The Federal Managers Association and the National Treasury Employees Union are conducting a war of words over whether federal managers should have to bargain over a broader range of issues with labor unions.
In public displays of disagreement, Michael Styles, president of FMA, and Robert Tobias, president of NTEU, are trying to influence the Clinton administration's plan to issue an order to agency heads instructing them to bargain with unions over so-called "permissive" issues, such as the number of employees in an agency and the resources and skills needed to get an agency's work done.
Styles argued in a Feb. 24 letter to Congress that the proposed order on bargaining would mire agencies in labor-management negotiations.
"The administration is planning to require federal agencies to engage in negotiations with federal unions over issues traditionally reserved to management discretion," Styles wrote. "The effect of this initiative would be to gridlock federal agencies. ... If it is allowed to proceed, it will have a devastating long-term impact on the federal government's ability to carry out its congressionally mandated missions in a timely and cost effective manner."
Tobias shot back in a March 3 letter to Styles, saying he was disappointed that FMA is "attacking one of the key elements of the success of labor-management partnership in the federal government."
"The real reasons for FMA's actions on this issue are to convince its members that it is protecting the number of managers in the federal workforce ... and protecting the autocratic, anti-change management styles that many of them have," Tobias wrote.
President Clinton instructed federal managers to bargain over more issues in Executive Order 12871, issued in 1993. That order also asked agencies to set aside traditional bargaining when possible and use labor-management partnership councils to settle workplace issues.
But unions have complained that agencies have not been willing to bargain over permissive issues. Managers have argued that permissive issues are management responsibilities, and that Executive Order 12871 isn't enforceable. The Federal Labor Relations Authority ruled last year that agencies have the statutory right to ignore the order. The Clinton administration is now planning to issue a memorandum putting political pressure on agencies to bargain over permissive issues.
Tobias and Styles launched their public debate at the Feb. 10 meeting of the National Partnership Council, which includes representatives of employee unions, management associations and the administration. At the meeting, Styles argued that permissive issues can be discussed at agencies' partnership council meetings, rather than during formal labor-management negotiations. Tobias retorted that bargaining over permissive issues is a necessary element of successful partnerships.
The next meeting of the National Partnership Council is set to take place this month. White House officials are circulating a draft of the proposed memorandum within the administration. Morley Winograd, director of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, said last month that more than half of federal agencies had expressed concerns about the proposed memorandum.
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