Legislative Updates
Federal Employees Union Praises White House Executive Order Establishing
Labor-Management Partnerships
NFFE News Release
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Washington, D.C. – This morning President Barack
Obama signed an
Executive Order (E.O.) establishing labor-management forums, an
action that will improve the delivery of government services by tapping
into the knowledge and expertise that exists within the federal
workforce. By establishing an environment where federal workers
have an opportunity to be heard, the best ideas on how to make
government run better can be brought forward and considered by federal
agencies.
A top priority for federal employee unions, the signing of the E.O.
could mark the end of an extended period of poor labor-relations at many
federal agencies. A similar labor-management partnership existed
under the Clinton Administration, but President George W. Bush abolished
the partnerships as one of his first acts in office, an action that
soured labor-management rapport from the very start of his
administration.
“We are very pleased to see the Obama Administration take meaningful
strides to engage the federal workforce,” said William R. Dougan,
national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees.
“Federal employees care deeply about the service they provide to the
American people, but for almost a decade they have lacked an avenue to
contribute ways to make the agencies they work for more efficient and
effective. Going forward, federal workers will have the ability to
contribute their ideas, and the American people will benefit because of
it.”
The E.O. represents a clear step in the right direction, but federal
employee unions did not get everything they desired in the E.O.
Federal unions have been lobbying the Administration hard for mandatory
bargaining rights on all permissive subjects. While the E.O. does
not prevent agencies from bargaining permissive subjects if they choose
to do so, as written, the E.O. gives agencies the ability to opt out of
bargaining permissive subjects with employee unions. The
Administration has committed to testing mandatory bargaining on
permissive subject at some federal agencies through a pilot program, the
details of which are not spelled out in the E.O.
“Mandatory bargaining on permissive subjects would have been the homerun
ball for us, but we didn’t get that,” said Dougan. “Nonetheless,
we are still in a much better place today than we have been for the last
nine years. We consider this executive order a good starting point
as we move into a much anticipated era of labor-management cooperation
in the federal government. We look forward to rolling up our
sleeves and working together to tackle the many important issues before
us which impact the federal workforce.”
NFFE supports bill to attract former federal
employees back to civil service
NFFE news release Feb. 4, 2009
Washington, D.C. – The National Federation of Federal
Employees (NFFE), a national union representing 100,000 federal
government workers, enthusiastically endorses H.R. 828 the “FERS
Redeposit Act,” introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
yesterday by Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), along with Frank Wolf (R-VA)
and Gerry Connolly (D-VA). This legislation gives individuals who, upon
their return to civil service from the private sector, the ability to
reinvest their full federal retirement annuity without losing credit for
previous years of service.
more
Obama hosts labor leaders, will undo Bush orders
Associated Press January 30, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP)
President Obama, reaching out to the working and middle classes as he
seeks to revive the economy, is reversing a number of George W. Bush's
executive orders that critics regard as bad for labor unions. Labor
leaders were to visit the White House for a second consecutive day
Friday, where, a union official said, Obama was to abolish four of his
predecessor's directives that unions opposed and then reintroduce Vice
President Joe Biden's task force focused on the middle class.
more
Bush issues order implementing 3.9 percent
pay raise
By Alyssa Rosenberg Government Exec. December
19, 2008
President Bush on Thursday issued an
executive order implementing the 3.9 percent pay hike for federal
employees
included in the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and
Continuing Appropriations Act passed in September. The 3.9 percent
figure is 1 percentage point higher than the administration initially
proposed in its February budget, and brings the 2009 civilian pay
increase in line with the raise for members of the military.
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Obama Voices Support for Labor
Federal Managers Daily Report: November 19, 2008
In a letter to the American Federation of Government Employees stating his concerns for DHS, president-elect Obama stated that he "supports collective bargaining rights for all workers."
He pledged to "review decisions by the Bush administration that have denied these rights to federal employees and seek to restore them."
The letter also spoke against the concept of pay for performance, saying the current administration, by under-funding related initiatives, created systems that reward some employees at the expense of other employees.
Obama called that concept "unfair," saying it harms morale.
Union hardens its stance on Pentagon personnel system
The American Federation of Government Employees said on Wednesday that it plans to seek arbitration or file a lawsuit against the Pentagon's pay-for-performance system.
In a conference call with reporters, AFGE President John Gage said
the union was weighing its options for challenging some of the final
regulations issued in September by the Defense Department that modified
portions of its National Security Personnel System. In particular, the
union charged that the new rules limit the scope of collective
bargaining.
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