DC Judges Vote for a Union with IFPTE



From the left: Judge Scott Harvey, Teresa Idris (General Counsel), Judge Arabella Teal, Paul Shearon (IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer), Judge Jesse Goode, Greg Junemann (IFPTE President), and Judge Elizabeth Figueroa.



For Immediate Release

July 31, 2014

Contact: Jamie Horwitz

202/549-4921

jhdcpr@starpower.net





Washington DC -- Administrative law judges who work for the District of Columbia’s Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), the office which provides adjudication services for several DC agencies, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to join the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE). Eighty percent of judges voting cast ballots for the union. Judge Jesse Goode, who hears cases related to unemployment insurance, said, “This has been a long time in coming. We wanted a union because we wanted a voice in making improvements to our courts. We specifically wanted to be members of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers because IFPTE represents nearly 2,000 federal administrative law judges. Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly even for judges, but today democracy prevailed and the union was voted in.”



Today’s vote marks an end to a more than two-year battle by judges who were denied their rights to form a union by former Chief Administrative Law Judge Mary Oates Walker. She hired a union-busting law firm, Venable LLP, with diverted Medicaid reimbursements without approval of the City Council or the mayor, as well as paid for a witch hunt study to go after the judges who blew the whistle on her unethical behavior. In total, she spent approximately $500,000. Walker also threatened and intimidated individual judges for both union activity and for taking steps to expose unethical behavior by the chief judge and one of her subordinates.



Judges had initially filed for an election on July 27, 2012. According to District labor law, an election was supposed to be held within 30 days. Walker, with the assistance of the outside law firm, succeeded in delaying the election. Since the time judges filed their election petition, Walker -- who headed the Office of Administrative Hearings for four years -- was brought up on charges of wrongdoing connected to contract steering, conflicts of interest, retaliation against subordinates and lying to investigators. On July 22, Walker admitted to four violations related to conflicts of interest and “preferential treatment” and agreed to pay a $20,000 fine. In May, she was fired by Mayor Gray after a report by the city’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability (BEGA) charged Walker with 19 counts of wrongdoing.



“Professionals who form a union not only gain a greater voice in the policies that impact their work and profession, but it also allows them to hold their employer accountable, as in the case with these judges,” said Paul Shearon, IFPTE’s Secretary-Treasurer. “We will now work with the judges to collectively bargain an agreement with District managers that will reflect their collective wisdom on how OAH can be improved.” The District of Columbia’s Office of Administrative Hearings currently employs 28 judges. Nineteen of 24 judges voting chose to cast their ballots for IFPTE.



IFPTE, which represents engineers, skilled technicians, and scientists at companies such as Boeing and federal agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense, has in recent years become the organization of choice for many professionals working in the legal, auditing and IT professions who are seeking to engage in collective bargaining with their employer.





Related News

11.08.13 - D.C. Administrative Law Judge Organizing Gets Boost from Ruling

03.31.13 - Group of D.C. government judges seeks to organize for first time (Washington Post)

D.C. Administrative Law Judges Vote to Form Union, Ending Two Years of Labor Strife (Washington Post)

< View All News