An AFGE member has won a precedent setting case in which the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled that union members have absolute immunity from malicious attempts aimed at silencing free speech in the grievance process.
Vincent DeGray, a civilian employee of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, filed a grievance alleging he was unfairly passed over for promotion based on violations of the merit promotion system. He also alleged that two employees, a married couple, had a quid pro quo arrangement with management to promote the candidate who was selected.
His confidential grievance document, however, was leaked, and retaliation against him and his family quickly ensued. He, for example, received an email containing a graphic video from a co-worker with insider knowledge of the hiring situation who was one of the people he named in the grievance. The video depicted an execution that was captioned, “This is what happens when you don’t wait your turn in line.” Several months later, he was informed of a civil lawsuit filed by this co-worker and his wife, a management official, alleging he made false statements against them in his grievance.
AFGE Local 219 defended DeGray at every step of this nightmare, but management turned a blind eye to these instances of harassment and at times participated in the harassment.
In this case before the court, DeGray was represented by a private attorney as it was a civil lawsuit. But the local and the Connecticut AFL-CIO provided critical information and documentation to the attorney as it is a matter of public interest that civil service hiring is conducted in accordance with the law.
The four-year battle that began in the Superior Court, state Supreme Court, back to the Superior Court, and then the Appellate Court ended with a victory for DeGray and labor unions.
In its decision, the Appellate Court ruled that DeGray had “absolute immunity” from claims like defamation when he made allegations in the grievance process, a procedure that allows unionized employees to voice complaints regarding their employment.
The court also pointed out that key elements of the lawsuit against him should be dismissed under Connecticut’s anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) law, which was designed to protect people from frivolous lawsuits that aim to deter them from exercising their constitutional rights to free speech.
AFGE Local 219 President Susan Bibeau said the case is precedent setting under Anti-SLAPP in the state of Connecticut and affirms the absolute immunity of the grievance process from malicious attempts to silence free speech.
“Local 219 is proud of the DeGray family because they did what was right despite enormous stress needlessly inflicted during this four-year fight,” she said. “We are pleased that Mr. DeGray received a reasonable settlement in which he was represented by the union. We are ecstatic that the Connecticut Appellate Court upheld the ‘absolute immunity’ of employee grievances in the face of a malicious lawsuit intended to silence speech and curtail employee rights under the law.”
Local 219 represents Coast Guard civilian employees in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and parts of New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Michigan.
President Donald J. Trump spent his first day in office issuing a slew of executive orders directly targeting federal workers.
Read More
AFGE, Public Citizen, and State Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF) filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for violating a law requiring that an advisory committee such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) be fairly balanced in its membership and points of view.
Read More
A new bill has been introduced in the House and Senate to give federal employees a 4.3% raise next year as a way to close the pay gap between the federal and private sectors.
Read More
