Labor Department Cancels Plan to Contract Out Federal Workers’ Jobs

by James Parks, Jul 6, 2007

We reported last month that members of AFGE Local 12 rallied outside the U.S. Department of Labor to protest Labor Secretary Elaine Chao’s decision to contract out 250 jobs throughout the department to GAP Solutions Inc.

Now comes word that Local 12’s efforts, which included lobbying, filing suit and rallying, paid off. On July 3, the Labor Department announced the plan had been canceled. More than 250 federal workers who had been told their jobs had been abolished learned that their jobs were saved. Alex Bastani, president of Local 12, says: 

This is not only a victory for the workers, but also for the taxpayers. Local 12 and its members worked very hard to achieve this result. However, we have just begun our fight against the beltway bandits who not only threaten our nation’s economic health but undermine our citizen’s right to self-determination through a government that is accountable to the taxpayers.

Even though this plan to privatize jobs at the Labor Department is history, there still are five other so-called “competitions” underway at the department. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), through its A-76 contracting-out process, forces federal employees to submit bids on the cost of doing the work they are already performing in competition with private contractors.   

Federal employees have been fighting for years against the Bush administration’s push to privatize federal work. The Bush White House has pushed privatization so much that the Los Angeles Times reported this week that there are more private contractors in Iraq than U.S. troops. Click here to read the story.

AFGE President John Gage has condemned the Bush administration officials for their efforts to promote so-called competitive sourcing, which he called  “wholesale privatization.”  

Each Spring brings forth a new OMB marketing campaign for its “wholesale privatization” effort. And while this hardy perennial is hardly pleasing to the eye, we can all agree that it is the product of a lot of fertilizer.

OMB officials continue to make grandiose claims for savings through the controversial Circular A-76 process. However, the Comptroller General has said repeatedly that agencies lack financial accounting systems necessary to make such claims.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)