APPENDIX G
*Removal of Social Security Commissioner Astrue*
March 03, 2009
Miami, Fla.
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
Today’s unprecedented economic
crisis is bringing into sharp focus Social
Security’s role as the backbone
of the country’s retirement security, as
well as the irresponsibility of former President George W. Bush’s policies
in regard to this critical
program.
Bush’s anti-government ideology
and commitment to putting the interests of his Wall Street contributors
ahead of the retirement security of working
families led him to propose privatizing Social Security in 2006. Thankfully,
that idea was roundly rejected.
Less well known were Bush’s
persistent efforts to undermine the Social
Security Administration with White House policies aimed at eroding public
confidence through misinformation
and stifling the dedicated staff of the
agency.
At the core of Bush’s approach
was the appointment of high-level agency
officials committed to his anti-Social
Security strategy.
As a first order of business, the
new administration should replace such
officials with people committed
to upholding the law and dedicated to the
original vision for Social
Security. This process should start with the office of commissioner.
Current Commissioner Michael J.
Astrue was appointed in 2006 for a six-year term that began in February
2007. Out of respect for the country’s decisive vote last fall against the Bush
policies and for restoring government to its rightful focus on the
people’s interests instead of the monied interests,
Commissioner Astrue should resign.
Any sense of decency should have led him to submit his
resignation by this time. If he continues to try to hold onto his job, the
Obama Administration should seek his ouster.
Part of the Bush legacy that
Astrue has continued are personnel and labor
relations policies that hobble
agency staff and undermine SSA’s ability to
fulfill its duty to the American
public. For example, Commissioner Astrue
has implemented a policy
prohibiting SSA employees from advising SSA
claimants regarding their benefit
election options. Because benefit election
options, such as month of
election, impact the eventual amount of benefits
received, this prohibition
deprives SSA claimants of advice and information that is important to
their claims.
Further, despite assurances at
his congressional confirmation hearing that
he would improve labor relations
at SSA, Commissioner Astrue has cut off all communication with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and
the Association of Administrative Law Judges/
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
(AALJ/IFPTE), and refuses to recognize AFGE and the AALJ/IFPTE as the
exclusive representatives of many bargaining unit
employees at SSA. He refuses to meet and discuss important work-related
issues with AFGE and the AALJ/IFPTE, adversely affecting sound labor
relations and employee morale.
Commissioner Astrue has also
disadvantaged unrepresented claimants in
disability hearings by not
providing sufficient staff to explain new
electronic processes to them,
such as their electronic disability file, and
has contributed to the disability
backlog by prematurely implementing
electronic processes, such as the
“iclaims” program, before they have been
fully developed.
Commissioner Astrue created
national hearing centers, apart from hearing
offices, in circumvention of
SSA’s obligations to the AALJ/IFPTE. This has resulted in one of the highest
and costliest supervisory/managerial ratios
in SSA. In establishing national
hearing centers, where only video hearings
can be conducted, Commissioner
Astrue has deprived claimants of due process by unduly encouraging them
to waive in-person hearings in favor of video hearings. Commissioner
Astrue has also contributed to the backlog of disability cases by
creating a work environment for SSA employees that is hostile to efficiency and
effectiveness.
In this same vein,
Commissioner Astrue’s hostile and destructive actions
toward AFGE and the
AALJ/IFPTE include his unilateral and vindictive
decision to withdraw
financial support from the annual AALJ Educational
Conference and his decision
to dismantle the Employee Activity Association.
He also has understaffed field
offices and teleservice centers, causing SSA’s former award-winning world-class
800 number telephone service to deteriorate to the degree that 20 percent of
calls to it result in busy signals, and 50 percent of calls to field
offices are not answered. On top of this, Commissioner Astrue closed
seventeen SSA offices in 2007 – the most in any one year in SSA’s
history.
Commissioner Astrue has allowed
the Office of Labor Management Relations to create a hostile working environment for some 48,000 hardworking
and dedicated SSA employees, and has not demonstrated a willingness to work
with the employee representatives to provide outstanding service to the
American public. Internal Equal Employment Opportunity
complaints have risen since he took office. Furthermore, Commissioner
Astrue has excessively used the Federal Career
Intern Program to circumvent the federal Veterans
Preference guidelines, which provide hiring and promotional opportunities
for retired military workers. Compounding his lack of regard for SSA’s
workforce,
Commissioner Asture has
subcontracted out core SSA responsibilities,
compromising the integrity of
important statutory and regulatory responsibilities, to the detriment of the
American public.
Commissioner Astrue has
demonstrated a callous disregard for the Social
Security Act by encouraging
undue haste in making judicial decisions in
disability cases and
discouraging quality, thereby adversely affecting the
American taxpayer because
each disability case is valued at $250,000.
Moreover, he has eliminated
proof of age and proof of citizenship, which
will likely result in an
increase of fraud and beneficiary overpayments. In
addition, he has reduced the
processing of integrity workloads, such as
redeterminations and
Continuing Disability Reviews. This has resulted in
billions of dollars of
overpayments.
For these reasons and for
his neglect of duty in administering the Social
Security Administration and
its programs, the AFL-CIO urges immediate
presidential action to remove
Michael J. Astrue as commissioner of the
Social
Security Administration.
Commissioner Trying to brake Union, AALJ, that is.
AALJ Newsletter And President’s
Report
April 20, 2009
Commissioner Astrue Takes Giant Anti-Union Step
In the last newsletter, I discussed the decision of
the arbitrator in the National Hearing Center case and I cautioned that we must
be prepared for more anti-union action from this Commissioner. Last week
he authenticated my concerns when I received notice from the agency advising
that it will not follow the arbitrator’s decision and it will instead file
exceptions with the Federal Labor Relations Authority
(FLRA). The agency also announced that it will be filing a
representational petition with the FLRA alleging that the judges in the
National Hearing Center are supervisors and not part of our bargaining unit. This is dramatic anti-union
conduct and it shows the true colors of the Commissioner and his lieutenants as
“old fashioned unit-busters”. We understand that the agency has
Attorney David Fetter on retainer for labor law issues
and we believe that it is following his advice in this matter. The agency
is using our tax money to support this anti-union program. This action
shows a total disregard of our contract and an attempt to do an “end-run”
around the decision of the arbitrator.
We know that the creation of the National Hearing Centers
was a ruse and based on a fiction. As we told the Commissioner and
restated in our statements to Congress, there is nothing that can be done in
the National Hearing Centers that can not be done in regular hearing
offices. This action is employment of an “anti-union” technique that is
well known in labor law.
Meanwhile, Joe Davidson referred to the decision in the
Federal Diary of the Friday Washington Post. He stated that “an
arbitrator, Michael A. Murphy, ordered SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue to
‘cease and desist from refusing to recognize the union’ and ‘from displaying
anti-union animus.”
New Hearing Offices
We understand that the agency will establish another
hearing office in the Phoenix area and expand the Las Vegas hearing office.
Survey Posted On AALJ Website
Reminder. The CBA Bargaining Team is preparing for
the next negotiations with the Agency. The current CBA expires in January
2010. We have extended the Collective Bargaining Survey on our website to
get the thoughts and ideas of more members. If you have not already done
so, please complete the survey and remind other judges to complete it. It
only takes a couple of minutes. This is your Association; we want your
suggestions. http://www.aalj.org/.
Thank you.
May 11, 2009
Arbitrator’s Decision
On Removing Cases From Judges
Last week we received an extremely important decision
from an arbitrator in a case arising from a grievance regarding the agency
removing several 1000 day old cases from judges to have them decided before the
end of the fiscal year. Attorney Rick Welch (Mooney-Green law firm)
represented the AALJ in the case. His summary of the decision is as
follows:
I have attached the Arbitrator’s decision from the
Seattle Arbitration. The Arbitrator held that SSA violated the contract
and the judges’ judicial independence when it
reassigned Judge Filion’s cases #2, 3, 4 and Judge Robinson’s case #5.
Not surprisingly, the Arbitrator held that SSA did not violate the contract
when it reassigned Judge Haack’s cases. The Arbitrator also held that SSA
did not violate the contract when it reassigned Judge Filion’s case #1.
The Arbitrator rejected SSA’s argument that Section 404.929 gave it blanket authority to reassign
cases. The Arbitrator stated there must be a necessary and proper
reason for the reassignment. The Arbitrator explains why SSA’s actions in
reassigning some of the cases violated the contract and why the reassignment of
other cases did not. The Arbitrator uses the strongest language
regarding the Agency’s actions in relation to the reassignment of Judge Robinson’s
case (“this case still is a veritable poster child for the kind of problems and
issues that can arise when managers within the Agency are seen as making
arbitrary time limits more important than careful and proper case
handling.”).
Overall, I believe it is a well written
opinion. I am disappointed that the Arbitrator did not find the
reassignment of case #1 violated the contract, but, on balance, this was a good
decision for us.
When reading this decision in conjunction with the
decision in the National Hearing Center case a disturbing trend emerges which
shows an agency functioning outside the scope of the law. The arbitrator
in the National Hearing Center case found overt anti-union animus on the part
of the Commissioner. He further found that the National Hearing Center
judges are part of our bargaining unit and are entitled to the benefits of our
contract. The arbitrator in most recent case found that the agency
violated our collective bargaining agreement and
the “decisional independence” of the judges.
It is our hope that the agency will reverse this
unsettling trend and adopt a policy of openness and cooperation with the
unions. This change should not require a directive from the
Administration in the form of partnership.
The last decision from the arbitrator is posted on
our website.
Thank you.
Ron Bernoski
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