The American Federation of Goverment Employees (AFGE), the labor union that represents most Social Security employees, is not happy with the progress of contract negotiations with Social Security. Having to negotiate with a Republican agency head during a time when Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress must be frustrating but, to be frank, the union seems perpetually outraged about something. That seems to be not merely their default mode but their only mode. Take a look at what the union has to say here, here and here.
Also, take a look at this notice withdrawing a story from the union's newsletter. There must be a story behind this. I will guess the story involves a threat of a defamation lawsuit.
10 comments:
I'm glad you point this out. I've making that case for quite a while. As a former AFGE member, I realize it's AFGE's responsiblity to defend, respresent, look out for, etc. their membership. However, they lose credibility when they continuously spew such negativity and in the case of the newsletter article, such patently and obviously false allegations.
I agree with Anon1. I quit the union long before I went into management. It's consistently been run by a bunch of self-serving crackpots and is a disgrace to the labor movement.
I commented once that these articles practically beg for defamation lawsuits; perhaps that's what happened here. If so, it's a good move. As a lifelong Democrat and union supporter, I have to say that Reagan should have gone after AFGE rather than PATCO.
It appears afge does not care about the truth, but rather, about targeting particular managers in order to win an EEO complaint, grievance, or unfair labor practice, by public opinion, rather than by the established protocol. Afge could do a better job by not relying totally on a poorly performing employee's allegations or an overzealous afge representative in their attempt to make themselves look important by trying to make someone else look bad.
While AFGE does tend to yell a lot for the sake of yelling, the hardline the agency is taking with all unions in its initial contract proposals is alarming. Of most concern perhaps to folks who come here for news, the agency proposal to the ALJ union strikes all provisions in which the agency has previously agreed ALJ's are the only decision makers that can do disability hearings. As someone who thought it was "crazy talk" that the agency wanted to ultimately get rid of ALJ's, the agency proposal is an eye opener.
Well, I'm ignorant of the ALJ union situation, and will stipulate that. But I've always felt that the public sector unions wield way too much power. When only 7% of the private workforce is represented by a union (down from 25% in the 70's), I tend to think that public employees, having the most secure jobs in the US, need to understand that the rest of the workforce is hurting, and quit screwing around with trivial issues.
Further, SSA was virtually run by AFGE in the 80s and 90s. One of the few things GWB did in a positive vein was to replace the entire MSPB. That resulted in more common sense rulings in the union-management arena.
I believe in enlightened,humane, competent management. I also think that AFGE needs to fight the real battles--not showboat and publicize b***s***. Get rid of bad management and let the good managers do their jobs. I truly cared about my employees and would bend over backwards for them; but once the union got involved, my hands were tied and it became a damn war.
I am a right-wing Republican who is also a long-time AFGE member and currently on-site rep. I detest the union's continual shacking up with the left wing of the Democrat party. However, I also have long despised the waste of taxpayer's money caused by incompetent or mean-spirited managers. There are good employees who are wasted, and poor employees who are coddled, at the whim and discretion of management. The primary focus of the union, from my perspective, should be to protect the good employees from bad management, and limit the damage incompetent managers wreak on the employees and the public.
As an aside, I am outraged that union leaders are on the side of the illegal alien lobby, whose sole purpose is to swell the ranks of the Democrat left wing.
It's "Democratic Party", not "Democrat Party".
The Union continues to perpetually outraged by the perpetual horrific decisions made by SSA's Commissioner and managers. Does that mean every manager is bad, no. But you can clearly see that the resentment and distain expressed by the managers who commented to this story are just a small example of what SSA employees face everyday. AFGE has a statutory responsiblity to represent all employees, members or not, good or bad performers. So those who begrudge the Union for whom it must represent, they should read the law.
I am a member and a representative of AFGE and what I have seen has been shocking and pretty horrible given we work for the Federal Government. (e.g. and employee with cancer told that she much return to work immediately after Chemotherapy, only to spend the remaining of the day hugging a nasty public toilet, in fear of losing her job; newly hired veterans being terminated because the Agency did not understand that the Vet was active reserve and could be deployed; employees effected by Katrina denied time to evacuate and/or protect their homes and families, then called back to work after losing everything and told to rumage through donated boxes of clothing so they could work a week afterwards; increased EEO complaints involving race, age, disability and sexual harassment, etc.) And the list goes on and on and on.
If the lack of respect, trust and public distain for employees is not enough, then there's the public policies to purposely screw people out of benefits. At the most vulnerable time in a person's life (death of a wage earner, retirement, disability) SSA makes policy to hurt applicant's financially.
The Union, AFGE, has been the whistleblower to many issues of this nature in the last 10 years that would have never been made known to Congress or the public otherwise.
Gee, and you wonder why AFGE is outraged?
There are two sides to every story and from my experience, AFGE always tells the story with twists and turns, and includes only a fraction of the truth. Or, maybe the AFGE VP in our region is the exception, which is too bad for the good employees, as she does not represent them. I'd like the opportunity to work with a good AFGE rep or VP. Just like bad managers, there are bad AFGE VPs.
I have no problem with the union exposing management when they're out of line. That's their job. But when we use words like "horrific", I tend to remember that we live in a bubble. There are millions of Americans out of work who would do anything for a secure Federal job. I've felt (even when I was working for SSA) that if these people had to work in the private sector, they'd have their eyes opened quickly.
So when you complain about SSA requiring more stringent rules for sick leave, off hand jokes about the bubonic plague, or other non-issues, think about that guy at WalMart who is limited to 39 hours of work a week so they won't have to provide health insurance. The real world is a lot different, isn't it?
BTW, I have a friend who was DM in one of the districts in Louisiana during Katrina. The employees and management were given virtually unlimited leave, including LWOP and advanced leave, to get their lives back together.
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