Congressional Research Employees Association

CREA has helped Senior Specialists regain important job protections. Employees in these positions will now receive the same contractual protections as all other CRS bargaining-unit staff. The absorption of the Senior Specialists back into the bargaining unit increases it by seven positions.

When CREA was established in the mid-1970s, Senior Specialists were included in the bargaining unit. In 1980, Senior Specialists began to supervise research assistants and secretaries. At that time, CREA and the Library agreed that these supervisory duties would remove Senior Specialists from the bargaining unit.

In 2006, the CRS Director eliminated these support staff. Since Senior Specialists no longer had supervisory duties and were not part of management, standards delineated by law indicated that they should be included in the bargaining unit. CREA formally requested CRS management include the Senior Specialists in the bargaining unit; however, CRS management denied this request.

CREA petitioned the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to determine the Senior Specialists’ bargaining-unit status. In response, the Library and CRS management filed an FLRA petition to remove nine Senior Level Specialists from the bargaining unit, thereby seeking to deny them the protections of the contract they had always enjoyed. CREA’s position was that the Library’s petition was baseless, as the Senior Level Specialists have never had supervisory or managerial responsibilities and have been in the bargaining unit since the position was created. In fact, in the mid-1990s, CREA negotiated the Senior Level Specialist pay-for-performance system with the Library.

An FLRA hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, December 4, 2007. Late on Friday, November 30, 2007, the Library and CRS management notified CREA that they agreed to recognize Senior Specialists as part of the bargaining unit and withdraw its petition to have the Senior Level Specialists removed.

Why the eleventh-hour change of heart? Before the hearing, the Library interviewed some of the Senior Specialists and Senior Level Specialists to find out what they do in CRS. They found out what CREA had told them: that neither Senior Specialists nor Senior Level Specialists supervise or manage other workers. Had the Library and CRS management taken the time to learn what our highest grade analysts do in their jobs, the many hours of needless hearing preparation by the Library and the Union could have been avoided.

The reinstatement of the Senior Specialists into the bargaining unit has been completed. Please join us in welcoming these folks back to CREA!