Kissimmee Florida SSA District Office Saved From a Fate Worse Than Death

Perpetrating SSA Manager Flees Jurisdiction

Several years of diligent work and intensive legal procedures paid off on February 6 2007 when the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) in Washington DC issused a Review decision in favor of AFGE Local 4056. The Kissimmee Florica District Office is and has since its inception beeen part of AFGE Logal 4056. At the time of the hearing there were 35 employees of the Kissimmee Office who were eligible to be included in the bargaining unit.

In order to alleviate the egregious adverse working environment in the Kissimmee DO that resulted from the Agency's illegal refusal to recognize Union representation, AFGE Local 4056 filed a complaint with the FLRA and we prevailed. Now the Union is taking action to improve the worklife of the bargaining unit employees in the Kissimmee DO, The Agency had fought the Union's right to represent emloyees in Kissimmee since April 18, 2005 when the office opened to serve the booming population in the Osceola County area south of Orlando. The Kissimmee District was actually created in 2002 but did not actually open to the public with staff on site until 2005.

Many of the employees of the Kissimmee office originally came from the Orlando SSA District Office from the New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta regions where Union representation is present. The Agency had tried to keep Kissimmee without representation, citing it as being comparable to the stand-alone military facility the Port Hueneme California Naval Fcilities Service Center. That Center was considered to be essentially a new entity with no prior history, so no rights typically afforded to other Centers "carried over" to this new Center.

The FLRA recognized tht the Kissimmee Florida District Office was created from the existing Orlando office and any employees from Orlando volunteered to staff Kissimmee. These employees were predominately Union members, and their rights as members were not forfeited when they moved to Kissimmee.

The Agency had insisted on an election being held to determine if employees of Kissimmee wanted to have Union representation in their office. The FLRA decision found that because the Kissimmee Office is part of SSA as an agency and not a separate entity because it has the same mission with transferred employees performing the same duties and functions as they did in their old offices. The decision granted the Kissimmee District Office status as a Union Office retroactive to its creation.

Jose Jiminez has been appointed as the on-ste Union Representative and Shop Steward. Jose brings a tremendous depth of experience and soaring ethical and moral foundation to the position and has the complete confidence and support of the AFGE Local 4056 President and Executive Board.