Rebuttal Statement on DOD NSPS Spiral One Press statementsOn December 14, 2004, Navy Secretary Gordon England announced the activities that were chosen to implement the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). This occurred at the exact same time DOD Under Secretary Charles Able and members of his staff were meeting with the United DOD Workers Coalition (UDWC) and informing these representatives of the unions that represent the majority of DOD workers. DOD’s labor organizations did not receive any advanced notice of the implementation of NSPS, even though the law authorizing NSPS required DOD to collaborate with its unions in the development and implementation of NSPS. We heard about it the same time the general public did. This schedule was not by accident; it was just the latest act of disrespect, callous and total disregard towards the DOD employees’ representatives by an anti-worker, pro-management DOD. DOD does not care what DOD employees think, want or need in a personnel system. The press releases put out by DOD were grossly inaccurate and deliberately misleading. One of the more glaring inaccuracies is this: “Since the law authorizing NSPS was signed on November 24, 2003, the Department has been working diligently to create a modern, flexible and streamlined personnel system to more effectively meet DOD’s national security mission. This effort, based on extensive input from employees, unions and other DOD stakeholders is nearing completion.” NOTHING could be farther from the truth! As the President of one of the National Labor Organizations that have national consultation rights, I have personally attended every meeting with DOD/OPM on NSPS and have been in close communications with our DOD field components and DOD employees. None of us have had any input into NSPS; we have no idea what NSPS is or is not. DOD/OPM has a secret agenda and only management teams have been involved in the unilateral development of NSPS as well as its implementation. There is no involvement at all by rank and file DOD workers or their representatives. To say or imply otherwise is simply not true. According to the glowing DOD/OPM press releases NSPS will cure every ill in federal service, and maybe even cancer. I say DOD/OPM is building a “Wal Mart” type personnel system that takes away any meaningful input into their conditions by rank and file DOD employees and substitutes a paternalistic, “I’m Boss, do as I say” crony system with no independent, impartial system to redress employee grievances. Unfortunately, the taxpaying public has not demonstrated any particular outrage over this move to repeal the rights of three quarters of a million patriotic and dedicated workers. Some, but not many, members of Congress have raised objections—especially those who recall that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said his first priority when he took the job was to get Congress out of the halls of the Pentagon. And, one of the fundamental purposes of this personnel system is just that: an effort to shield the Pentagon from meaningful congressional oversight. This so called National Security Personnel System has nothing whatsoever to do with real national security; it is simply a power grab intended to chill and silence DOD workers from reporting graft, corruption and misconduct. There is no legitimate management reason for it. What national security concern has been impaired in any way by the present federal personnel system? NONE!!!! Just because someone yells “fire” in a crowded theater, does not mean it is on fire. Tip O’Neil once said “the devil is in the details”…Details such as faulty parts and equipment, cut corners and shoddy materials can cause lost lives—as happened with NASA’s Challenger disaster. I fear the “details” of this debacle will produce the same results in DOD that NASA’s “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” policies had in contributing to the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster. Some higher-ups in NASA were afraid to speak up for fear of retribution and adverse effects on their careers. During the Cold War we lost the nuclear submarines USS Scorpion and USS Thresher with all hands on board. Investigations following those tragedies found that system failures contributed both disasters. Six months before she sank the Scorpion had undergone the briefest and cheapest overhaul in Navy history. Thresher imploded after a weld failed. Lives were lost to expediency. NSPS will make it more difficult for DOD employees to come forward to report bad parts, bad welds, or bad assemblies for fear of retribution. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if a son or daughter lost their life in an avoidable accident because of DOD implementing NSPS? I keep thinking someone will wake up and say this is not a good idea…before it is too late… Ron Ault, President
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