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AFGE Wins Better Working Conditions for 1,400 Joint Base Andrews, Joint Base Anacostia Employees
July 18, 2022
Categories:
DoD, The Insider
After several years of negotiating, with many twists and turns, AFGE Local 1092 and Joint Base Andrews have finally signed an agreement that provides important benefits and improvements to employees’ working conditions.
The contract, which took effect June 10, covers approximately 1,400 professionals and non-professionals GS employees of the Air Force at Joint Base Andrews and Joint Base Anacostia in the Washington, D.C. area.
Local 1092 President Michael Turpin said the contract has been long overdue since 1999, and he’s happy we were finally able to finish this after three years. The contract will help managers and employees to better understand laws, rules, and regulations within the federal government. Since 1999, a lot has changed, and Turpin said government workers have to learn to adapt to those changes. This contract will do just that.
“Let’s start a new beginning and leave the old stuff alone,” he added.
Here are some of the highlights of the new contract:
- The Air Force is now required to treat dual-status Air Reserve Technicians (ARTs) as civilians during the work week. This is an important workplace protection since ARTs spend most of their duty time in federal civilian status while the rest is spent in Reserve military status.
- The police at Bolling Air Force Base, who used to be part of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), were added to the unit. We were able to get them a separate article regarding procedures for the police, uniforms, protective gear, etc., which is better than what FOP had.
- We were able to get normal workplace protections regarding discipline and performance issues for a group of unit employees work under the Acquisition Demonstration Project, which had worked under an NSPS-style system with pay bands and a lot of supervisory discretion over pay and job duties. We based our language on the AFMC/AFGE Council 214 ACQ DEMO MOU, including the right to serve as a union steward without getting dinged on performance.
- We secured the right to refuse unsafe work, to report unsafe conditions with no reprisal, and to contact the union when reporting an injury.
- We won language reflective of recent developments, like the Biden Executive Orders meant to encourage union membership.
- We restored many of the key features of the previous Local 1401 collective bargaining agreement, which was in force for most of the unit prior to the reorganization that combined Local 1401 and Local 1092.
- We won back union office space and a meaningful expansion of official time to represent employees.
“The Local 1092 leadership and bargaining team did a great job in keeping employee interests first and foremost,” said Peter Winch, special assistant to the National Vice President District 14. “Many thanks to Octavia Hall, who bargained the initial contract as president of Local 1401, and who then later served as the initial chief negotiator for this contract for a lengthy period of time during the Trump administration -- she was able to keep the pot simmering until we could come in for the finish.”
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