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email Lawmakers Urge Attorney General Nominee to Restore Immigration Judges Union
The National Association of Immigration Judges was decertified as a union by the Trump administration last year following a controversial decision by the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The leadership of the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week urged President Biden’s nominee to be attorney general to “take all necessary actions” to ensure that a union representing immigration judges does not lose its certification following a controversial decision last year to bust the labor group.
By Natalie Alms
President Joe Biden has nominated Ernest DuBester to be the chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that governs labor-management relations. It is a great privilege and an honor to be chosen by President Biden to serve as chairman of the FLRA, DuBester said in a statement.
The chairmanship is effective immediately without Senate confirmation, said Aloysius Hogan, the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs and Program Planning at the FLRA.
Under the Trump administration, DuBester has been the only member of the three-member panel appointed by a Democrat, as unions have jockeyed with the panel over its decisions and the legality of the makeup of FLRA s Federal Services Impasses Panel.
Biden reverses Trump orders seen as hostile to federal workers Eric Yoder President Biden on Friday knocked out the main pillars of his predecessor’s policies toward the federal workforce by repealing Trump administration orders that restricted bargaining and appeal rights and another that sought to remove civil service protections from a large class of employees. Federal agencies for several years have cited the union-related orders to restrict the subjects over which they will bargain, although the rules needed to carry out the disciplinary policies were finalized only last fall. One of the orders, issued in October, could have turned tens of thousands of career employees or more essentially into political appointees, although time ran out on the Trump administration before it could make those changes.
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Immigration Judges Ask 4th Circ. To Block Muzzling Policy
Law360 (December 17, 2020, 7:00 PM EST) An immigration judges union urged the Fourth Circuit Wednesday to block the Justice Department s prior restraint policy prohibiting them from speaking publicly about immigration, arguing their constitutional claims must be resolved by federal courts and not administratively, and that the claims aren t impacted by the union s collective bargaining status.
In a 34-page brief, the National Association of Immigration Judges slammed the U.S. Department of Justice s argument that the union doesn t have standing to pursue free speech claims on behalf of immigration judges in light of the Federal Labor Relations Authority s recent decision to decertify the union s collective bargaining status. The union.
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Fed Unions Fight Federal Labor Decision Limiting Lobbying
Law360 (December 16, 2020, 7:24 PM EST) Two unions representing federal workers urged the D.C. Circuit to reverse a Federal Labor Relations Authority decision blocking workers from indirectly lobbying on the job, saying the panel misread federal law prohibiting lobbying using federal funds.
The American Federation of Government Workers and the National Treasury Employees Union slammed the FLRA s ruling that the Anti-Lobbying Act blocks federal union officials from discussing lobbying efforts or training members to deal with Congress in their opening brief Tuesday challenging the policy pivot.
They argued that the ruling conflicts with agency precedent and workers explicit right under federal-sector labor law to lobby lawmakers on.