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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (37611)	2/10/2004 12:35:15 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Employees to Protest Pentagon Labor Plan Hundreds of federal employees are expected on Capitol Hill today to protest a new personnel plan for the Defense Department that union leaders say would strip unions of any meaningful role in protecting the workers' rights and welfare. Members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, plan to visit key lawmakers this week and urge them to limit Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's plans to overhaul the department's labor relations system. Rumsfeld won authority from Congress last year to rewrite personnel rules affecting nearly 750,000 civilian employees. He argued that managers needed more freedom to rearrange money, workers and weapons in the war on terrorism. Union leaders, who opposed the legislation last year, said yesterday that new labor relations "concepts" released in a 13-page memo last week by the DOD go too far. "This is a union-busting approach to collective bargaining and labor relations," said John Gage, president of the AFGE. "This has nothing to do with national security." A Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the proposal would not end collective bargaining or "bust" unions. The official said, "Viewed fairly, the law and DOD draft options provide more opportunity and visibility for unions than they have ever had in the department." The new personnel system is expected to take years to implement. Gage and other union leaders said that under the proposal, meaningful collective bargaining over work rules would no longer be required and third-party review of labor disputes would be eliminated. Current collective-bargaining contracts would not be renewed, and management could institute policy changes that conflict with existing contracts, according to the DOD memo. Managers would be required to "consult" with unions over such matters as work schedules, equipment and training, the length of temporary out-of-town assignments, and rules governing promotions and overtime. Even if unions objected, managers could implement the changes after 60 days. The department also wants to create a five-to-seven-member Defense Labor Relations Board to resolve labor-management disputes and adjudicate employee appeals. While unions would be allowed to nominate some members, the internal panel would be controlled by Rumsfeld, union leaders say, and would be a poor substitute for the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), the independent agency that now rules on labor-management disputes. "Clearly the Bush administration would like to dictate that federal workers have no more options and rights than the typical Wal-Mart worker," said John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said, "I am concerned about reports that DOD is taking a top-down approach rather than engaging in a collaborative process to develop the new personnel system." Joseph Swerdzewski, former general counsel for the FLRA, said the Pentagon's proposal would take labor relations at the department from a "rights-based" system installed in 1978 to a "consultative approach" that prevailed for decades before that. Its success would depend on whether the new Defense Labor Relations Board is perceived as fair by employees, he said. Swerdzewski said the unions have little chance of persuading Congress to pare back Rumsfeld's proposals now. "The horse is out of the barn," he said. washingtonpost.com lurqer