Department of Education Aims to Bust the Union By Terminating New Contract
From the AFGE
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has made headlines over the past year for attacking both teachers and students. Now her management team has set its sights on us.
After months of hostility at the bargaining table, Department of Education management told AFGE Council 252 that it was no longer willing to negotiate. Management threw out the contract that the council had previously bargained – which was still in effect – and replaced it with an anti-union directive that strips 3,900 workers we represent of all previously negotiated rights and protections.
AFGE did not agree to the terms of the illegal document that the Education Department is now masquerading as a collective bargaining agreement. In fact, members voted to reject the so-called contract on March 5, yet management forced this this illegal document on the membership anyway.
AFGE’s national office filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Federal Labor Relations Authority on March 12 to stop the Education Department from implementing its illegal management edict.
We are eager to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair and just contract, which all employees deserve.
Management’s illegal document strips workers of all previously negotiated rights and protections, forces employees to file SF-1187s every year to remain a union member, and prevents union leaders and stewards from representing employees by severely restricting the use of official time.
“The Education Department has imposed on its workers an illegal document that we had absolutely no bargaining over,” Council 252 President Claudette Young said. “Secretary Betsy DeVos and her management team are attempting to strip employees of their collective bargaining rights and kill the union.”
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Reposted from AFGE
