Yesterday’s announcement by the White House ending the civil service personnel structure at the Department of Homeland Security strikes at the very heart of workplace protection rights and endangers our safety.

To introduce a highly speculative overhaul of the government’s stable personnel structure at this time – to put that agency through unnecessary turmoil when our nation is at war – is simply dangerous. The civil servants at Homeland Security represent the best of the best doing the toughest job in the world. We need programs and structures that respect the work they’re doing – not ones that hurt morale and leave their pay to the whims of their employers.

Eliminating the “equal pay for equal work” system that federal government employees have come to rely on does more than just change the pay structure. Under the new system, employees are more likely to become victims of cronyism, discrimination and arbitrary policy-making.

Adding insult to injury, Bush officials say they will push to extend the Homeland Security rules, originally justified as essential to fighting terrorism, government-wide. Regrettably, this breathtakingly cynical attempt to bootstrap these rules into grounds for gutting civil service and collective bargaining rights for all federal employees is merely the latest in a series of Bush administration assaults on federal workers.

At a time when we need to focus our resources on protecting the nation’s security, this Administration is taking away fundamental rights from the very people entrusted with guarding our borders. It’s policy that is no good for the civil servants at Homeland Security, and no good for the nation.

Contact:  Christy Setzer (202) 637-5018