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Seven federal agencies and the labor unions representing their employees were honored for their efforts to establish labor-management partnerships at a White House awards ceremony today.
Honorable mention went to partnership efforts at the Army's Rock Island Arsenal and the Social Security Administration.
September 11, 1996
THE DAILY FED
Partnership Awards Announced
The Administration's National Partnership Council singled out the agency-union teams for working together to improve customer service by cutting costs, simplifying procedures, and empowering employees. This is the second year the ceremony has been held. Five honorees received Vice President Al Gore's "Eagle Statue." Two teams received honorable mentions.
The National Partnership Council was created by President Clinton in 1993 to promote better working relationships between unions and agencies.
The winners are:
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia/American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
- The partnership produced $1 million in cost savings and cut annual operating expenses by more than $100,000.
- Department of Education/National Council of Department of Education Locals and AFGE
- The team simplified the grants process, reducing the number of steps from 487 to 221, improved its toll-free collections services lines, and increased overdue student loan collections from $174 million to $862 million over three years.
- Picatinny Arsenal/Federal Uniformed Fighters and International Association of Firefighters
- The arsenal's fire department adopted a union recommendation to use current fire fighters rather than outside contractors to conduct certain types of training, cutting costs dramatically.
- Internal Revenue Service, North Texas District/National Treasury Employees Union
- In 1993, employees in the district filed 132 grievances and 20 complaints of unfair labor practices. Union and management worked together to cut these actions to 123 grievances and no unfair labor practices filed since 1994, saving $57,000 and more than 3,000 staff hours.
- Defense Distribution Depot, Warner-Robins Air Force Base, Ga./AFGE
- Management and the union redesigned the distribution process, reducing processing time for customer orders from an average of six days to less than one day. The depot simultaneously reduced its budget from $46 million to $40 million and eliminated over 200 employees.
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