May 2006:
| NTEU Bulletin |
May 2006 Volume LXIII, Number 3 |
| President’s Column |
| On any given day, it is quite likely that
somewhere NTEU members are sitting across from agency management
officials at a bargaining table negotiating an agreement. It may be a
new national term or mid-term agreement, it may be a local agreement, or
it may be a separate agreement putting into place a new employee benefit
like telework. Whatever it is, these NTEU members are building on NTEU’s past successes at the bargaining table and strengthening employees’ rights for the future. NTEU has long been a leader in the federal sector at the bargaining table; we are known for our strong and innovative contracts. This spring and summer NTEU will be at the bargaining table negotiating a record number of contracts. At the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) we are negotiating a joint contract covering all the employees NTEU represents at various HHS agencies. Joint negotiations—which we have done before at HHS—offer us many advantages; one of the most important is the resumption of our ability to function on a cross-operating division basis. This means that a union official from one HHS unit can now represent a member from another HHS unit, a key advantage. We are also negotiating the first-ever contract for employees at the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). For NCUA employees, this has been a long, hard road. NCUA has fought us at every step, but we have fought back. It is far past the time to bring the benefits of a union contract to NCUA employees, and I am looking forward to doing so. But I expect that bargaining will be tough and that NCUA will continue its efforts to thwart NTEU. Despite NCUA’s efforts, I am confident that we will reach an agreement that is beneficial to employees. Bargaining is set to begin on a new term agreement for employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is occurring even as NTEU wraps up, at another bargaining table, talks on a new compensation agreement for SEC employees. It is not unusual for NTEU to be negotiating with an agency on different agreements at the same time. At the Internal Revenue Service, we have a different situation. Having just wrapped up mid-term changes to the national agreement, the IRS now wants to re-open the entire contract and negotiate the term agreement. Given that the mid-term changes just went into effect in January, and that we are still finalizing some other issues with IRS, NTEU would like to wait. There is value in letting both sides actually live under an agreement before setting out to re-negotiate. I am hoping that the IRS can see that and will agree to hold off on term bargaining for a while. Even when negotiations are over and an agreement has been forged, things can go awry. NTEU worked hard to reach an initial term agreement with the National Park Service and was ready to implement when NPS balked. Agency officials there refused to sign the fully-negotiated agreement; we have gone to arbitration over their illegal actions in denying NPS bargaining unit members a contract. This process—two sides sitting down to reach agreement on issues they may disagree about—is truly the heart of what a union does for its members. At its core a union contract provides a structure for employees and federal agencies to understand their rights and responsibilities to each other and for employees to have an independent manner in which to enforce their rights. As many people know, complaining to those who are doing you wrong is not an effective solution. And the rights encompassed in a union contract generally are not willingly granted by an agency; NTEU has fought for all these rights. Some NTEU members probably do not even realize that workplace practices that seem ingrained in their agencies are only there because NTEU fought for them at the bargaining table 20—or more—years ago. While there are many things that strengthen NTEU’s ability to bargain a fair and effective contract—our long experience, skilled negotiators, a committed bargaining team—there is also one fact that is understood by both sides and that plays into negotiations: the number of members we have at an agency. When we sit down at a bargaining table we need to be speaking with one voice and we need the strength of the entire bargaining unit behind us. The agency negotiators we are facing know exactly how many members we have and how strong our voice is. As we sit down at bargaining tables across the federal government this spring and summer, help us speak with one strong voice by encouraging nonmembers to join. We will all benefit. |