| IBEW,
Unions Fight New Defense Rules
June 2004 IBEW
Journal
 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.
Union members are also 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.
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