GSA employee goes from union organizing to stapler filling

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."

While he has kept a sense of humor about the incident, he's not taking it lightly. "It's a shot across the bow," said Paidock, who also has forwarded his complaint to the GSA inspector general's office. The message, he says, is "You will be pulled and we can have you do this if you misbehave."

GSA officials did not dispute the nature of the assignments, but argued the work was unrelated to the labor practice grievances -- and not as demeaning as Paidock alleged.

Frank Priore, manager of the GSA's administrative and physical capital asset management branch and Paidock's direct supervisor who assigned him the duties, said clerical work is common for all program operations clerks. GSA describes the duties of such an employee as follows: "inventories and monitors stock levels of a variety of office supplies, ensuring proper type/amount on hand to meet office needs."

GSA's Public Buildings Service has offices on two full floors of the Kluczynski Federal Building and on portions of two others. "Each of those floors has one to four work stations equipped with copiers, facsimile machines, staplers, paper punches, file folders, paper and other materials for the use of employees," Priore said. "Program operations clerks are given responsibility of keeping the work stations stocked with supplies."

While Priore strongly denies Paidock's assignment was retribution for the unfair labor practice complaints, Paidock sees a pattern of behavior by his employer seemingly designed to tweak his -- and the union's -- morale.

Through a specially negotiated contract for top labor officials, Paidock is permitted to work practically full time on his union job at the NFFE's Chicago offices. In fact, he was working on GSA labor complaints on Feb. 11 when he was asked to report for the stapler assignment.

Until recently, Paidock was allowed to come and go from his GSA job at will. But in December 2007, agency management told Paidock he would need the approval of his immediate supervisor to work on union activities during regular business hours. Priore told Paidock that while government work takes precedence, the agency would "try to afford you some reasonable time to tend to your union matters."

Relations between Paidock's branch of NFFE and GSA management have deteriorated for the past several months, Paidock said, with the conflict now escalated to "full-scale war. It's the worst I've ever seen it."

On Feb. 18, Paidock formally requested that his position be expanded beyond replenishing office supplies. He said he would like to return to his archival work.