Defense Worker Unions Fight to Overturn Bush Personnel Rules
Thursday, May 24, 2007(Press Associates Inc.)
By Mark Gruenberg,
WASHINGTON (PAI)--Though they face "an uphill
battle" in a top federal court, leaders of the
unions representing 700,000 civilian Defense
Department workers will fight to overturn GOP
President George W. Bush's DOD personnel
rules--upheld by a court panel--that virtually
wipe out union and worker rights. And
they'll lobby the Senate to follow the House
and repeal the
rules.
The 3-judge
panel of the U.S. Circuit Court for the
District of Columbia reinstated Bush's rules,
which give managers unlimited discretion over
hiring, firing, pay, work rules, promotions,
transfers and everything else, all in the name
of "national security." The rules also
strip whistleblowers of their protection.
The unions said collective bargaining is not a
threat to national security. Bush contends it
is.
In a May 21
press conference, three days after the 2-1
ruling, AFGE President John Gage, IFPTE
President Greg Junemann, Metal Trades
Department President Ron Ault and others said
the battle is not just to protect defense
workers, but all workers
nationwide.
That's
because Bush's Defense Department rules are
part of a coordinated campaign since the day
Bush entered office to destroy the labor
movement and rights of workers, union and
non-union, they
said.
"You
can sugar-coat this all you want, but it's the
Bush administration's intent to get rid of
unions and try to break the back of the
American people, period," said Richard Brown of
the National Federation of Federal
Employees.
"If you
look at this administration, from the day they
took office, with the Transportation Security
Administration, with the DOD rules, with the
(NLRB's) Kentucky River decision, that's what
they want to do," Junemann said.
In the
Transportation Security Administration, Bush
banned unionization of the nation's airport
screeners on "national security" grounds and
has said he will veto legislation for the
entire Homeland Security Department if it
overturns his ban. In the NLRB case, the
Bush majority on the board ruled millions of
workers could arbitrarily be called supervisors
and deprived of
rights.
"It has
nothing to do with national security. It
has to do with following the Chamber of
Commerce and the National Association of
Manufacturers," Junemann added of Bush's
anti-union campaign.
Lower court judge Emmet Sullivan had tossed the
Bush DOD rules as breaking federal law which
allows federal workers to unionize and bargain,
but with some limits. Another lower
federal court judge, Rosemary Collyer, tossed
similar Bush rules covering 135,000 workers in
the Homeland Security Department. A
different D.C. Circuit Court panel backed her
and bounced Bush.
The contradiction, and the threat to the
workers, led the unions to take the DOD rules
case to the full appellate court, though AFGE
counsel Mark Fox said that to succeed, it needs
six of the panel's 10 judges to agree. He
called that
unlikely.
In the
meantime, the DOD 40-union coalition, which
also includes Change to Win members and the
independent National Education Association, is
lobbying senators to repeal Bush's rules.
The House voted May 17 to repeal them.
Gage said the unions were disappointed with the
court ruling "but not totally surprised" since
one of the judges in the majority "had come
right out of the White
House."
"If this
type of ruling" that federal workers could not
unionize "happened in Libya or North Korea, it
wouldn't surprise anybody. But this is
the United States," Junemann
said.
Since a full
court hearing is unlikely, the coalition is
turning to lobby senators to overturn the Bush
rules by legally repealing them. It also
has enlisted outside groups, the AFL-CIO and
has at least tacit support from leaders at
military bases in the U.S. where huge numbers
of the Defense Department workers
toil.
"This ruling
will actually help in Congress" because leading
lawmakers of both parties made clear that while
DOD could reform its personnel system, they did
not want to strip workers of their collective
bargaining rights, Gage said. "This begs for a
legislative solution, and we'll work very hard
to let them (senators) know that," he
added.
Brown
said the general commanding Barksdale Air Force
Base told of the fine working relationship
between the military and Defense Department
civilian workers "and that he wanted nothing to
disrupt it," including the Bush
rules.
Though the
appellate court panel reinstated Bush's rules
for the Defense Department's 700,000
rank-and-file workers--the rules already cover
managers there--Gage admitted that workers
would not start seeing changes
tomorrow.
That's because the judges gave the unions 45
days to appeal, and another week for a
reply. And then the Bush administration,
if it wins, has to set up the machinery of its
new personnel system. 2005
Defense workers rally, photos by Chris
Garlock