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IFPTE Counsel and Former AFL-CIO Staff Nominated to Labor Relations Authority |
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Julia Clark, general counsel for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), and Ernie DuBester, a former AFL-CIO Legislative Affairs staff member, were nominated by President Obama last week to serve on the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)—the federal workers’ version of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Clark was nominated to the FLRA’s general counsel post. She is a former Justice Department trial attorney in the Anti-Trust Division and has spent the past 20 years as a labor and employment law attorney representing unions and workers.
DuBester, a former NLRB attorney, was tapped to serve as a member of the FLRA. He was on staff at the AFL-CIO from 1984 to 1993 and served on the National Mediation Board (NMB) in the Clinton administration. Since 2001, he has been on the faculty at the George Mason University School of Law and also served as a mediator for the NMB.
When he announced the nominations last week, Obama said:
As we work to confront the many challenges our nation faces, I am grateful that these fine public servants have chosen to join my administration in fighting for working families and putting America on a path to prosperity. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.
AFGE President John Gage praised the pair’s nomination, saying Clark “will be a valuable asset to the FLRA” and Dubester’s “extensive experience as a mediator, labor-management and academic will be a credit to the FLRA.”
Starting with the nomination of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Obama has reversed eight years of Bush administration exclusion of anyone with ties to labor to key posts and has opened the door to working family participation in government agencies.
Obama named Wilma Liebman, a Clinton administration appointee to the NLRB, as the board’s chairwoman and nominated to seats on the NLRB both Craig Becker, who serves as associate general counsel to the AFL-CIO and SEIU, and Mark Pearce, an employment law and workers’ rights attorney.
Ron Bloom, United Steelworkers’ (USW’s) director of corporate research, was appointed senior adviser on the auto bailout team.
In February, Obama appointed AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka to the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board and later that month invited several union leaders to take part in the administration’s “Fiscal Responsibility Summit” on Social Security and Medicare.
Former Air Line Pilots (ALPA) president Capt. Randy Babbitt was tapped to head the Federal Aviation Administration, and former Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) President Linda Puchala was Obama’s choice for a seat on the National Mediation Board.
Obama nominated Joe Szabo, United Transportation Union’s (UTU’s) Illinois state legislative director and a vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, to serve as head of the Federal Railroad Administration.
Jordan Barab, former AFSCME health and safety director, a consultant to the AFL-CIO Health and Safety Department and longtime workplace health and safety advocate, is now acting director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Mary Beth Maxwell, the former executive director of American Rights at Work, was appointed senior adviser to Solis at the Labor Department. In addition, the former Housing Investment Trust (HIT) lawyer, Helen Karnovsky, is now general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; former United Food and Commerical Workers attorney Carol Clifford is labor liaison at the Department of Agrictulture; and Naomi Walker, assistant director for Legislative Affairs, is now associate deputy secretary of labor.
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