MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla -- MacDill Air Force Base and Avon Park Air Force Range hosted a signing ceremony for a collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 153, Oct 20.
According to Marc Duval, director of the 6th Contracting Squadron, the previous CBA was signed back in 2004.
“We have some new provisions such as an article on telework and updated practices for the grievance procedure,” said Andrea Ganes, the chief of labor employee relations.
The grievance procedure governs how employees can voice their grievances with their employer and provides a set of procedures for resolving those issues.
“It needed to be updated and it’s going to be so much more beneficial for employees to have an up-to-date union contract,” said Ganes.
The new CBA is split into 35 different articles and puts into place all the presidential executive orders and labor law procedures that have been issued over the past 18 years.
“This CBA seeks to promote efficient unit personnel administration and outlines terms for both employer and employee,” said Duval. “It forms the basic understanding of all practice and procedures that affect employment.”
“The biggest difficulty was COVID, we planned to do face-to-face negotiations but we conducted it all digitally,” said Orville Soto, AFGE Local 153 president. “It was a challenging process and I’m proud of our team for putting so much effort into making it work.”
After nearly two years of deliberation and compromise, the CBA was executed by the parties on Aug 1 and approved by the Department of Defense on Aug 19.