Where Has Mike Been, and Where Is Mike Now? - Visit to FCI Dublin and the WXRO; Partnership in Washington DC; New Hampshire; Pollock, Luisiana; and Master Agreement in Washington, DC

In the past three weeks, I've been traveling extensively. Here's a breakdown of where I've been since my last Blog post.

I visited FCI Dublin and Local 3584 to help with a representational issue. While I was there, I met with some of the Local Union leadership and the FCI administration. While I was in the neighborhood, I traveled to Stockton, CA, to meet with officials at the Western Regional Office (WXRO), including the acting Regional Director, Deputy Regional Director Joe Moorehead.

Following that visit, I traveled to Washington DC for a scheduled Partnership Meeting between CPL 33 and the agency. At this meeting, we were supposed to continue our Relationship by Objectives Program (RBO) that we began with the help of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Instead of continuing to 'improve' our relationship as intended, we ended up getting into a serious dispute over the agency's planned unilateral implementation of the Staff Entrance and Search Procedures Policy. There was quite a bit of email traffic in and around the leadership of CPL over this issue, so I'm not going to attempt to break it down here. Suffice it to say, things then went from bad to worse. While the CPL Board was trying to resolve other important issues with the agency, the Staff Entrance and Search Procedures Policy dominated the 3 day Partnership meeting. Several Board members, myself included, met with AFGE General Counsel's Office attornies to start strategizing the Council's opposition to the actions of the agency (they'll be more about this later, as our meetings with AFGE GCO continue).

As many of you know from my email communications, I then traveled to my home state of New Hampshire to help with a family medical issue. Thank you all for your calls, texts, and emails of support during that time; my younger brother is doing much better and will be returning home from the hospital this coming Wednesday.

Two days ago, on Friday, I participated in an informational picket at USP Pollock, LA; below are a couple of links to local news stories about the picket.

Correctional officers, union members protest in downtown Alexandria

Workers call for more staff at federal prison in Pollock

This week, most of the CPL Board will be in Washington DC for a scheduled Master Agreement negotiations session; while we are in DC, Dwayne Person and I will be having a follow-up meeting with AFGE General Counsel over the Staff Entrance and Search Procedures Policy, and our available avenues of remedy to fight the unlawfully implemented policy.