AFT at contract impasse with the Bureau of Indian Affairs

First-time contract negotiations between the AFT and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are at an impasse over a provision regarding contract non-renewals. While this particular issue applies only to the bureau's school personnel, some 4,000 workers, the entire contract for more than 8,000 BIA employees, is on hold until the dispute is resolved by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).

Union officials are anxious for ratification of the agreement--the first between the AFT's Indian Educators Federation, which won representation rights in June 1999, and the BIA.

Dennis Ziemer, an AFT national representative and chief negotiator of the union bargaining team, says one of the most important gains in the contract is the revised grievance and arbitration procedure. The union views this provision as an "enforceability clause," Ziemer says, because it establishes a specific time line under which disputes will be resolved. The new language contrasts previous past practice, an open-ended process, under which management would use its discretion to prolong the grievance and arbitration process--sometimes up to two years--to discourage employees from filing complaints. Under the new contract, employee grievances will be processed and heard within six months to one year by a core team of arbitrators. While the union awaits FLRA action, it is making its case to lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

In July, a delegation of BIA bargaining unit members went to Capitol Hill to solicit lawmaker support for continuance of the contract non-renewal provision of the collective bargaining agreement. Specifically, BIA officials want to remove the provision from the collective bargaining agreement, which essentially would make all school personnel at-will employees with no grievance rights.

The Indian Educators Federation is a unique unit of the AFT. The school personnel represented by the union, including teachers, cafeteria workers and dormitory assistants, are part of the federal government's "excepted service." Non-school personnel, often referred to as BOBs for "balance of the bureau," include fire fighters, police officers and maintenance workers, are part of the federal government's "civil service."