Attention AFGE Local 910 Members: We are not back in the office but it will not be too much longer until we are. Please read below for information on the court outcome:
By working together as union family, and by leading the legal challenge against the administration's democracy-busting executive orders, our union achieved a HUGE victory.
Late Friday night, a federal judge ruled that
President Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and laws providing checks and balances in the federal government by attempting to deny more than 2 million federal workers like us our legal right to representation.
This decision prevents agencies from implementing parts of the executive orders, and forces agencies that have already started implementing the executive orders to roll back those changes. Because of AFGE's leadership in this fight for our rights, and because of our hard work, government employees and our union still have a voice at work.
Here are the key parts of the executive orders that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson struck down:
- The imposition of a 25 percent cap on the use of official time. 13837(4)(a)(ii).
- The prohibition against employees’ right to petition and communicate with Congress. 13837(4)(a)(i).
- The ban on the use of official time by union representatives to prepare and present grievances. 13837(4)(a)(v).
- The one-hour per bargaining unit employee formula to be applied to set an aggregate cap on the use of official time. 13837(3)(a).
- The limitations placed on unions’ use of agency facilities, such as office space and computers. 13837(4)(a)(iii).
- The exclusion of challenges to performance ratings and incentive pay from the scope of the negotiated grievance procedure. 13839(4)(a).
- The limitation of performance improvement periods (PIPs) to 30 days, with agencies alone having the discretion to apply longer periods. 13839(4)(c).
- The direction to agencies to press for the exclusion of removals from the scope of the negotiated grievance procedure. 13839(3).
- The prohibition against bargaining over the “permissive” subjects. 13836(6).
- The limitation on ground rules bargaining to six weeks, and the limitation on bargaining term agreements to six months. 13836(5)(a).
- The prohibition on bargaining approaches other than written proposals. (IBB, etc.). 13836(5)(e).
- The prohibition on reimbursement for non-agency business. 13837(4)(a)(iv).
- The prohibition on using official time without advanced notice. 13837(4)(b).
Here are the key parts of the executive orders that are still in effect:
- Direction to agency management to implement general goals set out in Section 1, and reporting requirements for negotiations that last longer than six months. 13836(5)(b)
- Direction to agency management to file ULPs for bad-faith bargaining. 13836(5)(c)
- Discipline for official time abuse. 13837(5)(a)
- Develop procedure for official time usage. 13837(5)(b)
- Requirement to report official time authorized over the 1hr formula. 13837(3)(b)
- Agencies should not be required to use progressive discipline. 13839(2)(b)
- “Agencies are not prohibited from removing an employee simply because they did not remove a different employee for comparable conduct.” 13839(2)( (c)
- Issue decisions within 15 days of proposal when practicable. 13839(2)( (f)
- Agencies should not limit discretion on using Chapter 75 for performance removals. 13839(4)(b)(i)
- Agencies should not limit discretion to require the use of Chapter 43 procedures before removing an employee. 13839(4)(b)(ii)
- Agencies should not limit discretion on removals to require the use of progressive discipline. 13839(4)(b)(iii)
- Prohibition on clean records. 13839(5)
- Data collection. 13839(6)
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of provisions in the executive orders. AFGE will not stop fighting against these union-busting executive orders. Our union has a separate lawsuit still pending on two of the EOs: 13,839 Removal Procedures, and 13,836 Collective Bargaining. That litigation could have an impact on some of the provisions of those two Executive Orders.
We will continue to keep you updated about how this ruling will affect us in the workplace. For now, let's come together and celebrate our victory, and recognize that together we can achieve great things. Don’t forget to wear your #RedForFeds on Wednesday!
Thank you for all that you do.
In solidarity,
AFGE
P.S. For more information on the executive orders, and how you can take action, text AFGE to 225568 from your personal cell phone (never your government phone) and answer three quick questions to subscribe.
