From the August 19, 2009 Fedweek weekly issue

Subject:       New Labor Council Planned

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to create a new labor-management structure that essentially 
would be a variant of the partnership program that was ordered by the Clinton administration and then 
rescinded by the Bush administration. A draft executive order would create a National Council on Federal 
Labor Relations consisting of agency officials and representatives of unions and other employee 
organizations, that would promote partnership efforts and provide information and guidance on improving 
labor relations. Rather than a formal national partnership structure with local councils as existed 
during the Clinton period, though, there would be agency-level labor-management “forums” that would seek 
to involve employees and union representatives as “full partners with management representatives to 
identify problems and craft solutions to better serve the agency’s customers and mission.”