FWA Tells Senators That FLRA's Anti-Union Decision Against NAIJ Also Attacks Due Process in Immigration Court -- Urges Confirmation of FLRA Nominees ASAP
In response to the latest decision and order from the Federal Labor Authority (FLRA) that revokes the certification of the National Association of Immigration Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 (NAIJ), the Federal Workers Alliance (FWA) sent letter to remind Senate Democrats that the Trump appointed majority on the FLRA is carrying out the previous administration’s anti-federal union agenda and other policy priorities as it attacks federal employees’ union rights.
Despite a clear commitment from the Biden-Harris Administration to protect the federal workforce and make the federal government a model employer, the current FLRA still has a two-member Trump-appointed majority that continues to issue decisions that disregard decades of FLRA precedent, fail to apply legal reasoning, and are inherently biased against unions and the collective bargaining process. The Senate can remove this ideologically anti-union two-member FLRA majority by confirming Susan Grundmann, nominee for the FLRA.
The FWA letter tells Senators that this is an attack on good governance and fairness in the immigration system as well as on the NAIJ, the union that represented it’s immigration judge members’ concern that the Trump DOJ was improperly interfering in the Immigration Court:
This most recent decision is one more example of how the Trump Administration is still operating today at the FLRA to improperly impede the rights of federal employees to belong to a union. This decision is a double win for the still-operating Trump Administration because it:
* Takes away union rights for more federal employee; and
* Enables future administrations to prejudice the impartiality of U.S. immigration court cases through extraordinary political autonomy and decreased adjudicatory transparency
That anti-union Trump Administration effort weaponized the FLRA against federal employees who sounded the alarm on policies that implemented a totally inappropriate anti-immigrant agenda through the Immigration Court. It's not just a bad decision and bad precedent, it removes the federal employee union that spoke up when Trump, AG Sessions, and AG Barr undermined due process in immigration court proceedings.
National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) remains an IFPTE affiliate. IFPTE and NAIJ are working to restore union rights for immigration judges represented by of NAIJ-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 . For that to happen IFPTE, NAIJ, and federal unions urgently need the Senate to confirm FLRA nominee Susan Grundmann and all FLRA nominees.
Read the FWA letter to Senate Leaders and Senate Democrats here [PDF].