The American Federation of Government Employees has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the National Park Service due to its apparent failure to prevent a former Blue Ridge Parkway employee from continuing to pursue the decertification of a recently consolidated union at the facility.

The allegations stem from an employee who was part of a newly consolidated bargaining unit at the agency’s Blue Ridge Parkway facility in North Carolina and filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to decertify the union, which is organized as part of AFGE. The FLRA found an absence of precedent with regard to whether its rule barring decertification petitions within one year of a union election applies in cases where multiple bargaining units are consolidated under the umbrella of one union.

With the backing of the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation, a conservative group devoted to combatting organized labor, the employee, Erin Lamm, has continued to pursue the case, filing a legal brief in the case as recently as last month.

But there’s one problem: around July 1, Lamm was promoted out of the bargaining unit and into the National Park Service’s HR office for Region 2, which includes the Blue Ridge Parkway facility. And while she pursued the case, agency managers have dragged their feet on negotiations to establish a new comprehensive union contract for the consolidated bargaining unit, including failing to respond to a federal mediator requested...

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