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IBEW, Unions Fight New Defense Rules

April 16, 2004

Imagine if the U.S. Department of Defense, the government agency that administers the military, eliminated veterans preference in its employment system. Unbelievable as it may seem, that would be part of a comprehensive package of proposed changes at the department that would all but remove collective bargaining rights for 700,000 workers, including approximately 10,000 IBEW members. The IBEW is among a 30-union coalition mobilizing against new Department of Defense rules.

Seeking to further chip away at labor rights for workers at the Defense Department, Secretary Donald Rumsfelds new personnel system would strip 200,000 workers of their right to be in a bargaining unit, create a pay-for-performance system that will suppress future wage increases, eliminate all seniority and veteran preferences in connection with layoffs and remove prohibitions against unfair labor practices. The new labor-management relations structure would supplant the good faith bargaining that had served both sides well for 45 years.

Personnel changes would be imposed in "consultation" with workers, but if no agreement is reached, the department could unilaterally implement the changes. Instead of the independent, third-party Federal Service Impasses Panelwhich workers with other federal agencies use to resolve disagreementslabor-management disputes would be settled by a new Defense Labor Relations Board whose members would be selected by the Secretary of Defense.

Estimates have the personnel changes costing American taxpayers $3 billion over the next five years.

"Weve never had anything like this face us before," said IBEW Government Employees Director Gilbert Bateman. "You can either sit back and take what comes or you can do something about it."

Along with other government and metal trades unions, the IBEW has started grassroots efforts at naval shipyards in every corner of the country, from Norfolk, Virginia, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Bremerton, Washington, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as well as other government facilities with IBEW workers. The rapid-fire political action campaign includes rallies, mass leafleting and voter registration efforts, Bateman said.

On Capitol Hill, labor advocates are appealing to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to oppose the plan. While Congress is out of session this week for the Easter recess, members are making in-state visits to representatives.

Signed into law by President Bush last November, the overhaul is set to take effect in October, unless the efforts of outspoken labor unions and congressional allies are successful at stopping it.

Defense officials have used national security as an explanation for the changes, although they have refused to justify how and why collective bargaining rights have any effect at all on security.

"They cannot come up with any credible reason for making the right of loyal, hardworking Americans to bargain collectively the boogeyman that threatens national security," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "That is an insult to the patriots who go to work every day to defend America for the Defense Department, many of them military veterans. These changes are a slap in their faces."

Several members of Congress have written Secretary Rumsfeld to request he withdraw the proposal, which was approved as part of the National Defense Authorization Act only after they were assured the labor rights would be protected. "We were very troubled to learn that DoD has submitted a proposal for a new labor relations system that abrogates these rights and goes well beyond what Congress intended in the NDAA," said a March letter signed by several House members. A similar letter signed by 16 members of the Senate also implored Secretary Rumsfeld to reconsider.

Pentagon leaders testified in hearings that their intent was not to rescind these rights. On May 6, 2003, before the House Government Reform Committee, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said, "My understanding is that collective bargaining will still be an essential part of the process."

IBEW International Representative Bruce Burton said the Pentagon could end up regretting the decision to radically overhaul personnel rules because years of precedent both labor and management relied upon for guidance must be tossed aside with the old rules. "If theres one thing management doesnt like, its uncertainty, and this introduces a whole uncharted world of new rules without the benefit of case law under the Federal Labor Relations Authority," he said.

Click here to send a message to your members of Congress through the IBEW Congressional Action Center.