Feb. 9—Hundreds of federal workers marched to Capitol Hill Feb. 8 to protest proposed new U.S. Department of Defense personnel rules that are expected to gut the civil service and bargaining rights of the department’s civilian workers.
The workers and union leaders are members of many of the 36 unions and labor organizations that represent the majority of the 750,000 workers at the Defense Department. They are part of the United DOD Workers Coalition, formed in 2004 to fight the Bush administration’s attack on defense employees’ rights.
Bush Seeks to Weaken Federal Workers’ Rights Across the Board
In January, the Bush administration has finalized new rules for the 180,000 workers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which slash employees’ bargaining and workplace rights and civil service pay scales. The new Defense Department rules are expected to be issued shortly and likely will mirror the DHS workplace rules. Administration officials say they will seek to impose similar new personnel rules on the entire federal workforce—even though Bush initially argued that changing the personnel rules for DHS employees was necessary to fight terrorism.
Among other changes, the new Homeland Security rules eliminate the right to bargain over workforce staffing levels and weaken due process rights for workers who wish to appeal adverse actions by management. They also establish mandatory firing offenses. Unions representing federal employees have filed suit to block the rules.
“Department of Defense workers are on the frontlines, protecting America’s security and freedom. We need to make sure that their basic freedoms at the workplace remain strong and intact,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said at the rally.
The Bush administration claims the new DHS rules and Defense Department personnel regulations—known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS)—are needed to provide “flexibility” in the workforce.
Workers Have No Means of Appealing Under New Rules
AFGE President John Gage says the only flexibility the new rules will provide is the flexibility for management to eliminate workers’ rights.
The proposed new regulations would provide the Defense Department “with every means to put the squeeze on employees, enabling the agency to mess around with pay, work schedules, leave and evaluations, without any meaningful appeal rights,” Gage says.
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