From the New York Times:
The Justice Department has moved to decertify the union of immigration judges, a maneuver that could muffle an organization whose members have sometimes been openly critical of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
The department filed a petition on Friday asking the Federal Labor Relations Authority to determine whether the union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, should have its certification revoked because its members are considered “management officials” ineligible to collectively organize, according to a Justice Department spokesman. ...
Could you make the same argument regarding Social Security Administrative Law Judges? In the past, Social Security has tried hard to take away anything that looks like ALJ management responsibilities, at least in traditional hearing offices, but what management responsibilities do Immigration Judges have?
14 comments:
I think (correct me if I am wrong) at the NHCs, ALJs are managers and give performance reviews for the writers.
All judges at Medicare are Supervisory ALJs.
A brief history: About 20 years ago the first attempt to organize the IJs failed before the FLRA due to a ruling that they were considered management employees because they made policy by reason of their "final" decisions, that in many cases were not appealed. At the same time it was also a concern of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (not certified at the time) that they would meet the same fate if they attempted to be certified. This all occurred shortly after the implementation of HPI, which in essence eliminated any supervisory authority from line ALJs. It was the opinion of the then IFPTE general counsel that ALJs were employees and not supervisors. Thereafter, a petition was filed for an election and the Agency did not oppose it. There was a mistaken belief among certain senior SSA management that the Judges would never vote to be represented by a labor organization, of course they were very wrong. The union won with over 90 percent of eligible voters casting ballots and over 90 percent of those ballots voting for the union. That lesson learned, when the Agency formed national video units, those ALJs were given authority to purportedly effectively recommend the hiring and evaluation of the writer and legal assistants assigned to them. Thereby casting them as defined supervisors under the FSLMRA. As such, those ALJs are eligible to be members of the HOCALJ Association, but not the IFPTE bargaining unit. It would seem to be a necessary prerequisite to any move for IFPTE decertification, that line ALJs would have to be cloaked with a certain supervisory or managerial authority by the Agency, in order to remove them from coverage under the Act. It could happen, but it would be quite cumbersome and fraught with various challenges to numerous to pen in this piece.
A4:36 What is the HOCALJ Association? The SSA ALJ union is AALJ.
7:16, my understanding is that HOCALJs aren't part of the AALJ because they are supervisors. So they have a HOCALJ association. Similarly, I don't think NHC ALJs are part of AALJ because as 9:02 mentioned, they supervise decision-writers.
I think this is part of why SSA has wanted to expand video hearings in general and NHCs in particular--to have fewer unionized ALJs.
It was also a challenge for the AALJ when they opposed centralizing the decisionwriting and scheduling--they really wanted to have their own staff, but also wanted to not be considered as supervisors. SSA basically didn't let them have their cake and eat it too...hence the increasing centralization of support staff.
Hearing office chief administrative law judge. They do manage the other judges
Why would the ALJs and their union suddenly care about the IJs having a union? According to most ALJs I've ever come across, IJs aren't “real judges" like they are. ALJs think they are God's gift to agencykind. The ALJ Union should have been fighting long ago to have others groups like IJs under their umbrella and made it a big tent of various administrative judges. But no, they have always thought they were better than everyone else, instead of supporting and advocating for all administrative judges. Point in fact why aren't AC judges among the ALJ union ranks? As I'm told AC judges don't supervise anyone. That’s a whole crew of judges just sitting at the top of an agency's food chain that should have been sought after long ago to make part of the ALJ union ranks, but again, no. The ALJ union has only cared about its small piece and not fought for the big picture. It’s long overdue for the ALJ union to either work for all or be replaced by an organization that will.
WOW 8:30 - have an opinion? I am sorry your experience with ALJ's has been such that you have to paint all of them with such a broad brush. I personally know many ALJ's who do not have unrealistic ideas about their position and authority and who just try to do their job well. However, I can admit that there are also ALJ's who seem to wield the authority they do have with a heavy hand. Just know that there ARE some ALJ's who don't believe that they are God's gift to anyone and instead are hardworking folks who are trying to do their job professionally within ever-increasing restrictions.
So the push for centralization of the scheduling of hearings and writing decisions was never really about better servicing the public and instead was all about trying to stop the ALJs from taking part in collective bargaining.
I am shocked, shocked and appalled. We reps and for that matter the public were lied to by the Agency all along.
Well not really shocked at all.
I had believed centralized scheduling was a dumb idea on its own, a solution to a problem that did not exist, but to now learn that the real reason was union busting goes beyond anything I had imagined.
And this from someone who has no particular love for ALJs anyway not a Union that has only job perquisites in mind and little care for service to the public either.
Judges dont need unions.
I have often wondered how certain ALJs view their relationship with the SSA.
I had an argument with an ALJ about their duties. I stated the ALJ really did not work for the SSA. She was shocked and aghast and vehemently stated she did. What I meant is her duty, in some respect, was to correct errors from the SSA below her level. Many ALJs will spout off something in their opening like - "I am not bound by any prior determinations from the SSA."
I take this to believe the ALJ is a check on the SSA. Yes, they are technically employees but they should have latitude to correct any mistakes. So they have employees working directly with them e.g. assistants and attorney writers. But it does not seem like they should be their supervisors. Thought the HOCAL should do this. The Chief ALJ at each OHO supervises the other ALJs I assumed.
Do not see why the ALJs can't have a union. But why would they need it?
AC judges are just attorneys or paralegals hired by SSA. They are not judges who are bound by the APA, or who were hired (formerly) through examination and qualifications.
All ALJs or IJs or whomever can be members of the FALJC (Federal ALJ Conference) which is not a union but advocates for all ALJs. Unfortunately, not many SSA ALJs do, but most of the ones in the other agencies do.
Interestingly, the current ALJ union leadership has made a lot of noise about being inferior officers, presumably because of the status. Apparently, they forgot to read the Supreme Court decision in Free Enterprise which pretty much says inferior officers are removable at will (at least if their department/agency head is removable for cause like the commissioner of SSA). Also, the federal labor statute doesn't seem to explicitly include constitutional officers (wasn't Lucia all about the distinction between "mere employees" and inferior officers?), and removal at will seems inconsistent with collective bargaining. Maybe the union doesn't realize there's more than just a cool status to being an inferior officer.
This post gives Theresa Gruber, Elaine Garrison-Daniels, Patrick Nagle, and Christopher Dillon a lot more credit than they are entitled to. The whole group is too stupid and venal to understand such a scheme, much less implement it. Pure coincidence, nothing more.
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