New Year, new victories from AFGE Local 1858 representing federal workers at Department of Defense agencies in Huntsville, Ala.!
The first victory involves the biggest negotiation settlement in Redstone Arsenal’s history – pay band expansion. Specifically, all professional unit pay bands will be expanded from a level equivalent to GS13 step 10 to GS 14 step 10. All nonprofessional unit pay bands will be expanded from a level equivalent to GS 12 step 10 to GS 13 step 10.
The memorandum of understanding on the pay band expansion covers 1,200 professional employees – engineers and scientists – and 300 non-professionals – Technical and Business Management personnel. That means professionals will get an increase of up to $24,000 more in salary while non-professionals will get up to $21,000 more.
The second victory involves a violation of the collective bargaining agreement on telework at Redstone. The violation took place when a manager required employees while teleworking to send an email when signed in with a list of priorities for the day and send a note when their workday is through.
This prompted the local to file a grievance since the agreement is clear that the work employees do on telework and non-telework days are the same and reports are not required.
The local also filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) complaint with the Federal Labor Relations Authority charging that the agency didn’t notify the union before making changes to working conditions. The parties reached a settlement with the agency agreeing to rescind the report requirement and the local withdrawing the ULP and grievance.
The local is happy with the outcome.
“We fight every day for our members to ensure they are treated with fairness and dignity,” said Local 1858 President Abner Merriweather.
The Office of Personnel Management last week took a huge step toward aligning the locality pay maps for employees on the Federal Wage System and General Schedule.
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With the election approaching Marcial Gomez talks about what’s on the line for TSA employees and his concerns about Project 2025.
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Members of AFGE’s DEFCON Steering Group met along with AFGE staff and elected leaders to discuss ways to better serve employees throughout the DoD in the year ahead.
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