Union leaders optimistic about Homeland Security personnel system

Union leaders speaking at the end of three days of public meetings on the new Homeland Security Department personnel system sounded upbeat about the possibility that agency management will take union views into consideration when they make a final decision on the new system.

"I guess we feel better than we did coming into this," said American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage. "We cracked the communication barrier."

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley, as well as National Association of Agriculture Employees President Michael Randall, joined Gage in expressing their optimism that the new DHS system would reflect union priorities.

Kelley said that she was pleased that top DHS officials such as Transportation Security Administrator James Loy, as well as Bureau of Customs and Border Protection Director Robert Bonner, attended the three-day public meeting, held in downtown Washington.

"There was a recognition of the value of having unions involved in this," Kelley said. "We are looking forward to the much harder work in the next phase."

Union officials served on a design team, along with OPM and DHS staffers, which began in April to put together 52 options for the various components of a new personnel system. The options included possibilities for everything from new hiring rules to promotional structures and appeals systems.

The design team has presented its work to a senior review committee consisting of a smaller group of high-level union, OPM and DHS officials, who will provide recommendations to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and OPM Director Kay Coles James. Ridge and James are expected to make a decision on which options to select within the next five weeks.

The top union officials have arranged a Nov. 7 meeting with Ridge at which they will present their own preferences for the new personnel system.

The union leaders said that they still had work to do to prepare their proposals, but assured an audience of reporters and union members that they would fight to block pay-for-performance plans, while also seeking to ensure continued collective bargaining and disciplinary appeals rights for Homeland Security workers.