With Vote on Susan Grundmann for FLRA Scheduled, IFPTE Requests Senators "Restore Balance and Functionality To this Critical Labor Board"
UPDATE: On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Susan Grundmann for FLRA by a bipartisan vote of 50 to 49.
After Senate announced it would hold a floor vote to confirm Susan Grundmann, nominee for Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) Member, IFPTE sent a letter urging Senators to confirm the highly qualified nominee in order to restore functionality and fairness to the federal labor board.
For several months IFPTE and IFPTE members have contacted their Senators, worked with the White House, and banded together with other federal employee unions to advance Grundmann’s nomination as well as the nomination of current FLRA Chair Ernest DuBester and FLRA General Counsel nominee Kurt Rumsfeld. If confirmed, Grundmann will replace James Abbott, who was appointed under President Trump and remains on the FLRA until replaced.
IFPTE’s letter notes the legally deficient and ideologically driven decisions that the current two-member FLRA majority has issued over the last five years and the how members of the National Association of Immigration Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 have endured the most egregious attack on union rights and departure from precedent. The letter states:
Previous iterations of the FLRA have been comprised of Authority members who typically respected established precedents, endeavored to adhere to the FSLMRS, and respected the federal labor statute’s declaration that collective bargaining is in the public interest. Unfortunately, over the last five years, the FLRA has greatly disrupted labor-management relations in the federal government through several poorly reasoned and ideologically motivated anti-union decisions that have arbitrarily overturned decades of precedent. In just the last two years, U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia has vacated and/or remanded five such decisions and admonished the current FLRA members for their “arbitrary and capricious” reasoning and for misunderstanding the matters before the Authority.
IFPTE members employed as immigration judges at the Department of Justice (DOJ) know firsthand the far-reaching harm caused by the current two-member FLRA majority. Just last month, the FLRA revoked the union certification of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), which has been the union representing these DOJ employees since 1979. This retaliatory union-busting effort began in August 2019 under the previous administration, when the agency filed a petition to erroneously classify all union-represented immigration judges as management officials in order to silence DOJ employees who were voicing concerns through their union about due process, fairness, and improper politicization at the Immigration Court.
In June and July of 2021, when the DOJ, under Attorney General Garland, formally withdrew their opposition to the union and reversed the anti-union position of the previous administration, the FLRA majority shockingly continued the legally deficient anti-union effort to its conclusion.
Senate confirmation of Susan Grundmann for the FLRA is necessary for NAIJ members to restore their union rights, for return the FLRA to functionality and fairness, and to provide stability to federal labor relations.