|
Vol. IV,
No. 3, November 2003
Contract
Negotiations Begin
Do
you believe DOL employees need:
• A dress code?
• Restricted Flexitime?
• A lunch break of half an hour?
• To wait until 2006 for the $100 transit subsidy
that everyone else gets now?
Labor Department Management does. These and many other
bad ideas are contained in the initial bargaining proposals
that Management gave to AFGE Local 12 on October 8 to
begin negotiations for a new contract.
“Management’s agenda is clear,” declared
Union President Larry Drake. “It’s to take
away many of the gains that Labor Department employees
have made—through their union—over the last
30 years,” he continued.
“If implemented, their proposals would change
the workplace for the worse and make the Department
a much less desirable place to work,” he stated.
“The Union will fight these misguided ideas in
order to preserve and expand the rights and benefits
that DOL employees currently have. Our goal is to make
the Department a better place to work so it can carry
out its mission more effectively,” he emphasized.
In reviewing management’s proposals, two themes
become clear:
• strip individual employees of their rights vis-à-vis
their first-line supervisor, giving the supervisor practically
unlimited discretion, and
• cripple the Union as an institution capable
of defending the rights of employees.
Below are highlighted some of Management’s key
proposals.
Dress code
Management would impose a dress code on DOL employees.
Management’s proposal contains vague language
about “professionalism” and “appropriate
attire,” which could easily be used by unscrupulous
supervisors to harass employees that they don’t
like.
“Dress codes are fine for junior high school students,”
remarked Drake, “but to propose one for hard working
and dedicated DOL employees is both insulting and paternalistic.
We absolutely reject it; employees know how to dress
appropriately without management telling them,”
he stressed.
Flexitime
Management proposes that the core hours, which since
1980 have been 10 AM – 3 PM, be expanded to 9:30
– 3:30. Not only that, they want the hours of
work, which for the last 23 years have been 6 AM –
8 PM, to be shrunk to 7 – 7. In addition, they
would eliminate the Maxi-flex option, the most flexible
type of Flexitime.
“Management’s approach seems to be: ‘Back
to the future!’” noted Drake. “The
whole trend for the past several decades has been to
allow employees greater flexibility; this is especially
important in the Washington DC area, with its terrible
and worsening traffic congestion. Preventing employees
from commuting at their preferred hour is counter-productive,
bad both for the employee and the region.”
Lunch break
For many years, the lunch break for DOL employees has
been an hour. While not written in the contract, it
is considered a “past practice.” Management
would force employees to have only 30 minutes for lunch.
“This proposal is draconian,” stated Drake.
“Half an hour for lunch is unhealthy; people simply
need more time,” he continued. “To leave
your office, go and buy lunch and then eat it and get
back to your office within 30 minutes, is next to impossible.
This is a professional workplace, not a boot camp!”
emphasized Drake.
Transit subsidy
Under Management’s proposal, DOL employees would
get a monthly transit subsidy of $80 in the first year
of the contract, $90 in the second year, and $100 in
the third year. The earliest, therefore, that employees
could get the full $100 subsidy—which DOL managers
and supervisors have been receiving since October of
last year—would be in 2006. “This proposal
is absurd: we should have been receiving the $100 transit
subsidy since January of 2002,” commented Drake.
“To say that DOL employees have to wait three
more years to get whatever everybody else in the city
already gets is ridiculous!”
No racquetball court?
Since it opened in the mid-1970’s, the Frances
Perkins Building has had a racquetball court and exercise
facility on the third floor (South). It is referenced
in the current contract in Article 9, Section 4 (p.
39).
Management’s proposal deletes any reference to
this facility. Could it be that they want to eliminate
it? The Union’s proposal maintains the facility
and expands its hours of operation.
Background
Management formally notified the Union on December 16,
2002, that it desired to renegotiate the Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA). On December 31, the parties
began bargaining on the ground rules. Ground rules govern
the negotiations and cover such things as logistics
and procedures for dealing with impasses.
Unable to agree on the ground rules, the parties received
mediation assistance from the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service (FMCS). Later, despite the Union’s
objections, the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP)
took jurisdiction over the dispute. Under the auspices
of FSIP, the ground rules were established on August
27, 2003.
Ground Rules
Under the ground rules, bargaining will continue for
up to 80 calendar days. Having started on October 8,
the 80th calendar day is December 26. There will be
bargaining every workday except Thursday, and bargaining
will occur in the Frances Perkins Building. If the parties
need mediation assistance, they will get it from FMCS.
If mediation assistance is unsuccessful, the outstanding
issues will be resolved under the auspices of FSIP.
All matters agreed to by the parties ultimately will
be put to a vote, as a package, by the union membership.
Union members, and only union members, will be eligible
to vote the package up or down. If the membership votes
it down, the parties will go back to the bargaining
table. Only after the union membership ratifies the
contract will it be implemented. In the meantime, the
current contract stays in effect until it is replaced
by the new one.
Team members
Under the ground rules, both parties are entitled to
up to ten members on their bargaining team. The members
of the Union team are Larry Drake (Chief Negotiator),
Charles Young (BLS), Terry Hoopes (EBSA), Linda Copening
(ESA), Dale Fischer (ETA), Salwa El-Bassioni (MSHA),
Maureen Hill (OASAM), David Hershfield (OSHA), Eleanor
Lauderdale (SECY), and Paula Parrot (SOL).
The nine members of the Management team are Jerry Lelchook
(Chief Negotiator), Peter Spolarich (BLS), John DiSciullo
(ESA), James DeLuca (ETA), Terry Bentley (MSHA), Sandra
Keppley (OASAM), John Pallasch (OASAM), Dorothy Dougherty
(OSHA), and Mark Maxin (SOL).
Just say no
“All DOL employees should be concerned about these
negotiations because our rights in the workplace are
at stake,” declared Drake. “The most effective
way to say no to Management’s misguided proposals
is to join the Union and give our bargaining team more
clout at the table,” Drake continued. “All
employees who are not yet members of our union should
sign up today; our rights at work hang in the balance,”
he concluded.
Rally on December 10
December 10 is International Human Rights Day. It commemorates
the anniversary of the ratification of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Among other things,
the declaration guarantees the right of people in every
nation to come together in unions and bargain collectively.
Worker rights are human rights. The U.S. government
was a leader in getting this declaration approved.
This year the AFL-CIO will mark the occasion by holding
a series of public events throughout the country to
draw attention to the attacks by employers on the human
rights of free association in the workplace and the
ability to join a union. The event for the Nation’s
capital will be a noontime rally on Wednesday, December
10 on the front steps of the Frances Perkins Building,
200 Constitution Ave., NW.
The rally will call attention to the Bush Administration’s
denial of union rights to Federal employees, not only
at DOL but also at the Department of Homeland Security
and the Department of Defense. All Union members and
DOL employees are encouraged to attend. Stand up for
your rights on the job!
|
