Federal managers and union representatives were supposed to work together to complete reports last month on the state of labor-management partnership efforts in government. But in at least two cases, management and labor couldn't even partner long enough to write the reports.
Last fall, President Clinton issued a memorandum asking agencies for a status report on efforts to improve labor-management relations. Agencies were given until April 14 to submit the reports to the Office of Management and Budget.
Some agencies have turned in their reports, while others, such as the Energy Department and the General Services Administration, are still completing them. The Office of Personnel Management did not issue guidance on how the reports should be structured until February.
In some cases, unions and management are submitting separate reports, because the two sides could not agree on the content.
The National Border Patrol Council, a division of the American Federation of Government Employees, submitted its own report, saying that the union was not given a chance to provide input on the report produced by management at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The Border Patrol is part of INS.
The council "does not believe that INS management has a real commitment to partnership," National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner wrote to OMB. "Although some INS managers, primarily at lower levels, are sincere about partnership, most ignore it or attempt to use it as a ploy to extract concessions from labor that they could not otherwise secure."
Bonner also wrote that effective labor-management partnerships are dependent on the personalities of management. "When a leader who is committed to partnership is replaced by one who is not, the relationship immediately deteriorates in a dramatic fashion," Bonner said.
An INS spokesman was unable to track down the agency's submission to OMB on Tuesday or Wednesday. The union representing employees of the Housing and Urban Development Department in New England also reported difficult labor-management relations.
"Labor relations under [HUD] Secretary [Andrew] Cuomo are poor, and employee morale has never been lower," wrote Nancy M. Hill, president of HUD Local 3258 of the American Federation of Government Employees.
HUD did not provide its report after requests on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Terry Rosen, a labor-relations specialist with the American Federation of Government Employees, said union representatives are sending mixed reports on labor-management partnerships.
"In general, we're not seeing what we hoped we would see," Rosen said. "The one caution I would add is that we would tend to be hearing more from disgruntled people."
OMB referred requests for the reports to OPM. An OPM spokesman said the agency is not releasing any of the reports until it analyzes them. OPM plans to report findings this summer.
For its report, the Defense Department submitted an analysis of partnership efforts that the Defense Partnership Council put together in December (The report is available online at www.cpms.osd.mil/fas/DPCReport). The Pentagon has asked local level leaders to submit supplemental reports if they wish.
President Clinton's memorandum last fall also required agencies and unions to develop action plans on improving labor-management relations. Rosen said those plans are more important than the reports. "We should now be focusing on the plans," Rosen said. "How are we going to turn this around? How are we going to get more agencies involved?"