A discovery that remote workers at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) facility in Ann Arbor, Mich., were about to get kicked out of the bargaining unit led an AFGE local to spring into action and save the employees’ workplace rights.
AFGE Local 3907 President Tricia Paff was on the AFGE-EPA contract negotiations team last year when she learned that remote workers at multiple EPA facilities were about to be removed from the bargaining unit after their duty station was changed. Paff said remote work was brand new to EPA, and she heard that changing a person’s duty station could impact some of the certifications based on how they’re written.
As she and the AFGE EPA Council were investigating the issue, she reached out to her local HR to find out more about it. The Ann Arbor Human Resource Director confirmed that her facility was indeed one of them. Their remote workers were about to lose their union protections.
Thanks to their good working relationship at the local level, the action was postponed until June 1 to allow both parties to work things out as our union insisted remote workers were not supposed to be removed from the bargaining unit.
AFGE subsequently held union elections for 19 remote workers earlier this month, and the employees voted for AFGE and therefore won’t lose their union protection.
Paff credited National Vice President for District 7 Jason Anderson, AFGE Assistant General Counsel Julia Turner, National Organizer Jessica Dobles, and District 7 National Representative Vince Schraub for their assistance on the case.
The fact that hers is a small office and that she has a good working relationship with her HR helped tremendously.
“I’m happy that more people have access to union protection,” she said. “It shouldn't be based on where they're working. They're all working for the Environmental Protection Agency.”
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