GSA employee goes from union organizing to stapler filling

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39328&dcn=todaysnews

By Robert Brodsky [e-mail] February 19, 2008

A General Services Administration employee in Chicago claims the agency retaliated against him for filing unfair labor practice claims by ordering him to refill other employees' staplers.

The story may sound like something from an episode of the NBC show The Office. But for Charles Paidock, a 27-year veteran of GSA and a local leader of the National Federation of Federal Employees, it's no laughing matter.

On Feb. 11, Paidock's manager directed him to fill 48 staplers throughout the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago.

Paidock said he had to check the staplers, located in common areas throughout the building, twice a day and load each with "at least one to two inches" of staples. To ensure Paidock carried out the assignment correctly, he was given a personal demonstration on stapler stocking -- including the difference between standard and heavy-duty staplers -- and informed someone would inspect the quality of his work. Once he completed those duties, Paidock said his manager assigned him to empty paper-hole punchers and stock other small office supplies at the federal building. The tasks took Paidock the better part of an afternoon, he said.

Until recently, Paidock served as a librarian and document archivist. But his position was discontinued, said GSA spokesman David Wilkinson. Paidock, who now has the title "program operations clerk," believes GSA gave him the new assignment in retaliation for the roughly 150 unfair labor practice grievances he's filed on behalf of union members against the agency in his capacity as regional vice president and chief negotiator for Chicago's NFFE. Twelve cases are still pending, including a grievance he filed last week related to the stapler assignment.

"I guess they were flexing their authoritative muscles," said Paidock, who holds a master's degree from New York City's Columbia University. "I was kind of confounded by this so I went, 'all right' and proceeded to do it. In fact, I discovered that there are a lot more kinds of staplers out there than you think."

FULL story at link.