EXECUTIVE MEMO
Air Base to Employees: No Sale
he employees of Newark Air Force Base, Ohio, have lost a bid to run the missile maintenance facility, which is slated for closure by next October.
The workers had formed an employee-owned corporation and bid for the contract to run the facility after the Air Force closed operations there. But in December, the Air Force awarded the contract to Rockwell International and Wyle Laboratories. While Rockwell has pledged to hire most of the 1,400 civilian workers there, employees are still nervous.
The Air Force is closely watching the privatization experience at Newark and hopes to apply the lessons learned there to much larger privatization efforts just getting under way at McClellan and Kelly Air Force Bases.
The Air Force has always viewed using involuntary reductions in force (RIFs) as a policy of last resort, after offering voluntary separation incentives, says Paul G. Hutchins, chief of the Air Force's civilian workforce management division. But employees who volunteer to leave early lose the right of first refusal on any job offers the contractor may make. Likewise, employees who wait for a RIF notice forfeit separation incentives.
Also at issue is how to maintain the workforce at a facility throughout the transition to privatization, despite the sometimes competing needs of the Air Force, contractors and employees. Air Force readiness requires a seamless transition of operations to the private sector, contractors want access to the qualified workforce already in place and employees want to know they'll have a job with comparable pay and benefits.
With no guarantees of employment with a private contractor, many employees are reluctant to stick around and see if they are offered a position, especially if they find another federal job that will allow them to continue in the civil service retirement program. Since the fate of Newark was announced by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 1993, 38 percent of installation employees have left, Hutchins says.
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