IFPTE Urges Swift Senate Confirmation of Susan T. Grundmann for Member of FLRA Federal Labor Board
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC – The executive officers of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers ( IFPTE) issued the following statement after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported favorably the nomination of Susan T. Grundmann for Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Grundmann was originally nominated for FLRA Member by President Biden on August 5, 2021 and had to be renominated on January 4, 2022 due to the Senate's failure to take up her nomination for a confirmation vote before the end of 2021.
IFPTE President Matthew Biggs:
“While IFPTE is pleased that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced Susan Grundmann's nomination for FRLA, our members who work for the federal government need the Senate prioritize her confirmation. She is extremely qualified and has served the public as the Chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board from 2009 to 2017 and more recently in her role as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
Federal workers urgently need the Senate to restore fairness and functionality to the FLRA by confirming the President's nominee for FLRA Member, Susan Grundmann, as soon as possible. We are now in the second year of the Biden Administration and the President's commitment to being a model employer is being undermined by an ideologically anti-union FLRA majority appointed under President Trump. IFPTE members and union-represented federal employees remain at risk because the current FLRA majority's decisions and policies have disregarded precedent and sound legal reasoning in order to diminish federal employee union rights.”
IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson:
“IFPTE locals are engaging with their federal agency partners to restore productive labor-management relations, repair the damage caused by the previous administration's anti-union agenda against federal employees, and represent our members so that our members and the agencies they work for can succeed. Unfortunately, we continue to face setbacks that are caused by an FLRA that is interested in limiting federal employees' collective bargaining rights. Just last month, this FLRA issued another poorly reasoned decision that misclassifies a whole bargaining unit of IFPTE members at DOJ as management officials and seeks to remove their union rights, and decertify the National Association of Immigration Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 2. In doing so, the FLRA disregarded DOJ's wishes to withdraw the representation petition that started the matter. This doesn't serve the interests of federal workers, federal agencies, nor the taxpayer. The solution rests in the Senate -- we need Susan Grundmann confirmed for FLRA Member as soon as possible.”
IFPTE also continues to call for the nominations of Ernest DuBester for FLRA Member and Kurt Rumsfeld for FLRA General Counsel to be advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. DuBester, the current FLRA Chair, has been a voice of reason and moderation on the FLRA for over 11 years and his 40 years of experience in labor-management relations is an asset that the FLRA needs. He has been unanimously confirmed to the FLRA three times and should be once more be confirmed in the same manner. Rumsfeld's extensive experience as Assistant General Counsel for Operations and Legal Policy and as Chief Counsel to the FLRA Chair will be indispensable for tackling the backlog of unfair labor practice complaints that stem from the FLRA lacking a general counsel from November 2017 to March 2021.
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2/4/2022 - Trump Busted An Immigration Judges Union. His Holdovers are Blocking It Again (Washington Post)
2/2/2022 - How Trump Labor Appointees Could Break Up Judges Union Under Biden’s Watch (Newsweek)