General Discussion

As we all know, our Agency is going through a period of "hiring pause", which the Union reasonably calls by its name, a Hiring Freeze. No matter it's name, this Freeze poses a challenge that has plagued our Agency sinceitss inception, CHANGE. Change can be confusing, frustrating and, at times, unfair, as your Union, we wish to educate you on how to navigate through these changes and help you recognize some things that may be cause for concern.

It is important to recognize that, just like the Union, management also has rights, those which cannot be bargained over are called exclusive management rights. Some of these exclusive management rights include the place in which employees will perform their duties and the type of duties that the employees will perform. More than ever we are seeing management change, expand and exploits to the limits of their rights, impacting our work and directly causing changes. Here in Robley Rex VAMC, these changes are coming up as a result of the Agencies Hiring Freeze, as there are operational needs that need to be met.

What are we doing about all of these changes? Any change that is more than "de minimis" (that has a great and significant impact in the employees work), any change in working condition (to simply put it, any change that affects the conditions of employment) and/or other case-by-case instances may be bargained with the Union. The Union bargains over how the changes will be implemented and the impact it will have on it's BUEs, however, please note that change, in many instances, is inevitable.

So what I do as a Bargaining Unit Employee? Notify you Union if management wants to implement right away. They have their rights, however they do have an obligation to notify us of any proposal for change, something that our Agency has failed to do many times, speciallly as of recent. Due to statutory limitations, change may be inevitable, but we will fight, as we do, do ensure that change is applied in a fair, equitable and contractually assertive matter.