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700,000 Defense Workers Set to Battle Bush Administration in High Court |
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The fight over the Bush administration’s plans to take away important workplace rights from more than 700,000 Department of Defense civilian workers is heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied a motion by a coalition of Defense Department unions for a full court review of a 2–1 May ruling that upheld the department’s National Security Personnel System (NSPS). The new system, first proposed in 2003, destroys important bargaining rights, threatens workers’ pay and eliminates the right to appeal serious disciplinary action.
The appeals court action came just days after the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the fiscal year 2008 Defense appropriations bill that bans the department from using any funds to implement NSPS.
AFGE, part of the union coalition, says it will ask the Supreme Court to stop the Defense Department from implanting the NSPS. Says AFGE President John Gage:
The administration and the DOD [Defense Department] need to be taken to task on this issue. It’s time to stop the bullying and abuse this administration is directing toward DOD employees….If NSPS were to be fully implemented, DOD workers would be subjected to an arbitrary, dishonest and unfair working atmosphere.
In 2006, a U.S. District Court judge ruled NSPS violated workers’ collective bargaining rights and tossed out much of the personnel system. But this spring, the appeals court overturned that decision by a 2-to-1 vote, giving the Defense Department the go-ahead to implement the system.
The Bush administration tried to impose similar workplace rules on 160,000 Department of Homeland Security workers, but federal courts have blocked much of that effort.
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Brothers and sisters OUR friends in the US Senate is stabbing the workers in the back just like they did to the TSA workers. Because they do not have enough votes to override the threatened presidential veto OUR friends in the Senate are not even going to bring it to a vote to defund NSPS. I just wish OUR friends would get a backbone and stand up for the people who elected them to office. Maybe they are not our friends anymore?
I wonder why our government hates Americans so much.
INDEED!!!! You can take our government to task, but you cannot expect it to do the right thing. Our current government does not care for the American people, and does not care for our country. The current politicians in office, (I hesitate to call them leaders) are selling out our freedoms, our rights, and our protections to the highest bidder. How can we, as a nation, TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY, I wonder!?!