At the urging of AFGE Local 1534, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) earlier this year postponed its reorganization plan to allow agency and staff to work out details and address employees’ concerns.
The plan, which would require approximately 200 employees to be reassigned and retrained in new areas of work, had created chaos, confusion, and concerns among employees as they initially had no say in their new assignments.
Although the union is pleased that management delayed the implementation of the reorganization and stated they would consult with the union, there have been no formal commitments to address employee concerns.
“While union officers remain optimistic about these efforts to correct working condition issues and work more broadly with management to make this transition successful for the bargaining unit, we now turn our attention to having management actually follow through on the commitments that were made during the consultation,” said Local 1534 1st Vice President Sudhir Paladugu.
The local pointed out that many of the senior managers lacked previous experience dealing with unionized employees and were unfamiliar with their legal obligations to negotiate with DFC's labor union. This was a primary reason for the delay in their response to employee concerns, especially when the local at DFC has grown vigorously and quickly.
As part of their efforts to signal to stakeholders that the reorganization had critical faults, local officers met with congressional staffers through meetings set up and facilitated by AFGE National Office. Congressional staffers welcomed the concerns of bargaining unit members and found their feedback helpful to congressional oversight of DFC.
This resulted in helpful reminders from Congress, including from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Cardin during a recent oversight hearing which directed management to listen and address the concerns of employees and to work with the DFC labor union.
Consultation period has begun
Union officers have entered into a consultation period with labor relations representatives and members of management. These meetings, while less substantive than what was hoped for, have been productive and congenial.
Though not all employee concerns have been addressed during this first consultation process, the union officers leading the newly reformed local at DFC think this was a helpful learning experience for management and it will help build positive, constructive labor relations going forward.
“While we have prior evidence to the contrary, we are hopeful that going forward management will meet their obligations to negotiate with the DFC labor union and proactively address employee concerns in the future,” said local officer Sarah Polaski.
“At this stage, we are pushing for accountability, transparency, and acknowledgement of the rights of our union members. The results are forthcoming, and should these efforts prove insufficient, union officers will pursue other avenues to ensure the rights of our bargaining members are protected,” added another local officer Carey Cambell.
DFC currently has more than 500 employees and is expected to double in the coming years.
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