Today, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s nominee, Anne Wagner, to be a Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). NTEU strongly supported the confirmation of Ms. Wagner, who currently serves as an Associate Special Counsel at the Office of Special Counsel. She previously served as the Vice Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and was Chair, Vice Chair, Member, and General Counsel for the Government Accountability Office's Personnel Appeals Board. Prior to that she spent nearly 20 years working on federal employee labor management issues.
As you know, the FLRA administers the Labor-Management relations program for 2.1 million non-Postal federal employees. The FLRA, among other things, supervises union elections, adjudicates unfair labor practice complaints, and resolves questions concerning the negotiability of bargaining proposals. It is comprised of three members, two from the president’s political party and one from the opposing party. Currently the FLRA has two members, Chairman Susan Grundmann and Colleen Kiko, who served as the FLRA chairman during the last administration. With only two members on the panel, many matters were stalled due to a tie vote.
During the last administration, the majority of the FLRA aggressively sought to cripple collective bargaining and destroy the effectiveness of unions. They did this by issuing decisions, policy statements and regulations that have changed longstanding interpretations of the federal sector labor statute. The absence of a full panel at the FLRA means that many of these anti-union interpretations and policies have remained in place. Today’s vote to confirm Ms. Wagner gives the FLRA a full panel and allows it to move forward issuing new rules and decisions to ensure that employees are treated fairly and with dignity and respect.