Defense Workers Win Battle for Bargaining Rights

by James Parks, Jan 30, 2008

An arduous four-year battle by U.S. Department of Defense employees turned into victory this week with the help of the Democratic majority in Congress: The employees at Defense will keep their bargaining rights and retain their civil service rights to appeal major disciplinary actions.

After the Republican-led Congress refused to block the Bush administration’s anti-worker National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which took away workers’ bargaining rights, the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition (UDWC) continued the fight to restore workers’ rights. Members of the coalition, made up of the 36 unions that represent Defense Department workers, helped get out the vote to ensure a Democratic majority in Congress and that majority restored the Defense workers’ collective bargaining rights as part of the Defense authorization bill. President Bush signed the bill Monday.

John Gage, president of AFGE, says:

There are not many wins in our history bigger than this one. These core rights not only assure fairness for employees, but these rights are vital to a merit based career civil service instead of a politicized system. The firing and hiring process in the Department of Justice became highly politicized. NSPS would have opened up the Defense Department to that kind of chicanery on a much bigger scale.

Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), credits the new Congress for making workers’ rights a priority:   

President Bush simply signed the bill, but it was the Congress who stepped up to the plate, in bipartisan fashion no less, to repeal the President’s misguided and ideologically driven personnel system. The workers at Defense, and our nation’s defense, will benefit from this much needed repeal. 

In December, Bush vetoed the authorization bill over an unrelated provision that allowed American terrorism victims to sue the current Iraqi government for actions by the Saddam Hussein regime. Rather than attempt a veto override, Congress drafted a new bill without the offending Iraqi provisions.

AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault says the Bush NSPS was a missed opportunity to improve policies: 

It’s a genuine shame that the Bush administration chose not to make a legitimate effort to make positive changes in Defense personnel practices. Add NSPS to the long and embarrassing list of failed opportunities to improve government performance, but they came at this process from a totally negative and adversarial direction.

Along with the legislative fight, the workers’ rights issue has been before the courts. AFGE announced it will drop its request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision that overturned a lower court’s ruling that invalidated the NSPS rules.

The Bush administration tried to impose similar workplace rules on 160,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security workers, but federal courts also blocked much of that effort.

 All in all, this is a great victory for workers, says Richard Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, an affiliate of the Machinists (IAM): 

It was unrealistic for the agency to think that the rank and file Defense workers would embrace a new system when their workplace rights, such as the rights to bargain and have a fair system of appeals, are taken away under that system. This reform is without a doubt a victory for Defense workers.

The NSPS currently covers 110,000 Defense workers; none are covered by union contracts. 

In addition to the reforms made to NSPS, the Defense authorization bill also extended the federal Family and Medical Leave Act for the first time since the bill was passed 15 years ago. The legislation extends unpaid family and medical leave for up to six months for the families of wounded military personnel. 

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