Return to Article: Unions object to Pentagon labor-management proposal
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3252
It's a misguided belief that so much deadwood exists in the civilian workforce. I just don't buy into the party line. I've not seen one shred of convincing evidence or heard one logical explanation that clarifies how a new personnel system improves national security. Managers don't know how to write performance standards and evaluations and lack the skills to adminster discipline when warranted. They are also victims of budgetary contraints when it comes to awarding performance. Stripping employee's of union protections will succeed in promoting fear, cronyism, favoritism and bad management practices. Please explain how this is in the best interest of national security?
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3235
The present union system has been ineffective except for forcing us to keep deadwood. Under the new system we will have a chance at being rewarded for our performance instead of being given pretty sheets of paper and having to wait years for step increases. After 15 years of working 60+ hour weeks without overtime to cover less than steller performers, it would be great if all of the dissatisfied workers did leave. At least then we would have a chance of hiring working employees. DoD Service is not "In-House Welfare".
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3208
I agree that unions are no longer working to maintain employees' rights, but they are in existence just to challenge management and receive as many concessions as possible. I fully support the unions out there that represent employees who face unfair situations. But I despise the union leaders, like the ones where I work, who waste valuable productive and management time arguing about things like who gets a parking spot and the employees' right to have televisions at their desks!! Can you believe that? Televisions at desks. Not only is that not worth the fight, but it's a disgusting representation of the values of civil servants. Personally, I am proud to be a civil servant who aims to make tax dollars stretch as far as I can. Meanwhile, unions disgrace my title by arguing for things like televisions at work.
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3195
Those who think unions have outlived their purpose must be self-employed because everything from a 40 hour work week, WISHA, OSHA, retirement plans were fought for by UNIONS and the workers that formed the middle class which, by the way, use to be able to buy computers, cars, houses, cell phones, and everything else that has made the rich richer. Does someone want to tell me when everyone is making Wal-Mart wages who is going to be able to afford to buy anything? We aren't bound to repeat our past we ARE REPEATING IT. We are standing by in this country while it is raped of everything our grandparents and their grandparents built in this country and it leaves a huge ache in my heart.
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3187
Today, classification; tomorrow, labor relations; day after tommorow, staffing. Civil Service as a whole--and especially DoD--is galloping "hell-for-leather' back NOT toward Hoover but toward McKinley. Santayana wrote that those who are ignorant of their history are doomed to repeat it. If the public ignores McKinley-era tactics of management, Garfield is next--and I do not mean the cartoon cat. Management will hire, fire, and reward based on their own perception and self-gratification. And I am a staunch conservative--not a member of the "parlor pink" or "lunatic left" groups.
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3181
The unions have outlived their usefulness, time for them to go the way of the dinosaur.
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3179
I have to laugh when I read the "they're trying to bust the union" comments. Where have you people been? Union membership has been decreasing for years. Why? Because the union leaders, for years, have been more concerned with their political activities than actually working for the people who pay their salaries - the workers the union officials supposedly care about. I was once a member of the union where I work - all I saw was union "leaders" going on retreats, getting their own parking spots, and using work time and resources to perform union activities, in violation of its agreement with management. Once I saw this, along with all the whiners, complainers, and miscreants who should have been fired long ago getting elected to the leadership positions, I quit. And it still took three months and intervention from the Commanding Officer to get the union to stop taking dues out of my paycheck. Unions were great when the U.S. was an industrial and manufacturing nation - but that time is past. Self-reliance is what we should be preaching, not "it's time for DoD employees to get militant". What is this - Chicago 1968?
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3167
The writer who suggested that we get out while we can, is playing into the hands of those "reorganizing" all parts of government, not just DoD. When employees feel that they have to get out, it does just what management wants, i.e. to reduce costs.
The problem: The only ones who can get out are those who are high performers and have something to offer to the private sector. What is left in government are those who have never worked, don't intend to start now, and wouldn't if they were given a promotion.
For people who want to reduce the size (and efficiency) of government, I think their plan is working.
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3150
Currently the unions are pretty weak and this proposal makes them almost worthless. This is the most obvious union busting move ever published by the administration. What happened to Bush's concern about the "working family"? This surely demonstrates a total lack of concern. These proposals would be fine if the union was allowed to call a strike and enforce the picket lines. Without that power we cannot allow the DoD to destroy the civil service structure for its own purposes.
Also, never give them this power "Defense Department managers would have the right to waive collective bargaining during emergencies or for national security reasons." They classify anything that helps their purpose as a national emergency or for national security interests! Make them spell out the specific conditions under which this would be true. Also, DoD should not have the power to determine that certain groups are excluded from Union membership. These guys are back in the 1890's. What a progressive bunch of managers we have.
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3143
DoD's new proposal guts all powers and abilities to represent employees. These new proposals are Bush Administration throwbacks to the Hoover era.
To our DoD brothers and sisters- get out now while you can- this administration is determined to destroy all vestiges of organized labor.
God help us all.
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