Unions are fighting to keep federal jobs off agencies' lists of positions that could be outsourced. In at least one case, the unions have been successful.
The National Treasury Employees Union filed challenges to all major agencies that released lists under the first round of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act, Colleen M. Kelly, President of NTEU said.
Those included the Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce and Energy, the Patent and Trademark Office, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Farm Service Agency.
"Pretty much across the board they are rejecting [the challenges]," Kelly said. But NTEU was able to convince HHS that 31 jobs the agency listed on its FAIR Act inventory were actually inherently governmental positions that should not be performed by contractors.
"We have reviewed our initial decision and agree that we may have incorrectly coded some positions," the Program Support Center within HHS said in its response to NTEU's challenge.
Among the positions to be reclassified are 23 human resources management support positions and 8 personnel management specialists.
The American Federation of Government Employees also challenged several agency FAIR Act inventories, including HHS, the Office of Personnel Management, the National Park Service and the International Trade Commission.
"We believe that, as a matter of bureaucratic convenience, these items should not potentially be thrown on the auction block without at least some protests," said Wiley Pearson, head of AFGE's anti-privatization campaign.
AFGE expects agency responses at the end of this month. In the meantime, officials there will continue to review new rounds of FAIR Act lists as they are released.
"We are government workers and we do take a great deal of pride in our service to our country. There may be others who don't feel that way, but we are concerned when we see this work potentially being thrown away. We know why we do it and why we should continue to do it," Pearson said.
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