BLM Delays Collective Bargaining Agreement, Frustrating Union Leaders and Complicating Employee Relocation Efforts to Washington.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is reportedly delaying the process of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, more than two years after 200 BLM headquarters office staffers voted to unionize. The union leaders have expressed frustrations about long gaps between bargaining sessions and BLM’s insistence that different bureau offices negotiate separate agreements. Panchita Paulete, president of the National Treasury Employees Union chapter representing headquarters employees, said BLM also refused to give nonsupervisory employees an interim agreement covering issues like arbitration of grievances during the bargaining process. The delays have also complicated one of BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning’s top priorities: moving headquarters employees and positions back to Washington to counter the Trump administration’s 2019 move to relocate them to offices across the West. Union officials are eager to work out a collective Bargaining Agreement while President Joe Biden is in office, given his support of federal government unions.