The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) is an independent agency that handles issues relating to labor unions and federal workers. The FLRA has three members, including a Chair, who are located in Washington D.C., and are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to five year terms. Since 1962, federal employees have had the right to organize into unions, which can then represent them in their dealings with the government concerning wages, hours, working conditions, and other matters that affect their working lives. The FLRA certifies federal employee unions, adjudicates disputes arising under the Civil Service Reform Act, decides cases concerning collective bargaining agreement proposals, resolves impasses in negotiations between unions and the government, and hears appeals concerning unfair labor practices and grievance arbitration awards.
From 2006 to 2008, the FLRA had the dubious distinction of earning the title of the worst agency to work for among the smaller agencies in the federal government. Employee satisfaction was so low that researchers did not include the FLRA results in overall computations so as not to statistically skew the results. Under the George W. Bush administration, FLRA was underfunded, only one of its three seats was filled and, with no general counsel on staff, unfair labor practice cases were not being prosecuted, its case backlog standing at 400. With a funding boost under the Barack Obama administration, the FLRA has seen a marked increase in productivity and morale. In 2010 it was named the most improved agency in the Partnership for Public Service list of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) was established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which recognized the longstanding right of federal employees not working for the U.S. Postal Service to organize, bargain collectively, and to participate through labor organizations of their choice in decisions affecting their working lives. However, the Act forbids strikes by federal employees. As academic commentator Carolyn Ban put it, the legislative negotiations that resulted in the establishment of the FLRA “so muddied the content and intent of the new agency that no one knew what it was supposed to do or how it was supposed to do it.”
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has six major administrative components.
The Authority is the three-member panel, including the Chair, which decides major cases that come before the FLRA. The Authority also appoints the Administrative Law Judges, who hold hearings and render recommended decisions.
The Office of the General Counsel (OGC), located in Washington D.C., has seven regional offices:Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The OGC is the FLRA’s independent investigator and prosecutor. The General Counsel, who is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for a five-year term, is responsible for the general, day-to-day management of the OGC, including the management of the FLRA’s seven Regional Offices. The General Counsel is currently Julia Akins Clark.
The Federal Service Impasses Panel has seven part-time members, including a Chair, who resolve impasses between federal agencies and unions representing federal employees arising from negotiations over wages, hours, or other working conditions. If bargaining and mediation between the parties prove unsuccessful, the Panel has the authority to recommend procedures and to take whatever action it deems necessary to resolve the impasse. The current Chair is Mary Jacksteit, appointed by President Obama in 2009. She had previously served on the Panel for seven years during the Clinton administration.
The Office of the Inspector General, created by statute in 1988, reports directly to the Chair and to Congress, conducts and supervises investigations, internal reviews, audits, and evaluations of the programs and operations of the FLRA. At the present time, the FLRA IG is Francine Eichler.
The Foreign Service Labor Relations Board was created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (pdf) to administer labor-management relations for Foreign Service employees in the Agency for International Development, and the Departments of State, Agriculture and Commerce. The Board consists of three members, appointed by the Chair of the Authority, who also serves as Chair of the Board. The staff of the FLRA provides administrative support to the Board. The FLRA General Counsel serves as General Counsel for the Board.
The Foreign Service Impasse Disputes Panel was also created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980. It consists of five part-time members appointed by the Chairman of the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board (i.e., the FLRA Chairman). The Disputes Panel resolves impasses between federal agencies and foreign service personnel in the same federal agencies covered by the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board. The staff of the Federal Service Impasses Panel supports the Foreign Service Disputes Panel.
From the Web Site of the Federal Labor Relations Authority
In the five years between 2007 and 2011, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has spent over $3 million on nearly 70 transactions for such services as ADP software, technical assistant, contract procurement, and auditing.
The top five recipients of FLRA contracts between 2007 and 2011 are:
1. VMD SYS Integrators $765,469
2. OC Solutions Inc. $213,939
3. Webfirst Inc. $212,618
4. Paladin Capital Group $170,438
5. Distributed Solutions $142,267
Major stakeholders include federal employee unions, such as the National Federation of Federal Employees, American Federation of Government Employees, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, National Association of Government Employees, National Treasury Employees Union, National Weather Service Employees Organization, Change to Win Federation, and the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), federal agencies themselves, and taxpayers.
Pro Management Bias in the Federal Service Impasses Panel
In November 2007, during the Bush administration, Colleen M. Kelley, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, criticized the Federal Service Impasses Panel for ruling in favor of management 68% of the time. Under President Bill Clinton, the panel favored management only 44% of the time.
NTEU President Kellu Chindes FSIP for Consistent Pro-Agency Stance, Failure to Hire Professional Staff (National Treasury Employees Union Press Release)
Federal Employee Satisfaction Survey
In a 2006 survey of 221,000 federal government workers regarding employee satisfaction, by far the worst score went to the FLRA. In fact, its rating was so low the survey writers actually excluded it from the final data, on the grounds that its inclusion would unfairly skew the results. The FLRA continued to hold that distinction in 2007, 2008, and 2009. By 2010, with renewed funding from the Obama administration, it was named the most improved agency in the Partnership for Public Service list of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.
Best and worst places to work: How your agency stacks up (by Tim Kauffman, Federal Times) (pdf)
A Properly Funded FLRA = An Efficient Federal Government (International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers)(pdf)
Small Agency Conducts Big Election (by Joe Davidson, Washington Post)
PATCO Strike
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) was a union for air traffic controllers organized in 1968. On August 3, 1981, the union and its 13,000 members declared a strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay and a 32-hour workweek. Although the strike violated federal law against federal employee strikes, several government unions had previously declared strikes without incurring penalties. However, President Ronald Reagan, whom the union had endorsed in 1980, ordered the workers back to work. On August 5, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for three years (Reagan later rescinded the ban). The FLRA, in a 2–1 vote, decertified PATCO on October 22, 1981, meaning that PATCO no longer had the legal right to represent the controllers. The FLRA vote was itself marred by controversy, as one member, Henry B. Frazier, III, reported to the FBI what he believed to be improper contacts between officials of another union and FLRA member Leon B. Applewhaite. A subsequent investigation found no wrongdoing.
Barbs for an Old Union Man (by George J. Church, Time)
The Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike (by Jason Manning, Eighties Club)
1981 Strike Leaves Legacy for American Workers (by Kathleen Schalch, NPR)
Illegal Furniture Purchase in 1981
In 1981, FLRA purchased more than $250,000 worth of office furnishings, an unusually high amount for a federal agency of its size. After the purchases were publicized, the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) or GAO, issued a reported stating that the purchases violated several federal laws, regulations, and executive orders.
Deficient Management Practices at the Federal Labor Relations Authority - Action Being Taken (GAO Report) (pdf)
In 2006, the Bush administration announced a plan to establish separate labor boards for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, which has substantially reduced the FLRA’s caseload.
New Labor Relations Program for DoD Unveiled (by Ralph Smith, FedSmith)
Dale Cabaniss, 2001-2008
Director Dale Cabaniss, a member of the FLRA since 1997, received a BA from the University of Georgia in 1983 and a JD from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University in 1993. From 1984 through 1993, she worked for Republican Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska as a Legislative Assistant and then Legislative Director. From 1993 through 1997, Cabaniss served as the Chief Counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Post Office and Civil Service, which Republican Senator Ted Stevens, also of Alaska, chaired. For eleven months in 1997, she was a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor and Health and Human Services, also chaired by Stevens. Cabaniss resigned as FLRA chair on July 15, 2008.
Donald S. Wasserman, 2000-2001
From 1967-1995, Mr. Wasserman worked for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), eventually serving as Director of Research and Collective Bargaining. He is the only Chair to have worked directly for the labor movement. He is now a professional labor mediator.
Phyllis N. Segal 1994-2000
Like Chairs Haughton, McKee, and Wasserman, Ms. Segal was, and is, a professional labor mediator.
Jean McKee 1989-1994
McKee was executive director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service from 1983 to 1986, when she was appointed as a member of the FLRA. She was a longtime Republican activist, who was nevertheless appointed to various federal positions by presidents of both parties. McKee’s private sector work was exclusively for corporations, as opposed to labor unions.
Jerry L. Calhoun 1985-1988
Calhoun worked for The Boeing Company for a total of 35 years, interrupted only by service as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981-83 and Chairman of FLRA.
Henry B. Frazier, III 1984-1985 (Acting Chair)
Frazier is the only Chair to have previously served on the Federal Labor Relations Council, a predecessor agency to the FLRA. He served as its Executive Director for six years.
Barbara J. Mahone 1983-1984
Starting in 1968, and after her brief term as Chair, Mahone worked for General Motors in various labor relations positions, eventually becoming GM’s Executive Director of Human Resources.
Ronald W. Haughton 1979-1983
Haughton was one of the nation’s leading labor mediators for more than forty years, starting his federal career with War Labor Board from 1942-1945. He was the only FLRA member to dissent from the Board’s 1981 decision to decertify the PATCO union. Haughton, along with Henry Frazier, Jean McKee, and Phyllis Segal, are the four Chairs who were also professional mediators.
- Table of Contents
- Overview
- History
- What it Does
- Where Does the Money Go
- Controversies
- Suggested Reforms
- Comments
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