Nothing is easy at the federal government’s most unpopular agency. Six months after President Barack Obama fired all of its top appointees, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has a new panel of commissioners so that it can finally do its job of resolving disputes between federal employee unions and the government. While its Federal Service Impasses Panel sat vacant since March, the FLRA piled up a backlog of disputes that went unheard.

The inability to process labor complaints undoubtedly did little for FLRA’s already poor morale. During the last three surveys examining “The Best Places to Work,” the agency came in dead last, based on data collected from those who work there.

Of the seven appointees selected by Obama to sit on the panel, four were there during the Clinton administration: Mary Jacksteit (chairwoman), Edward Hartfield, Marvin Johnson and Don Wasserman. Appointee Barbara Franklin was once chief counsel for the agency, and Thomas Angelo worked as a regional attorney for FLRA between 1981 and 1983.
                                                                                                                                                     -Noel Brinkerhoff

Obama Appoints New Members to Labor-management Panel (by Alyssa Rosenberg, Government Executive)
Worst Government Agency Defends Title (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Federal Labor Relations Authority (AllGov)