Influential House GOP Group Uses 'Budget-Cutting' As Excuse To Attack Union Reps
Monday, February 7, 2011(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
An influential Right Wing group among the House’s new GOP majority, the
170-lawmaker so-called Republican Study Committee (RSC), is using “budget
cutting” as an excuse to attack federal worker union reps. The RSC’s
endorsement of a bill by Rep. John Gingrey, R-Ga., to ban the reps from being
paid for time they spend on such things as grievances and bargaining was one of
two anti-federal union schemes the GOP launched in the first days of
February.
The other was a move by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to ban unionization of the
40,000 Transportation Security Officers, the airport screeners. The Senate
set it aside on Feb. 3, but could take it up again on Feb. 7. Wicker tried
to attach his idea – floated before by Right Wing Sen. James DeMint, R-S.C.
– to legislation renewing the Federal Aviation Administration and approving
modernization of air traffic control systems.
The
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) pointed out that paying shop
stewards and bargaining committee members their regular wages while they handle
grievances and negotiating is a frequent provision in private-sector union
contracts. It’s also in the 1978 federal civil service
law.
But
the RSC and Gingrey say such pay subsidizes unions. Gingrey, cloaking his
campaign in budget language, argues that eliminating the pay would save $120
million a year. "We have seen an increase in union activity on official
time lead to a more inefficient workforce, and it is time to stop subsidizing
this problem," Gingrey claimed.
AFGE said
axing pay for representation time “would prevent effective union
representation” of federal workers on everything from grievances to flexitime
requests.
“Those who make these attacks do so to distract the American people from our
unfair and regressive tax system and corporate welfare state that led to the
Great Recession,” AFGE said in a position paper on the issue – and on other
attacks on federal workers. “Their ultimate target is the very
government programs that serve the needs of the people and protect the American
Dream.”
The foes “know they must silence our
voice in order to achieve their goals. This is the motivation behind the
latest attempt to prevent effective union representation by attacking the use of
official time by employees. Use of reasonable amounts of official time has
been supported by government officials of both political parties for some 50
years. AFGE will strongly oppose any proposal that would weaken federal
employee unions by curtailing, restricting, or eliminating the reasonable and
judicious use of official time.”
- Mark Gruenberg, Press Associates Union News Service