Sup everyone,
Another quick update from your acting FacRep. No updates on the EA issues we are having. Planning to update on that by end of day Friday.
As is always the case for a government agency without a stable funding stream, we are facing another potential government shutdown on Oct. 1. So if the government stays shut down, you would get a $0 paycheck on 10/28. Obviously, we will be spooling up legislative efforts to stop that from happening, and you can expect to see emails on that soon.
GEFTA is still in effect - This bill requires employees of the federal government who are furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations beginning on or after December 22, 2018, to be compensated for the period of the lapse. The employees must be compensated on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates. Employees required to work during the lapse in appropriations may use leave.
MOUs
The team and I have been working our way through what we call our “U1” for each 2026 MOU. The U1 is the Union’s first proposal to mgmt. We will also receive an M1 from mgmt. This exchange will happen at our first official negotiation meeting which is currently scheduled to take place on 8/27. This is the meeting where negotiations will begin in earnest. Once negotiations begin, you won’t hear much from us about it other than that they are ongoing. Negotiations are kept confidential to avoid misinformation during the process and ensure that we keep our negotiating position as strong as possible. We will provide a full update once they are complete.
That being said, we are still in the phase of the process where we are open to ideas from you all. We do appreciate the participation we have received so far. Please reach out to any member of the team with your ideas.
Grievances
I recently moved a grievance from Step 1 to Step 2 out of the A area regarding an improper issuance of a PRoC. The Agency has agreed they have done the PRoC incorrectly, we are still working on getting them to remove it though.
HRPMs vs MOUs
This issue always comes up, so I want to say emphatically that regardless of what any mgmt official thinks, HRPMs will never supersede a matter covered by our contract or an MOU. The agency constantly gets this wrong because all the HRPMs apply to them because they do not have a contract as employees. So any time they see an HRPM, it applies to them. There is even language in most of these that addresses it directly. It will say something like “It does not apply to Bargaining Unit employees or positions where the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement contains conflicting provisions.” I mention this because there is an HRPM floating around about voting EA not applying to mail in ballot states. We have an MOU on the matter so we can throw that HRPM directly in the trash. It does not matter. It is worth mentioning that sometimes HRPMs are a precursor to a change we see, but that has not been the case yet. HRPMs can fill in the gaps where MOUs and CBAs do not cover an issue, but they are always subordinate to MOUs and CBAs.
Drew