Vol
V • No. 1 • December 2006
Local 12 Gets $105 With A Little Help From Their Friend, Paul.
On Thursday November 30, 2006, OASAM Assistant Secretary Patrick Pizzella informed Local 12 that the full one hundred and five dollar transit subsidy would be available for Department of Labor employees starting January 2007. Pizzella stated that while the Department disputed their requirement to pay the full subsidy, they choose to honor the subsidy in no small part due to the pressure of the office of Senator Paul Sarbanes from Maryland.
Local 12 actively lobbied the Washington Metropolitan Area congressional delegation to force Secretary of Labor Chao to abide by the federal statute on transit subsidy for federal employees. Four Senators and eight Representatives in the House wrote a letter to Chao in January 2006 strongly urging her to abide by the statute. This letter was signed by the entire local congressional delegation including Senator John Warner, Senator George Allen, Congressman Frank Wolf and Congressman Tom Davis, who are all members of Chao’s own political party.
The letter from Congress stated, “As the sponsors of the transit benefit provision of SAFETEA-LU, we believe it is critically important for the Department to comply with the requirements of this new law…Since Section 3049 of SAFETEA-LU requires the Department of Labor to offer its employees transit benefits up to the maximum level, we expect the Department to provide the full $105 per month benefit beginning on October 1.”
Local 12’s victory through our petitioning of Congress is a classic example of how the bargaining power of the Union benefits both federal employees and the public.
Arbitrator Finds That DOL Was Wrong When It Imposed DOORS Program.
The Department implemented the DOORS program for job vacancies in October 11, 2004, even though the parties had not concluded a new collective bargaining. The Union challenged this policy through the parties’ arbitration process. On December 1, 2006, an independent arbitrator ruled that the Department did not have the authority to implement the new DOORS system until March 20, 2005 when the parties began a new collective bargaining agreement.
According to an Arbitrator, employees who were harmed by the DOORS program from October 11, 2004 till March 20, 2005, are entitled to priority consideration
The arbitrator further ruled that any employee who can establish, through documents, that he/she was harmed in efforts to apply for a job vacancy in DOL after October 11, 2004 and prior to March 20, 2005, is entitled to “priority consideration” for the next job vacancy for which they are determined eligible. The arbitrator is maintaining jurisdiction over this case until the matter is resolved for all those employees adversely impacted by the early implementation of the DOORS system.
This important victory for DOL employees was made possible by Local 12’s legal intern program. Alysia Robben, a third year student at the UDC School of Law, wrote the legal brief which won the case. Ms. Robben, who was supervised by Executive Vice President Eleanor Lauderdale, was the Union’s ninth law student intern.
Priority Consideration means that an eligible employee must be interviewed and not have to compete with other applicants, and if the person is qualified, she/he must be selected for the position.
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