MTD Joins FWA in Calling for Swift Confirmation of Suzanne Summerlin as General Counsel of FLRA

The Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO, joins with the Federal Workers Alliance in a letter to Senate leadership urging the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to promptly hold a hearing on the President’s nomination of Suzanne Summerlin as General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

The Authority has been without a confirmed General Counsel since January 20, 2017.

The FWA letter cites Ms. Summerlin’s extensive experience.

“Ms. Summerlin will bring to the Authority her broad and extensive experience in federal sector labor law, having advocated before the Authority on behalf of a wide range of civilian employees at more than thirty agencies, including U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighters, Department of State passport processors, General Services Administration contract administrators, Veterans Administration medical professionals, Transportation Security Administration security screeners, and Army Corps of Engineers employees. Ms. Summerlin currently serves as Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director of one of the FWA’s member unions, the Federal Education Association, which represents educators who serve our military families stateside and overseas. Previously, Ms. Summerlin served as Associate General Counsel of another FWA union, the National Federation of Federal Employees, which is the federal sector affiliate of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. She was also Peggy Browning Fund Fellow at the American Federation of Government Employees within the AFL-CIO. She has also negotiated collective bargaining agreements on behalf of doctors and nurses at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and educators serving in Europe and Asia with the Department of Defense Education Activity.”

See the full letter.

2023-06-23 - FWA Ltr to HSGAC re Summerlin FLRA nom

FWA Pens Letter in Support of ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act

FWA Pens Letter in Support of ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act

The Federal Workers Alliance, of which the Metal Trades Department is a member, sent a letter to Representatives Maloney and Connoly in support of the bipartisan ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act. This much-needed legislation is in response to former President Trump’s 2018 Executive Order 13843, that removed federal Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) from the competitive service to the excepted service. EO 13843, which remains in effect today, also removed the non-partisan and sound ALJ hiring and vetting process from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and handed it over to political appointees at agencies throughout the federal government to pick and choose who can serve as ALJs. This has created a hiring process that is ripe for political patronage and should be reversed, which is exactly what the ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act achieves.
The Metal Trades stands firmly with the FWA in its efforts to pass the ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act.

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