Mayor Faulted for Crisis at Public Employee Board

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Labor strongly objected to three last-minute nominees to the District’s Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) in testimony last Friday before the DC City Council’s Committee On Workforce Development And Government Operations. “We are objecting strongly to the process of appointments as well as, at this point, to the nominees themselves,” testified Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams, noting that Mayor Adrian Fenty has created a crisis at the PERB – which makes critical decisions about organizing drives, arbitrations, unfair labor practice charges and so on –by failing to appoint members which prevents resolving the backlog of cases, “adversely impacting employees, unions and the City.” After failing to consult on PERB appointments with labor as promised last year after one of his earlier nominees turned out to be ineligible to serve, Fenty abruptly submitted three new nominees to PERB last week with no notice. “We have reviewed the resumes of the three proposed appointees and not one of them appears to have any demonstrated labor-management or public sector experience,” said Williams, who joined leaders of the AFSCME Council 20 and the Fraternal Order of Police in asking the Committee not to take action on the nominees until labor’s concerns are resolved. Click here for Williams’ testimony.