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Disastrous DoD Personnel Proposal Would Strip All Meaningful Worker Rights, Kelley Says

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today joined other labor leaders in criticizing proposals for a new labor relations system in the Department of Defense (DoD) that would effectively strip away all meaningful rights for workers.

“These proposals strike at the heart of the collective bargaining process and run roughshod over virtually every right won over many years by the men and women at DoD and throughout the federal government,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

President Kelley joined AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and President John Gage of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and others, at a press conference in which the DoD proposals were assailed as unfair, unwise and certainly not needed.

The DoD proposals call for a “National Security Personnel System” which would have as its centerpiece what the agency describes as a “pre-collaboration labor relations system.”

“These proposals severely limit collective bargaining, call for a ‘fox guarding the hen house’ system of due process and set up a system for union elections that virtually no current federal elected official could meet,” President Kelley said.

What’s more, she said, the proposals—which specifically exclude all provisions of the U.S. Code covering civil service matters—provide “absolutely no meaningful outside review” of

management decisions.

“Think about it,” President Kelley said. “DoD management would have no obligation other than to merely ‘consult’ with employees and their representatives, and then take any disputes over their decisions and actions to an in-house board which would be dominated by managers.”

The NTEU president added: “This proposal is an attack on federal employee rights and a prescription for failure. No workable labor relations can nor will succeed without the opportunity for meaningful input by employees and their representatives.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments. While NTEU does not represent any employees of the Defense Department, Kelley said she is concerned there are those in the administration who will want to extend whatever system DoD adopts throughout the federal workplace.

She pledged that NTEU will work with AFGE and others affected by these proposals “to ensure that they are not implemented and that those working on the front lines in the war on terror are treated with the fairness and respect they deserve.”