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October 26, 2007

Union Notices

  • Ratification Balloting Process
  • Legislative Affairs Update
  • Communication Committee Update
  • Volunteers Needed: Election Committee
  • Helping Out in the Future

Ratification Balloting Process

The ratification vote for the Interim Council structure is by secret ballot.  No GAO employee or GAO management personnel will know who voted or how anyone else voted. The only person who will see names attached (by way of the e-mail account name and e-mail address) to a ballot is the IFPTE staff person who receives the e-mailed ballots and verifies that the voter is a bargaining unit employee and therefore eligible to vote.

 

Once the IFPTE staff person has confirmed a ballot is eligible, the ballot will be separated from the e-mail and stored in a secure file. In the rare instances where ballots have been copied and pasted into the body of an e-mail, IFPTE will make a photocopy of the e-mail with only the ballot, and not the name or e-mail address of the voter visible. Duplicate ballots and e-mails will be kept separately in a secure file. At this point in the process, all ballots will be anonymous and will not have any marks that identify the voter.  

 

Once all ballots have been received and voting has ended, IFPTE staff will tally the votes. After the count has been announced to the bargaining unit, bargaining unit employees will have the opportunity to audit the ratification balloting process. No bargaining unit employee will be able to discover how anyone voted or who voted.

 

Ballots must be received by Monday, October 29, 10:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

 

Legislative Affairs Update

Since our successful vote in favor of union representation by IFPTE on September 19, 2007, GAO employee volunteers and IFPTE officials have worked tirelessly to implement a system of elected self-governance.  At the same time, the union's representational responsibilities began immediately after the election.  Among the many ongoing representational responsibilities are legislative advocacy. Both the Comptroller General and Congressional leaders have solicited the union's input regarding proposed legislation affecting GAO employees.

 

In particular, several Members of the Hill requested a response regarding GAO's appropriations just hours after the IFPTE union representation vote. 

 

To address this time-critical request, IFPTE appointed Dan Meyer (Chicago FO), Ron La Due Lake (ARM-HQ) and Jackie Harpp (EWIS-HQ) to co-chair the Legislative Affairs committee in part because of critical roles they played during the organizing efforts. They assisted IFPTE in understanding pay issues, particularly locality pay in the field offices and developed working relationships with IFPTE during visits to the Hill with key staffers to encourage congressional support for employees' right to decide on union representation.

 

When responding to the GAO proposed legislation, on Oct. 18, 2007, the committee members requested that comments be solicited from the bargaining unit via the gaoanalysts@ifpte.org e-mail address, so that any member of the bargaining unit who wanted to provide their comments could provide them for consideration/inclusion into the final product to the Hill, (now expected to be delivered on Friday, Oct. 26, 2007). 

 

 

Communication Committee Update

Please help welcome the newest members of the Communications Committee: John Bumgarner (Norfolk FO), Angela Pleasants (Denver FO), Beverly Ross (HQ), Roderick Rodgers (HQ), and Kathyrn Smith (HQ). Please feel free to contact any of these individuals along with the Committee Chairs Shaunessye Curry (Chicago FO) and Regina Santucci (HQ) if you are not receiving the e-newsletter.

 

 

Volunteers Needed: Election Committee

If the Interim Council structure is approved on October 29, it is hoped that Interim Council elections can be completed before the Thanksgiving break.  To assist with Election management issues, IFPTE appointed Paul Wright (EWIS-HQ) and Terry Saiki (Seattle FO) to co-chair the Election Committee.  The Election committee's responsibilities include preparing notices and outlining the process and rules.  The committee is seeking one "Election Representative" from each Team and Field Office to assist in conducting election activities.  Members of this committee are not eligible to run for Interim Council or campaign for any candidate for Interim Council.  If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Paul or Terry by noon on Wednesday, October 31, 2007.

 

 

Helping Out in the Future

If you are interested in being specifically designated to assist on any future matters that may arise before the Interim Council is in place (whether you are located in a field office or a headquarters' office), send your name and area of interest to the gaoanalysts@ifpte.org or to jclark@ifpte.org immediately.

 

 

Get Active GAO Analysts Action Center - Give the IFPTE Feedback
As we get more volunteers, we have better ideas.  To assist Analysts in advancing their rights and representation within GAO, we have developed an advocacy tool to allow Analysts to send feedback on local union governance matters.  GAO Analysts are encouraged to sign up for the GAO Analysts Action Center if they haven't already done so.  

DISCLAIMER - Communications that are not sent directly from the IFPTE, or communications posted anonymously on the web, do not represent the views of IFPTE or the official position of the collective members of the GAO bargaining unit.