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Return to Article: Base realignment plan would cut 18,000 civilian jobs

• 9980
  

  In reference to Red River Army Depot which employs approx 2,500 civilians. What about the other 2,500 government employees who work at the RRAD defense complex for agencies of DOD other than Army? Defense Logistics Agency, contractors, Lonestar Army Ammunition Plant, and McAllister Army Ammunition Plant all are tenants of the RRAD defense complex. A TOTAL OF NEARLY 5,500 EMPLOYEES supporting the troops. This type of reporting clouds the issues and misrepresents the facts. We are all told our work is superb, outstanding, some of the best.....BUT...that is just not enough.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 26, 2005 2:39 PM
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  As one who was caught in BRAC 1993, I can attest to the fact that there is no logic in the moves proposed. It does come down to pure politics. The best commands, the most environmentally clean are expendable. I agree with many of the comments from Corpus Christi and others regarding the additional chaos that will be experienced in organizations and peoples lives by implementing the NSPS along with the BRAC. This seems to me to be a clever ruse to quickly and without due process get rid of DoD employees. Many of us have commented on this very issue regarding the NSPS and RIF procedures as proposed under the NSPS. It is not a fair process. Those who are to be retained based on their performance rating, and then their veterans preference standing will not be treated fairly. NSPS performance assessment is based on management's subject assessment of the employees behavior. Additionally, these finite details of challenging any unfair performance assessment are not contained in the proposed NSPS regulation. It states that a labor relations board is to be created, this being only one of issues that are not clearly defined in the NSPS proposed regulation, and deferred to the still undefined DoD implementing policy and regulation.

  DoD plans seem to be too aggressive To think that their planners can continue the war in IRAQ, perform BRAC 2005 strategic alignment, and overhaul the DoD personnel system all with limited budgets, serves to undermine the sustaining structure in place. Lofty goals, probably created by some independent think tank!

  BRAC is very disruptive to individuals lives and families. When one has to move their whole family away from their community, human instinct kicks in with the fear factor. Family's who make the move often experience long separations from their love ones. When they do unite, the emotional scars are often so devastating that children turn in to juvenile delinquents, and divorce rates rise. Personal behavior is all around is altered when faced with these tough decisions. More often than not, the individual who has relocated is not accepted in the new organization. The good old boy system does not readily accept foreigners. NSPS management training will not change cultural molds.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 19, 2005 11:04 AM
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  I hope that all the wanna-be Republicans are happy now. George Bush and clan have done exactly what they said they would do. They are cutting your Government job and your paycheck. They are taking your standard of living away so the rich can get a bigger dividend on their stock. This is a purely political move if you analyze it. Most of the big BRAC 2005 hits were in Democrat states with a junior member of congress as the representative.(No resistance) Or for more vindictive reasons in the northeast (John Kerry's state). I think the Republicans have been masterful. You have to take your hat off to them. They have managed to get the middle-class, and working poor to vote themselves out of their jobs, standard of living and affordable health care so the rich can have bigger boats and fly to Cancun every week. Bravo Karl Rove. Unfortunately, as a liberal Democrat I have to live with this stupidity. Registered Democrats out number registered Republicans 3 to 1 and we (The Democrats) chose to re-elect Bush. Incredible! There is one big difference between a true Democrat and a wannabe Republican and that is - I believed my grandparents when they told me about hard times and living without during the Depression. Obviously the wannabes did not. Well boys and girls, you're about to get a financial education that you will not soon forget. And for all you Dems that voted for him I say "I Told you so." Gosh that felt good.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 17, 2005 6:20 AM
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  Just a couple of things. On Friday the 13th, I was so proud of Rumsfeld standing up and letting people know about the BRAC. Just joking because Rumsfeld was not man enough to stand up in front of those he is shafting, he sent a deputy to do that. Just another reason to love him. Next how is it DFAS Denver lost their A76 a couple of years back and they are staying in business? Pensacola DFAS won their A76 and they are being shut down, makes me wonder who is kissing who.

  Dave Posted May 16, 2005 2:50 PM
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  Only two questions: "How on this earth does the Governemnt plan to RIF/relocate/fire/move thousands of Government Employees as they scale back on personnel services and struggle to implement NSPS (which greatly changes RIF/retension standards)? RIF half the employees under the current personnel system the RIF the other half under NSPS?

  Gil

  Gilbert Hernandez Posted May 16, 2005 9:20 AM
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  "The largest relocation of civilian jobs will occur in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, where thousands of Defense civilians work in leased office space. Nearly 23,000 Defense jobs, including 15,754 civilian positions, will move to more secure space at military installations, including thousands to nearby military bases, among them Fort Belvoir, Va. and Fort Meade,"

  Here is the stupidest move fostered by the Sec Def. The offices in Crystal City are just as secure as any of the other agencies. Agriculuture is on the street downtown and DOE also is on the street. HUD is on the street and so are most other government agencies. There absolutely is no good reason to move the DoD civilians to military bases or anywhere else. This is a total waste of my tax money and should be stopped cold by Congress! Before any of these moves are allowed the Congress should make DoD provide the cost of such moves. Not only the cost to the government but also the cost to the employees - the empolyees will not have access to mass transit subways or the Virginia Rail Express so everyone that commutes today will have to drive. Need an environmental impact statement before the decision can be made and it was not done! This is the competent brass at DoD that will be implementing a pay for performance system! Seems that they should reduce their pay based on this stupid decision.

  taxpayer Posted May 16, 2005 6:17 AM
• 9742
  

  During the previous BRACs, many serious mistakes were made by DOD that had long term consequences for our military. They merged various agencies and thousands of positions. They had a chance to take the cream of the crop of the workers to fill the positions. The chance was there to eliminate unproductive employees, especially bad managers, who were undermining the efficiency of numerous work groups and costing the government billions of dollars in wasted man hours and materials.

  Instead, they moved nearly everyone who would go into the new facilities. Guess who was most likely to go. That's right. The managers who didn't have a chance at finding equivalent work because they really were incompetent. Obviously, many of the best didn't move because they could go work in private industry and they were just plain tired of working for idiots. Instead of the cream of the crop, DOD concentrated the sludge that the workforce has to carry so that fewer workers have to carry more of it. A lot of money was wasted and the system is little better off than before the closings.

  Let's hope that someone at DOD has even an ounce of common sense and that this time, for once, they do the right thing to make DOD less wasteful and much more efficient. What good is it to build a new house with rotten wood?

  Robert M. Posted May 15, 2005 11:33 PM
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  I used to work at a base some people referred to as "Disney on the Delaware". They were in the business of doing engineering support services for the Navy. However, no active ships are left there. There was no military presence left either - the last military billet left sometime last year. All work done for the fleet's benefit must be travelled to by these employees, or it is done by employees of other waterfront commands that are positioned near the ships. All other real work left could have been shuttled to contractors. Hence, it is now a huge, expensive paper pushing outfit with 1500 plus employees, with many of them making fabulous salaries off the GS scale (thanks to pay banding and the old boy system). If the criteria of "military" value were followed, this place should have made the list big time. But, as one of my professors in business school said to me...if it's not rational or logical, then it must be political!!!

  Signed,
  Retired

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 15, 2005 3:56 PM
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  We (Government civilians) were briefed today about the impact of BRAC to our facility (Navy base Corpus Christi). The Admiral allowed us to ask questions. I raised my hand and asked, "Isn't there going to be an administrative and logistics NIGHTMARE caused by conducting BRAC while DOD/OPM are attempting to implement a new personnel system, National Security Personnel System (NSPS)". Current employee retention/reduction in force (RIF) rules are totally different from NSPS rules. Under the current system employee retention is based on tenure but under NSPS tenure doesn't carry any weight. NSPS uses employee performance as a retention factor. It would be totally unfair to Government employees to RIF/relocate/fire employees under the current system then use a different set of rules to complete the BRAC requirements. It would be an administrative nightmare which would cause numerous law suits. NSPS is supposed to be implemented within the next year at our facility. Please ask some one in a high Government position (Rumsfeld) how the Government can conduct a BRAC and implement a completely new and different personnel system. During our briefing today the Admiral didn't have an answer to my question.

  I believe the Government didn't plan for this contingency when they set out to change over to NSPS. This is very important to 600,000 Government employees.

  Gilbert Hernandez Posted May 14, 2005 9:54 PM
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  We are asking that you not vote for the closing of the Air Guard unit in Reno Nevada, the High Rollers. We have an Air National Guard son who is a Flight Engineer on the C130H. He has done two tours in the mideast, Kuwait and Iraq. He will likely be sent this summer either back to Iraq or to Afghanistan. Yet just yesterday his crew was briefed that they might lose their jobs, as the DOD is taking away their planes. What's logical about this? If they are important enough to send to Iraq to fight the war against terror, then how can they be left without jobs? If the planes are removed from Reno, where is the protection from fires and from terrorists targeting Las Vegas? It rips to shreds the ability of the guard to respond to the state's crises.

  This move is called a "re-alignment," yet moving the airplanes makes his job obsolete unless he moves, too. Chances of his being placed in another state with other dwindling crews is almost non-existent. However, we are concerned about this decision not just because of our son's future. This move seriously impairs the ability of the Air Guard to carry out the mission of protecting the state and the country. How can a government agency speak about protecting our country in the war against terror and at the same time support the emasculation of this particular base, where the guard members have time and again proven their ability and worth?

  Joanne Walen Posted May 14, 2005 8:03 PM
• 9731
  

  I am a 21 year civil servant, who thought that I would be able to retire in another 8 years. But Rummy and Bush have other thoughts. we are the best Admin Support for the Reserves stateside and abroad. Our Marines depend on us being there for them in death, life, promotion and their entire Reserve Career. But I will be uprooted and moved to another location, if I accept. But the location they want to send us all to is so rundown and bad that the Marines that have previously served there hate it for themselves and their families. We have a multi-million dollar complex and they was us to go to an unsafe area and facility. Does this make sense??? Not only that but this would also uproot my 77 year mother and 10 year old grandson that I support. Please senators and Congress help us. God have mercy on our souls!!! Do Rummy and Bush have any idea how this effects the Men/Women who are fighting his war to have to worry about their families that are losing jobs stateside.

  worker bee kc

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 13, 2005 11:58 PM
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  I am a 21 year civil servant, who thought that I would be able to retire in another 8 years. But Rummy and Bush have other thoughts. We are the best Admin Support for the Reserves stateside and abroad. Our Marines depend on us being there for them in death, life, promotion and their entire Reserve Career. But I will be uprooted and moved to another location, if I accept. But the location they want to send us all to is so rundown and bad that the Marines that have previously served there hate it for themselves and their families. We have a multi-million dollar complex and they want us to go to an unsafe area and facility. Does this make sense??? Not only that but this would also uproot my 77 year mother and 10 year old grandson that I support. Please senators and Congress help us. God have mercy on our souls!!! Does Rummy and Bush have any idea how this effects the Men/Women who are fighting his war to have to worry about their families that are losing jobs stateside.

  worker bee kc

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 13, 2005 11:58 PM