Federal Daily - October 2, 2008

GAO Analysts Union Announces Interim Pact

For the first time in the 86-year history the Government Accountability Office (GAO), employees there have reached a tentative collective-bargaining agreement with management, newly unionized GAO analysts said in a Sept. 26 statement. About 1,800 GAO employees are members of the new GAO analysts union, a bargaining unit of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE). Before the pact can be brought up for a vote, probably later this month, the union’s interim council will have to vote on whether to approve the pact or not. If approved, the interim agreement will remain in effect until a master collective bargaining agreement is reached, the union said in a statement. Analysts at the agency voted to unionize last year, after GAO completed a restructuring of the agency’s pay system in response to an outside report showing some GAO analysts were underpaid and some overpaid. To see more, go to: www.unionvoice.org/gaoanalysts/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=20719385.

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AFGE Critical of Final NSPS Regulations

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) criticized the recently published final regulations for DoD’s National Security Personnel System (NSPS) for failing to address key shortcomings that have been identified in the program. DoD and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Sept. 26 announced they were issuing final rules governing compensation, classification and performance management. However, AFGE noted that the new regulations do little to shore up confidence in a pay-for-performance system that is viewed with increasing skepticism by DoD employees. DoD “included provisions absolving itself of oversight and increasing its ability to indiscriminately affect employee pay,” said John Gage, AFGE president. “Further, these new regulations do nothing to address the critical failures inherent in the system,” he added. “NSPS is still vague. It still lacks transparency. And, it is still a clear attempt to weaken the ability of employees to have a real voice at the workplace.” To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=894.

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Army Announces 2009 Iraq Troop Deployments

The Army on Sept. 30 announced 2009 troop deployments for Iraq that are part of the next rotation of major units into the country. The rotation will deploy a corps headquarters, a division headquarters and seven brigade combat teams consisting of approximately 22,000 servicemembers. Deployment will begin this winter and continue into summer 2009, the Army said in a statement. The corps and division headquarters confirmed as part of the regular rotation to Iraq include I Corps, Fort Lewis, Wash., and the 1st Cavalry Division (First Team), Fort Hood, Texas. The seven brigade combat teams confirmed as part of the regular rotation to Iraq are the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Ft. Bliss, Texas; 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Ft. Lewis, Wash; 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, N.C.; 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Ft. Lewis, Wash; 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Ft. Riley, Kan; and the 115th Fires Brigade, Cheyenne, Wyo. To see more, go to: www.army.mil/-newsreleases/2008/09/30/12834-army-prepares-for-2009-
rotations-in-operation-iraqi-freedom.

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FBI Creates Knowledge Wiki

Federal Computer Week—The FBI is testing a new collaborative internal Web site, or wiki, called Bureaupedia that officials say will enable users to create an encyclopedia of lessons learned, best practices and subject-matter expertise. Officials see Bureaupedia as a knowledge management tool that will let agents and analysts share their experiences to ensure that their accumulated insight remains after they retire. The project is a collaborative effort between FBI’s chief knowledge officer and chief technology officer. “An agent that retires after 30 years leaves with all of that—what we call a tacit knowledge—everything leaves with him,” said Zalmai Azmi, FBI’s chief information officer, who will be retiring in October. That includes “best practices, things that he did differently, things that he wishes he had done differently.” The FBI’s new wiki uses the same open-source software as Wikipedia, and after the test period is complete, the agency will launch it on the FBI’s secure intranet, FBINet. To read the complete story, go to: www.fcw.com/online/news/153926-1.html.

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