The Department of Veterans Affairs has demanded that the AFGE National VA Council (NVAC) terminate all existing local supplemental agreements, which constitutes a waiver of the union’s bargaining rights. This prompted NVAC to file a second national grievance.
The VA and NVAC have been in contract negotiations for months, and despite some limited progress at the table, the agency continues to engage in bad faith bargaining that does not put VA employees and the veterans we serve first.
“VA’s unlawful proposal has caused NVAC to file a National Grievance and has prompted us to pursue legal challenges before this article can be resolved,” said the NVAC bargaining team.
For decades, local supplements have been negotiated under Article 46, which allows for local unions and local VA facilities to reach supplemental agreements that address the unique circumstances impacting the workforce because certain issues don’t affect every facility the same way.
These agreements continue to remain in effect so long as they do not conflict with the national Master Agreement, and the local parties do not choose to reopen and renegotiate. Only a handful of VA facilities hold these contracts with local AFGE unions.
A few examples of issues addressed in local agreements include:
NVAC filed its first national grievance on May 9 over the VA’s bad faith bargaining at the negotiating table. NVAC also has two negotiability appeals pending at the Federal Labor Relations Authority after the VA incorrectly declared several union proposals to be “non-negotiable.”
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.
Read More
With the election approaching Marcial Gomez talks about what’s on the line for TSA employees and his concerns about Project 2025.
Read More
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.
Read More
