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Washington, D.C.—President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today expressed her concern over the potential adverse impact on federal labor-management relations from the appointment of a chairperson to a key federal panel who seemingly has no demonstrated experience or knowledge in a field that calls for considerable expertise.

“I’m disappointed the president seems to have made a political determination without regard to the need to select appointees with specific knowledge of federal labor law and federal workplace issues,” Kelley said.

The NTEU leader added: “President Bush has nominated an expert as chairperson to the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), but the appointee’s expertise appears to be in fields unrelated to federal labor-management relations.

Becky Norton Dunlop, a one-time Reagan administration official with wide experience in environmental regulation and most recently a vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, was named to chair the FSIP—one of four appointees to the agency whose seven members were recently dismissed by President Bush.

At least one of the other appointees to the part-time position, Andrea Fischer Newman, senior vice president at Northwest Airlines, likewise does not seem to have demonstrated knowledge and experience with federal sector labor relations.

The seven-member FSIP is an arm of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and has critical decision-making responsibilities for resolving impasses that might occur involving federal agencies and their unions as they bargain over conditions of employment in the federal workplace.

Kelley said the loss of institutional knowledge at the FSIP that accompanies the act of terminating the services of all seven of its members at the same time “can only be aggravated” by the appointment of a chairperson, and at least one other new member, “who, of necessity, will take time to get up to speed on the issues pending before the FSIP.”

This can only serve to “delay and impede the progress of labor-management relations in the federal sector,” Kelley said, even as she held out hope that the president would not only fill the remaining three FSIP seats promptly, but that he “will see the wisdom of choosing experts” in dealing with labor-management issues to sit on the panel.

In any event, the NTEU leader said, “I hope the new members will get up to speed as quickly as possible,” given the issues and workload facing the panel. The ability of FSIP members to understand and act on complex matters involving federal workers is not a moot point with NTEU, Kelley pointed out, since NTEU, like other federal unions, has matters pending before the panel.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.