFGE Yes" vote and will be working to charter AFGE Local 534 to handle local representation.

This victory caps a series of election victories across the country this year at Office of Regional Counsel offices in Kansas City, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago with another election for about 100 employees of the EPA lab in Corvallis, Oregon, already scheduled. Steve Roy is the Council organizer, and Chuck Orzehoskie is the Council president. National Organizer Peter Winch campaigned with the Council in Atlanta. National Organizer Jill McCullars represented AFGE at the count of ballots. With the Region IV victory, AFGE now represents employees in every EPA region in a consolidated bargaining unit covering approximately 10,000 EPA employees.

AFGE SSA Council Exposes Management Fraudulent Activity: The AFGE Social Security Administration Council recently wrote to SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue, demanding disciplinary actions against a manager in the Kansas City Region who fabricated benefit applications to boost his office's statistical performance. An SSA employee notified AFGE in June that a manager manufactured deferred disability benefits applications in order to meet the monthly goals and to get credit for processing more applications. The short processing time for the fraudulent applications also reduced the office's claims processing time for the month. These actions, in which the manager assigned unsuspecting employees to assist, resulted in letters being sent to unsuspecting claimants that the applications they had never filed were being denied because they did not pursue their cases. The manager admitted he had taken 38 false applications but hadn't thought about the ramifications of his actions since he learned the scam in the Johnson County, KS, field office. The employee who notified AFGE about the wrongdoing brought up the issue with higher management and the inspector general, who met with a staffer in the regional commissioner's office. But no action has been taken against the manager, who continues to supervise employees and has access to the SSA database that he has misused.

AFGE SSA Council President Witold Skwierczynski said in the letter to Astrue that the manager and the Johnson County office manager should be suspended immediately as SSA routinely suspends bargaining unit employees for less serious conduct. Skwierczynski also demanded that Astrue investigate Regional Commissioner Michael Grochowski's failure to take action against the manager.  

Telework Champion Urges VA Chief to Close Telework Gap: In an Aug. 4 letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, Rep. Frank Wolf urged the VA chief to correct telework issues in the Veterans Benefits Administration regional offices so that the agency's telework policies are applied consistently throughout the VA. The Republican congressman from Virginia wrote to Shinseki after being informed by the AFGE National VA Council that some regional offices do not offer telework while others only offer it to certain positions. Nearly every office that allows telework imposes significant higher production standards on teleworkers. Wolf, who authored the federal telework law nearly a decade ago, told Shinseki that he had worked with Shinseki's predecessor's James Peake when the department's Board of Veterans Appeals were requiring teleworkers to complete an extra 140 hours work per year – nearly one month's additional work – more than non-teleworkers. Peake subsequently ended this arbitrary practice, resulting in a 30 percent jump in the number of teleworkers this year.

Inside Government: Michael D. Yates, author of "Why Unions Matter," appeared on AFGE's radio show, Inside Government, last week to discuss the role of unions in the U.S. Yates discussed his book and some of its major themes including union organizing, collective bargaining, and strategies for forming a union. Yates also shared his thoughts on the Employee Free Choice Act and how it will strengthen the labor movement in the U.S. Listeners also learned why public sector unionization has increased, and what the private sector must do to increase its membership as well. Also appearing on the show were Economic Policy Institute Director of Health Policy Research Elise Gould and AFGE Social Security Administration (SSA) Local 3615 President Tom Webb. Gould analyzed health care reform and addressed the possible taxation of employer-sponsored health care benefits. She also commented on where the small business community fits into the health care reform debate. Webb then discussed Local 3615's victory to secure an increase in transit subsidy benefits for SSA employees in the Washington, D.C. area. The benefit now provides SSA employees the same subsidy amount as other federal workers in the region.

"Inside Government" is hosted by AFGE Assistant General Counsel J. Ward Morrow. Programs are archived on the Federal News Radio Web site and can be heard on demand at http://www.federalnewsradio.com or http://www.afge.org/insidegovernment. Please note there will be a short advertisement prior to the start of the program. The program also is available via iTunes podcast by clicking here. Users must install iTunes on their computers before accessing "Inside Government" via podcast. Listeners also can follow the program on Facebook ("AFGE Inside Government") and Twitter (afgeradioshow). For more information, please e-mail InsideGovernment@afge.org or go to www.federalnewsradio.com.

"Inside Government" is a one-hour weekly nationwide radio/Internet program dedicated to issues that impact federal and D.C. government employees. The show airs each Friday at 10 a.m. on Federal News Radio 1500 AM in Washington, D.C. and online at www.federalnewsradio.com.