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10 Things Every Manager and Supervisor Must Know if the Organization's Employees are Represented by a Union: Part One

Union questions

IT Drone
DoD
Thu Apr 3, 2008 8:10 PM

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I bet most managers cannot answer those questions. They choose not to read the contracts and then let their agency's legal advisors tell them incorrect information, usually in direct contradiction with federal laws.

Union officials know those contracts and laws. They are there to protect the bargaining unit members against the ignorance of management.

I get to file a ULP tomorrow on a senior manager who said HE gets to decide the timeline for answering a filing. It is his arrogance and willful ignorance of the contract that is going to get him in a lot of trouble now.

MANAGEMENT IGNORANCE--THAT IS WHY THERE ARE UNIONS.

Re: Union questions

Enforcer of All Things Good
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Fri Apr 4, 2008 8:12 AM
Do unions even file ULP charges anymore???

I'm sure with the lack of a GC, you'll get your complaint issued real fast. Even if this new nomination gets thorugh anytime soon, its still a rather futile effort.

Good luck. I am sure you're a very effective representative. What lucky unit employees...

Re: Union questions

DoD employee
DoD
Fri Apr 4, 2008 10:38 AM
In my experience in labor relations both management and the union have lack of knowledge about the contract, with the union generally more ignorant of contractual requirements than management. Usually management doesn't know what's in the contract; the union knows the individual articles exist, but doesn't understand them or misinterprets them. Which is worse? I don't know.

Re: Union questions

Consultant
Agency
Mon Apr 7, 2008 1:02 PM
Using the accepted definition for DRONE found in the dictionary, you certainly named yourself well.

As the cliche says, if I had a nickel for every instance in which the union was defeated by their own ignorance of the contract.... well, let's say I would be elsewhere living off the interest.

And as much as I hate to help someone who thinks they know it all and may give away some of my advice, if you actually took the time to find out what your supervisor is telling you, you will find that after you file your ULP and the FLRA responds back, then YOU as the filing party have a specific DEADLINE to respond and provide evidence. Your SUPERVISOR is INVITED to respond if he/she chooses to, when they choose.

We always respond. It is sort of like rubbing in the egg the union just threw on themselves. One of the perks we have.

Writer Biasw

Examiner
IRS
Fri Apr 4, 2008 9:44 AM

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I assume you are directing this nonsense to management. If people like you would want to work with unions and the people they represent, there would be better moral in the government. With better morale, productivity(whatever that truly is) would go up.

#8-10, especially 10 are aimed at isolating the worker who is not trained to deal with an oppressive manager. #10 should be all the time. It is when there are issues affecting working conditions (7114). I am not clear what that means.

#1 is the law.

Both sides could benefit from survey.

Engineer
DoD
Fri Apr 4, 2008 12:24 PM

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It would be interesting to see the responses from bargaining unit employees. Being a Union Rep, I often spend significant amount of time educating members on what they can and can't do. The more knowledgeable the members and Management, I'm hoping, for a better Labor-Management Relationship.

Ooh! Ooh! Pick Me! I Know the Answer!

Reformed Conservative
DFAS
Fri Apr 4, 2008 1:34 PM

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Answer to question 1: Because management has a long history of being so unethical, incompetent, or both that employees have felt forced to band together in self-defense. Example: NSPS.

Comments

ExCBP
DHS
Fri Apr 4, 2008 4:35 PM

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Bob,

You should just tell your readers to transfer to DHS. The management at DHS has completely ignored every union agreement for the past 4 years. You can't get it much better than that as a manager, Right! Oh, and let not forget about all the Title 5 laws also. That’s the federal labor laws that don’t exist in some federal agencies. But who cares their only federal employee's.

Waiting to read the real article

Nameless, Faceless Nobody
DOD
Fri Apr 4, 2008 5:48 PM

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Are the questions out without answers in order to stir things up and provide more fodder for writing?

I am interested in the author's answers but put off by this particular division of the article.

Total Comments: 9
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