Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.— Hoping to hit a home run for the administration in opposing the Nelson-Chafee-Breaux bipartisan compromise amendment to homeland security legislation pending in the Senate, a group of federal senior executives struck out in its understanding of what the amendment would do.

Strike One:

In a letter to senators, the Senior Executive Association (SEA) said the Nelson-Chafee-Breaux amendment was not needed because the president has not abused his authority to remove employees from collective bargaining for national security.

On January 7, 2002, the president issued an Executive Order eliminating collective bargaining rights of Department of Justice employees in U.S. District Attorney offices in the name of national security. This action was taken despite the fact that many of these employees had been union members for 20 years and work in clerical and other support jobs with no access to classified information, nor any national security-related responsibilities.

Strike Two:

The SEA letter said, “All employees in bargaining units would have to join the union in order to protect their rights.”

Under Chapter 71 of Title 5, United States Code, federal unions are required to represent all members of a bargaining unit, whether they voluntarily choose to pay dues or not. Nothing in the Nelson-Chafee-Breaux amendment would change this fact.

Strike Three:

The SEA letter claims that federal unions would have veto power over the design of the new personnel system in the new homeland security agency.

The Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), whose members are appointed by the president, will have the power to impose an agreement should management and labor fail to reach agreement. The Nelson-Chafee-Breaux amendment provides human resource flexibilities in the areas of pay, performance appraisal, classification and adverse actions while maintaining collective bargaining and Merit System Protection Board Appeals (MSPB) procedures under Title 5 provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act.

Saying that SEA’s objections weren’t “even in the ballpark,” National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley said the Nelson-Chafee-Breaux bipartisan amendment is “a common sense compromise that will be fair to employees while providing new flexibility to managers.”