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We write to provide an update and advice in response to Associate Center Director Raymond Rubilotta’s recent email announcement of imminent office and laboratory moves that will severely reduce the Goddard campus footprint. We note that unlike what is implied in the Associate Center Director’s email these moves and closures go well beyond what agency leadership had approved in Goddard's 2019 20-Year Master plan. We are very concerned these moves are not being orchestrated in accordance with NASA and GSFC established policies regarding the moving and disposing of equipment and documents. We are also gravely concerned that the unstrategic processes being followed jeopardize human safety, flight hardware and expensive lab equipment, and will compromise GSFC core engineering and science capabilities.
GESTA had previously met and bargained in good faith with Center management on building moves given they constitute changes in employees' working conditions. Due to Executive Order 14343, management is no longer recognizing our Collective Bargaining Agreement, and these negotiations with management have been halted. However, we urge NASA management to ensure that if buildings must be closed due to budgetary reasons, these closures happen safely and strategically. We will be exploring other actions we may take to ensure this. Our advice to employees is: Your union contributions are used for legal fees, outreach events, travel for advocacy work, arbitration, training, IT expenses, and IFPTE’s national-scale efforts. Any expenditure over $300 is voted upon by dues-paying members at monthly meetings.
We have received notice from management that automatic payroll deduction for union dues will be discontinued. We have set up a new online payment platform on Zeffy. Please sign up now to maintain your support and remain a member of the union. We will work with members who transition from payroll to Zeffy to reimburse any double-billing of dues that occur. Members can also choose to donate any extra amount to GESTA. If you have any questions pertaining to dues, please contact us. And if you haven’t already, please provide GESTA with your best personal email address so we can remain in touch as we transition our communications from government email. Thank you to GESTA members and friends who came out to participate in recent outreach events to the local Greenbelt community over the Labor Day weekend! These events included tabling at the festival under the “NASA Needs Help” effort, and marching in the Labor Day parade under the GESTA banner.
GESTA members prepared a memo, which was sent to Center Management on September 4th, titled “Justification for Maintaining the On-Site Health Unit and Fitness Center”. It quotes NASA and Goddard Procedural Requirements (NPRs and GPRs) that require the existence of an on-site health unit. Utilizing employee input from GESTA’s Facilities Closures Bargaining Brainstorm, the memo also lists services currently provided by the health unit beyond those required by the NPRs and GPRs. The full memo is available here.
Based on guidance from IFPTE, we plan to continue to take action and represent our members in the following ways:
Term Employee Right Preserved Thanks to the efforts of AVP Matt Joplin and the Term, Pathways, and Probationary Employees Committee led by Margaret Samuels, a Goddard term employee whose term was expiring pushed back on HR and will be getting their severance pay. Although in most cases term employees do not receive severance pay, this employee came directly from a prior permanent federal service position which entitled them to severance. If any term employees find themselves in a similar situation please reach out to GESTA for advice or representation. This type of representative action does not rely on management upholding our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Engineering Directorate Management Thwarted in Preventing Outside Employment GESTA was recently able to assist members in getting outside employment approvals. As one member told us, “The union is a massive help when the issue is just one holdout in management. I'd been stonewalled getting my outside employment form signed for months because someone in ETD management didn't want to sign. Within a week of the union applying pressure, everyone who was requesting outside employment had our forms signed, and the manager… was taken out of the process. Even without a CBA, I think we could help each other in a similar situation.” GESTA Members Speak with Congress Six GESTA members spoke with Congressional staffers about the impacts of the DRP at Goddard and the importance of continued funding. We’re very proud of our members for volunteering their time and sharing their perspectives at this event. GESTA members will also attend a NASA-wide legislative advocacy week Sept 15-19th, where union delegates from NASA centers across the nation will visit with staffers in Washington, DC. Both of these events were organized by our parent union IFPTE. More details available here. These Congressional advocacy actions and rights are also entirely independent of our CBA. IFPTE issued a press release on August 28th on the recent addition of NASA to the President’s executive order (EO) revoking certain federal agency bargaining agreements.
IFPTE President Matt Biggs stated, “Today’s Executive Order seeks to deny bargaining rights at NASA on a bogus national security rationale, despite long-established Unions and bargaining rights for NASA civil servants that extend back to the 1960s …IFPTE will continue to fight against these attacks in the courts, on Capitol Hill, and at the grassroots level.” IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson stated “..this is particularly damaging to IFPTE’s NASA Locals and members, as well as our members’ work on groundbreaking NASA missions that provide immense scientific value and advance aeronautics and space exploration. Rest assured, our Locals will continue to exist and continue to represent their membership, despite these illegal orders.” IFPTE is fighting this executive order in the courts. Prior to NASA being added to this executive order, IFPTE had joined with other federal labor unions to file a July 29th lawsuit against the administration against the EO. That lawsuit will be amended to add NASA shortly. The lawsuit requests injunctive relief to halt the revocation of bargaining agreements under this EO. IFPTE and GESTA will keep members posted on any updates on this legal fight. A note that half of members' union dues are passed up to IFPTE – so your dues help fund these type of legal actions. This post is an addendum to our prior post on your rights during a Reduction in Force (RIF) and focuses on your retirement options and rights. Please see the OPM RIF webpage and the other links in this article for additional information.
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