A Republican senator demands answers from the Biden Administration after a federal agency permitted ICE to abolish the labor union that employed thousands of workers. This left them without a collective bargaining arrangement.
Sen. James Lankford (Oklahoma Republican) said that the Federal Labor Relations Authority appeared to have acted rashly last week in cancelling union membership for employees at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This was at a moment when the National ICE Council had been alleging serious misconduct.
Mr. Lankford stated that the FLRA responded with astonishing speed to the request of the American Federal for Government Employees to expel the union members within a matter weeks. This despite the fact the FLRA complaining to senators regularly about the huge backlog in work.
” This matter was processed with remarkable speed considering its novelty – a matter without little precedent or well-tested processes,” Mr. Lankford stated in an August 12 email to FLRA Chairman Ernest DuBester.
The FLRA refused Monday to respond to questions by The Washington Times regarding its actions.
The Times last week reported that the FLRA granted AFGE the request to “disclaim the 6 ,800 National ICE Council members, one of AFGE’s chapters.
SEE ALSO FBI: FBI warns about threats to ‘civil War’ and ‘dirty Bomb’ after Trump’s raid
AFGE made this move just weeks after it had filed a federal Labor Department complaint requesting an investigation into AFGE. This was in response to allegations that AFGE used union money to hire prostitutes and pay them for their services. It also hushups allegations of racial harassment and discrimination within its union leadership.
The council stated that AFGE was not representing ICE employees.
The council sought financial independence from AFGE. However, AFGE’s disclaimer had the opposite effect, removing the council from the equation and taking control of all its money. Members claimed.
Legal specialists said that the disclaiming process was not tested — something Mr. Lankford used to argue when he demanded answers as to why the FLRA could move at such a rapid pace.
He pointed out that no one at the council had any input. Officially, the matter was between AFGE itself and ICE — each had cause to penalize the union which has been vocal critic of both.
AFGE did not respond to multiple inquiries for several months regarding its fight with the ICE Council.
Chris Crane was the president of the council and said to The Times that ICE, AFGE, and others conspired against the dissolution of the union.
” “There’s no question that ICE leadership and DHS leadership collaborated with corrupt union bosses in order to make it happen,” he stated. DHS leadership and AFGE leadership wanted to silence whistleblowers from the ICE Council. It’s unlikely that whistleblowers without a union will be able to hold down a job .”
.
