Judges’ Union Says Acting Social Security Commissioner Misleads U.S. Senator About State of Labor Relations

WASHINGTON — May 10, 2021 — The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), which is in a contentious labor dispute with the Social Security Administration (SSA), is strongly pushing back against what it calls SSA Acting Commissioner Andrew Saul’s erroneous description of employee-labor relations.

Saul’s statements appear in a letter to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; he writes that they’re “building collaborative working relationships with our union partners.” Yet SSA refuses to withdraw a Trump-era order that would eliminate the AALJ.

AALJ President Judge Melissa McIntosh says, “In what appears to be an increasingly desperate attempt to remain in charge at Social Security, Mr. Saul has written an outrageously misleading letter to Senator Wyden. In fact, labor relations are at an all-time low at Social Security and Acting Commissioner Saul is clinging to a union-busting Trump-era Federal Service Impasses Panel order. If he succeeds in imposing that order, it will, for all practical purposes, eliminate our union.”

McIntosh points out that Saul’s exasperates the situation with his actions. For instance, he recently presented awards to SSA labor negotiators, yet the AALJ says they engaged in union-busting activity that two independent arbitrators found to be illegal.

AALJ is a Local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO/CLC, and represents approximately 1,200 judges across 163 offices who preside in Social Security disability hearings across the country.

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