Labor in the News: D.C. Administrative Law Judges Organize

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Citing a “chilled work environment that is unduly stressful, demeaning, and counterproductive,” a group of city administrative law judges is seeking to organize for the first time, reported Mike DeBonis in the Washington Post earlier this week. The DC judges have been trying to organize with IFPTE for nearly a year. While more than enough judges have signed union cards, the agency’s chief judge has hired a high-powered private law firm to keep fighting against unionization. “The dispute is being closely watched by labor leaders in the city,” DeBonis reported, “who are concerned that if [OAH Chief Administrative Law Judge Mary Oates] Walker prevails, other city agencies with similar independent status might break with the mayor to separately negotiate employment matters.” “It would set a very bad precedent,” Metro Council President Jos Williams told the Post. “It’s an invitation for other so-called quasi-independent organizations to say they are not covered by the same rules that the rest of the agencies are covered by.” Click here to read the full report. - photo: DC administrative judge Jesse Goode tells Metro Council delegates about judges' attempts to unionize at the February 2013 Council meeting; photo by Chris Garlock