NFFE
National Federation of Federal
Employees
Affiliated with the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO
A GSA National Council
Release 6/4/08 For
Information: John M. Hanley,
President,
(202)
510-7674 jackx.hanley@gsa.gov
Representatives of employees at the General Services Administration (GSA) are bringing their concerns regarding poor labor-management relations to members of Congress, seeking intervention in order to bring an end to several years of overt hostility towards collective bargaining in the agency. The parties are presently entering into negotiations concerning re-organization nationwide of the Public Buildings Service which, if they do not go well, may delay implementation of the President’s stimulus package. The agency must meet contractual and statutory obligations prior to implementing such a nationwide re-reorganization, or face third party litigation.
Officers, and operations, of the National Federation of
Federal Employees (NFFE) have been targeted in particular, with confrontations
often taking place in the workplace ranging from arguments, to threats of
arrest, and assault. The Union had just
won an election to represent employees in the south, which may have sparked the
bitterness. A recruitment table for
membership which the Union had arranged to put up at one building was taken
down by the agency, at night, and all printed materials were confiscated. Union officials, for the first time in their
careers, were accused of alleged misconduct and disciplined. In some locations, there are no more
face-to-face meetings, and all communications between the parties is done
either by email or by telephone. Agency
managers have just stood up and walked out, unannounced, in the middle of
previous negotiations on other matters, requiring intervention by a federal
mediator, and sundry charges have been filed against the agency with the
Federal Labor Relations Authority during the past several years.
GSA is the landlord of the federal
government, a public real estate organization with an inventory consisting of
more than 8,600 buildings, with nearly 354 million square feet of space
nationwide, primarily office buildings courthouses, ports of entry, and
warehouses. The stimulus package
provides $5,550,000,000 for the Federal Building Fund, with $750,000,000 for
federal building and courthouses, $450,000,000 for a new headquarters for the
Department of Homeland Security, $300,000,000 for border stations, and not less
than $4,500,000,000 to convert GSA facilities to “High-Performance Green
Buildings” as defined in P.L. 110-140.
The agreement also provides $3,000,000 for a training and apprenticeship
program for construction, repair and alteration of federal buildings
President
John M. Hanley, of the nationwide NFFE / GSA Council of Locals, stated
that: “We started in June to try to
negotiate with agency management, with nothing to show for our efforts to date,
and have been met only with animus from the Department of Human Resources. Paid consultants have been brought in to
bust the union, which I don’t believe is an appropriate use of federal funds
for operating a government agency.”
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