AFGE Week in Review (July 7, 2009)

White House to Resurrect Labor-Management Partnerships: Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said last week that President Barack Obama will issue an executive order reviving labor-management partnerships disbanded by President George W. Bush eight years ago.

"There will be partnership executive order at some point," he said at an event celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Coalition for Effective Change. "It will happen. We're very close."

The partnership councils were created by President Bill Clinton in 1993 to force managers to improve agency performance by directing managers to involve union representatives as full partners in problem identification and crafting solutions and to negotiate over additional subjects that are key to such problem solving.

House Bill to Suspend A-76 for Three Years: The House last month passed the 2010 Defense Authorization bill with an AFGE-backed provision that would impose a three-year ban on public-private job competitions while the new administration reviews the process. It would suspend all pending A-76 studies until the department can review and determine if they should continue. The bill would also put an 18-month time limit on all future A-76 studies.

Bill Passed to Allow Advance Funding for VA: The House June 23 voted 409-1 to pass an AFGE-backed bill that would allow two-year funding for the Veterans Affairs Department. The bill, H.R.1016, is aimed at ending chronic funding shortages that negatively affect veterans. In 19 of the past 22 years, Congress has failed to pass a VA spending bill before the start of the fiscal year. The bill is now headed to the Senate. On the same day, the House Appropriations Committee passed the 2010 VA spending bill to authorize two-year funding for VA.

FPS Ordered to Repeal Agent's 14-day Suspension: An arbitrator recently ordered the Federal Protections Service to repeal a 14-day suspension of an employee in Sacramento, California, who had been wrongfully disciplined for tape-recording all hands-meetings. In siding with AFGE, the arbitrator said management should have warned the employee when they saw him place the tape recorder in open view to record the meetings, which the employee believed were not confidential. The arbitrator also found that the agency made up the charge because there was no work rule against the tape-recording of conversations without the consent of all participants. The arbitrator ordered back pay and benefits lost because of the wrongful suspension. The employee is a member of AFGE Local 918.

Inside Government: Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who most recently served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was featured last week on AFGE's radio show, Inside Government. Former Clinton White House chief of staff and co-chairman of President Obama's transition team, John Podesta, who currently serves as president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, was also interviewed. Dean addressed the call for a public option in health care reform, while Podesta discussed the Obama administration's desire to rely less on private contractors and bring more work back into the federal government.

Also appearing on the show were AFGE National Secretary-Treasurer J. David Cox, U.S. Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., and Rick Perlstein, author of "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Cox updated listeners on the Department of Veterans Affairs' staffing and funding shortages, AFGE's opposition to the VA Health Care Facility Leasing Program, and a claims backlog expected to top 1 million. Rep. Towns discussed his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, and the need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Perlstein shared his thoughts on the conservative movement as well as pressing issues in today's world such as the energy crisis.

"Inside Government" - hosted by AFGE Assistant General Counsel J. Ward Morrow - airs on Fridays at 10 a.m. EDT nationwide on Federal News Radio at www.federalnewsradio.com and 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C., area. Programs are archived on the Federal News Radio Web site and can be heard on demand at http://www.federalnewsradio.com or http://www.afge.org/insidegovernment. Please note there will be a short advertisement prior to the start of the program. The program also airs on Saturdays at 7 a.m. on KTKK 630 AM, "The Voice of Utah," in Ogden, Utah sponsored by AFGE Local 1592. For more information, please e-mail InsideGovernment@afge.org or go to www.federalnewsradio.com.