Congressional Research Employees Association

On Monday, April 19, CREA is sponsoring a lunchtime discussion with Dr. Barbara Jones, the American Library Association’s Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Dr. Jones will be speaking about censorship, planning and policy making, technology and privacy concerns, and the globalization of intellectual freedom issues in the 21st Century.

Intellectual freedom is one of the guarantees of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and librarians, as keepers and guardians of information, are trusted with making sure that patrons’ rights to intellectual freedom are secure. Please join CREA and Dr. Jones for this interesting talk.

The discussion will be held in the Mary Pickford Theater, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. Refreshments will be served after the discussion.

 
Today, CREA and CRS management signed an agreement on telework (Telework Agreement).  Negotiations began in October and concluded yesterday.

Starting around the first of May, all bargaining unit employees, including those on a compressed work schedule, may request to telework up to one day per week. Six months later, a one-year pilot program will be established allowing staff who are not analysts in the research divisions, legislative attorneys in the American Law Division, or information professionals in KSG, to request to telework up to two days per week. CREA has argued persistently for telework since the Library adopted a program in 2005.

Through our unflagging efforts, and with input from CRS colleagues, the support of the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, and assistance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, we have succeeded. We would like to thank CRS management for reaching this agreement.  It is our firm belief that our service to Congress will only be enhanced by this program, and we look forward to working with CRS employees and management in making it a success.

In a few weeks, CREA will hold one or two open sessions to explain the agreement in more detail and answer any questions.  Official time will be granted to attend these sessions.  CREA encourages everyone to attend.

 
The CREA Scholarship and Loan Repayment Grant Committee is glad to report that every applicant in the first round of the new program has been offered funding.

Loan repayment grant recipients include Cheryl Beaver, Vanessa Burrows, and David Pham.

Scholarships have been awarded in the amounts of $1,500 to Hassan Hussein for study at Howard University and $490 to David Pham for a USDA course.

A second round will be held in approximately four months. CREA encourages all members to review the program guidelines and consider applying in the next round.

 
President Roth was among the legislative branch representatives invited to testify at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch hearing Wednesday, February 24.

Among the issues he addressed were telework, COOP planning, outside speaking and writing concerns, and labor-management relations. In a limited question and answer period following his testimony, Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz focused on telework. She asked about the differences between management and union proposals, and asked whether management’s proposal only allowed telework on fixed days. When President Roth replied only fixed days, the Chairwoman went on to ask whether it allowed employees with home emergencies to work from home, or whether it allowed for employees to work from home during the recent snow closures. President Roth informed the Chairwoman that it did not.

At the end of a Roll Call report about the hearing, a “troubled” Ms. Wasserman Schultz was quoted as saying, “CRS doesn’t appear to be taking the directive [the FY2010 appropriation report language] seriously…I’m frustrated because we were very specific about what they needed to make happen.” She added that she must still hear the agency’s side of the story.

Read President Roth’s complete testimony.

On January 19, 2010, the Director announced a telework program for non-bargaining-unit, non-supervisory staff. These are employees not covered by CREA’s contract.

This program is the same as the program proposed to CREA in October. Then and now, CREA considers the program more restrictive than necessary. Our bargaining team is still negotiating to develop a better program (for details, see telework update of December 12 at http://creaunion.org/2009/12/14/telework-negotiation-update-crea-in-mediation-with-crs-management/).

Among the changes we are working to include are the following.

1. The ability to grieve inappropriate denials of telework.
2. The ability to participate in telework while on a compflex schedule.
3. The ability to request a substitute telework day if required to report to the Library on your regularly scheduled telework day
4. When appropriate, the ability to telework up to two days per week.
5. The assurance that the Director cannot make any changes to the program without negotiating them.

None of these are included in the program announced by the Director for non-bargaining-unit employees.

While progress has been made in negotiating, certain important issues remain; CREA and CRS met with a mediator during December and January. Three more sessions have been scheduled in early February. If we cannot resolve our differences, the mediator will declare impasse and the matter will be forwarded to the Federal Service Impasses Panel for a final determination.

The negotiating team and CREA’s Board of Governors remain committed to resolving the outstanding differences quickly and providing CRS bargaining unit members with a model telework program.