Unions withdraw from talks on DoD’s new personnel system
By TICHAKORN HILL--ARMY TIMES
Six labor unions withdrew May 16 from talks with Bush administration officials on the Defense Department’s new personnel system and are pressing Congress to repeal the law that creates the system.
“We’re calling on every member of Congress to do the right thing,” said Richard Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. “And that right thing is to reverse NSPS.”
The unions blame Congress for issuing the law creating the new personnel system, called the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which would change the way the department hires, rewards and disciplines employees. They said Congress should be held accountable for that.
“NSPS is the latest bad law,” said Ron Ault, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, recalling the time when Congress passed the law authorizing slavery.
Thirty-seven unions remain in the talks, including the American Federation of Government Employees. “Some people have to stay in the room to fight,” said Mark Gibson of AFGE.
The unions that withdrew said Defense violated provisions of the law that require it to work with the unions to try to reach agreement on whether or how to proceed with the proposed system. The unions charged that Defense and Office of Personnel Management officials present at the meetings, which began April 18, don’t have authority to decide issues being discussed, such as the scope of bargaining and veterans preference rights in a reduction in force. They also strongly oppose proposed rules enabling the Defense secretary to overrule collective bargaining agreements.
“We will no longer be party to a lie or a sham,” Ault said. “I don’t know what to call the process we were in, but it damn sure wasn’t anything like the ‘meet and confer’ requirements” of the 2004 Defense Authorization Act authorizing the personnel system.
The unions said the administration is not sincere in ironing out differences with the unions.
Mary Lacey, NSPS program executive officer, said it is unfortunate the unions pulled out.
“We remain committed to the process and to working with the unions as we identify some areas of common ground,” Lacey said in an e-mail statement.
She decided to extend for a week the meet and confer period, which was to end May 19.
Lacey said her team has made several changes to the proposed regulations based on the unions’ comments and discussions during the meet and confer period.
But the unions said the officials “have made no commitment to resume attempts to reach agreement if and when such ‘recommendations’ are rejected by the absent decision makers,” the unions said in a May 17 letter to Lacey and Dan Blair, OPM acting director.
The six unions, representing about 100,000 Defense employees, plan to lobby lawmakers to weigh in on their behalf.
They are the Metal Trades Department, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the National Association of Independent Laborers, and the National Association of Government Employees.
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CiO • 815 16th Street, NW •Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-508-3705 • Fax: 202-508-3706 • email: metaltradesweb@gmail.com
