In a final-days attack on workers’ rights, President Bush yesterday issued an executive order that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in national security, law enforcement and intelligence.
Nearly 1,000 of the workers currently are represented by a union, and some have been for more than 30 years. The biggest group affected by the order is the 5,000 employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is now part of the Justice Department.
Peter Winch, national organizer for AFGE, the largest federal employee union, says the union is determined to fight the executive order.
Bush’s actions are within his legal discretion, but he has abused that discretion. There is no reason for this action. Nothing has happened from yesterday to today to change the national security situation to require such a change.
We’re asking President-elect Obama when he takes office to review all exclusions [from collective bargaining] since 1978. Several exclusions by this president were not done for national security reasons, but to stop unions.
In the executive order, Bush said it would be inconsistent with “national security requirements” to allow the employees to engage in collective bargaining over the conditions of their employment.
This is the same rationale the White House used in 2003 to deny bargaining rights to workers at the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) in one of the first shots in the Bush administration’s war on federal workers.
Although transportation security officers (TSOs) remain deprived of the freedom to bargain collectively, AFGE has 10,000 TSA members in 22 locals nationwide and regularly represents these employees before the TSA Disciplinary Review Board, the Equal Opportunity Commission, Congress and in the courts.And that number is growing. More than 100 TSOs at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field joined AFGE Local 1040 in August.
Says Local 1040 President Greg Gallo:
AFGE has stood behind TSOs in Dallas for seven years, but this new local means that TSOs will have a voice at home, not just one nationally. As a member of TSA’s first class in 2001, I have seen the ups and downs at the agency. Unfortunately, there are mostly downs, so an AFGE presence is imperative to boosting confidence and morale.
AFGE President John Gage agrees.
The new local signifies a growing trend among TSOs that they want local representation, while belonging to the largest—and among the most influential—federal employee union in the nation.
The latest executive order also covers certain workers in the Energy Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration.
