An Open Letter to the Members of IFPTE from President Gregory J. Junemann

I am writing to request your assistance in helping a significant portion of IFPTE's membership to maintain its bargaining rights and responsibilities. This issue deals with the potential elimination of unions representing workers in the US Department of Defense, and while this in itself is alarming enough, it surely represents the potential for a subsequent loss of union rights for employees working for Defense contractors and subcontractors.

This matter was discussed at the 54th IFPTE Convention, and a corresponding resolution "Support for Collective Bargaining, Title V Protections for Federal Employees" was proposed and unanimously adopted.

In November of 2003, the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress pushed through the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act. Among other provisions within the Act, the new law included a major provision called the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Under NSPS, management within the Defense Department intends to eliminate the current Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), nullify all existing bargained or authorized grievance procedures, remove management's duty to bargain, invalidate all provisions of any existing collective bargaining agreements that are noncompliant with NSPS, and eliminate union representatives' use of official time. Additionally, the Defense Transformation Act replaces the fifty-five year old General Schedule pay system with a 'pay for performance' merit pay system, the provisions of which have not as yet been disclosed. This is all being done under the premise that such measures are needed to maintain national security.

To combat the unilateral implementation of NSPS, the Federation is working in coalition with other unions representing DoD employees to lobby Congress to overturn the law. IFPTE is also working with the legal department of the AFL-CIO to investigate proper legal avenues to pursue to contest DoD's extensive overreaching in its proposed implementation of the law. We have also constructed a section on the IFPTE website to combat NSPS. Finally, we are reaching out to all of you, our local leaders and members, to seek your help in contacting your respective House and Senate representatives to enlist their support in overturning this law.

Please send the attached draft letter or a similar letter to your respective Congressional representatives. I ask that you do this as soon as possible since DoD is currently in the process of finalizing its implementation strategy.

Please contact your Congressional representatives directly, either at his/her hometown or DC office, or at a town hall meeting. Ask them to involve themselves in overturning this law. Talking points can be found under the 'Short Explanation' within this campaign.

Again, I must emphasize that this direct attack on collective bargaining rights of Defense Department employees is certainly only the beginning of what will be the dismantling of union rights for all federal employees. Moreover, once the anti-union forces have dismantled collective bargaining in the federal sector, the rights of every other union member in the United States, regardless of the employer, are in jeopardy.

Thank you.

In Solidarity

Gregory J. Junemann President

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54th Constitutional Convention
Honolulu, Hawaii
July 28-31, 2004

RESOLUTION NO. 19
Support for Collective Bargaining, Title V Protections for Federal Employees

WHEREAS,
The Bush Administration has undertaken a plan aimed at eroding Title V civil service protections and collective bargaining rights of federal employees, and

WHEREAS,
The Secretary of Defense delivered a massive Pentagon plan called 'The Defense Transformation Act' to reorganize the human resource practices of the Department of Defense (DoD), and

WHEREAS,
The proposal would effectively eliminate the role of unions within the department and do away with most protections afforded civil servants under Title V, and

WHEREAS,
The Pentagon plan will negatively impact more than 700,000 workers and was secretly constructed with no input from DoD civilian employee groups, and

WHEREAS,
The consistent and aggressive attacks on federal employees through both the DHS and DoD bills are reflective of the overall policy objectives by the current administration to downsize the federal workforce at all costs, and

WHEREAS,
Despite more than 34 years of successful federal labor relations history, the Bush Administration's policy objectives suggests that federal employees who also belong to a union as well as those who enjoy civil service protections are not adequately equipped to perform their jobs, and

WHEREAS,
The Bush Administration has failed to present one circumstance where a federal civil servant's collective bargaining status prevented him/her from performing their job, and

WHEREAS,
The range of legislative attacks on civil servants being undertaken by the Bush Administration suggests the actual intention of these proposals are to erode civil service protections and collective bargaining as a part of a larger effort to easily outsource federal jobs to the private sector.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,
That the Federation, with the cooperation of the affiliates of the AFL-CIO, will use all available means to actively work to block congressionally mandated legislative and regulatory efforts, such as the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, being undertaken by the administration to erode the collective bargaining and Title V civil service protections of federal employees.

Submitted By: IFPTE Executive Council
Cost: Nominal
Committee Assignment: Resolutions
Committee Recommendation: Concur as Amended
Convention Action: Concur as Amended