Tom Temin has written a piece for Federal News Network on Social Security's problems with its employee unions. The latest is that the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), which is a union, has declared that their negotiations with Social Security are at an impasse.
This is not just an in-house matter. I'm not sure how many fans the AALJ has in Congress but the much larger American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents most Social Security employees, has friends in high places in the House of Representatives.
I didn't know that SSA had a union! This was very interesting to me. Thanks for sharing and opening my mind to new information.
ReplyDeleteCongress went to bat for the AALJ a few years ago when DCDAR first tried to give hearings over to the Appeals Council, and of course Ways and Means opposed the latest reg that would take scheduling authority away from ALJs. So there may still be life yet for the AALJ.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mixed bag. AALJ membership has generally favored proposals such as adjusting the grid rules to reflect the changes in retirement age and prospective closed periods for disabled claimants expected to show improvement.
ReplyDeleteNot winning positions with Democrats and Republicans just don't like unions.
agreed @12:16AM, but that was all prior to the Lucia Supreme Court case and before the Whitehouse memos that made ALJs excepted service like the AC Judges. I'm sure the aftertaste of the Huntington mess is also still there for many members of Congress. Last and definitely not least, you have a permanent Commissioner for the first time in years. He may see the AC as an untapped resource. For better or worse, it's a whole new world peeps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for censoring any comment you dont believe in.
ReplyDeleteOnly newly hired or inter-agency transferred ALJs are excepted. The vast majority remain in competitive service.
ReplyDelete