Federal Daily - March 12, 2009

Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Aid Union Organizing

Senate and House lawmakers on March 10 introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill they say would—if passed into law—help workers bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions by bolstering their rights to form unions. The bill would give employees the option of forming unions by getting a majority of workers to sign cards to join—without having to hold a secret-ballot election. Currently, employers are the ones who decide whether workers must hold an election or organize via the card-check system. Labor unions say the provision is needed because employers now intimidate workers in the run-up to elections. The bill would also mandate that if contract talks stall after 120 days, employers and workers must submit to a federal arbitrator, who would intervene and set terms. Labor unions contend the arbitration provision is needed because employers sometimes go years without coming to terms on a contract. The bill immediately produced a wide range of support and dissent. Supporters include Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., as well as the American Federation of Government Employees. “Just as the National Labor Relations Act, the 40-hour week and the minimum wage helped to pull us out of the Great Depression and into a period of unprecedented prosperity, so too will the Employee Free Choice Act help reinvigorate our economy,” said Harkin. Employer groups are critical, saying the bill will result in a loss of 600,000 jobs and will expose workers to union intimidation. “In order to meet the demands of their special-interest allies that helped put Democrats in power, they are willing to compound workers’ problems even further by taking away their right to privacy in the workplace,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. To see more, go to: http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/03/us-senate-and-house-introduce.shtml#more, http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=c7f9ce4e-03d0-4919-8500-7b22ed7b52a4, www.afge.org/index.cfm?fuse=content&contentID=1772 or
http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/Document
Single.aspx?DocumentID=114052.

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Bipartisan Bill Would Secure Military Back Pay Under PDMRA

A bipartisan bill introduced March 10 would retroactively pay servicemembers for leave they earned under the Post Deployment and Mobilization Respite Absence Act (PDMRA)—but did not receive. Sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the bill would compensate servicemembers who were not paid for their earned leave due to a delay between the announcement of the program in 2007 by DoD and the establishment of the program by the individual services. Over 20,000 servicemembers have not received their PDMRA pay, Wyden said. PDMRA leave was designed to provide servicemembers who were deployed beyond established rotation cycles to Iraq and Afghanistan (and in specific instances to Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan) additional time to reintegrate back into civilian life, as well as to help with retention of servicemembers who had experienced long tours. The delay in implementation varied from service to service. The Army did not issue its corresponding policy for implementing PDMRA until more than six months after DoD’s Jan. 19, 2007, issuance date, Wyden said. Under the bill, DoD’s personnel office would have legal authority to pay a $200 per day benefit retroactively. “Servicemembers shouldn’t be penalized because the Pentagon took its time filing paperwork,” said Wyden. Supporters include: Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Tom Harkin, D- Iowa, Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J. To see more, go to: http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=309368&.

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Group Releases 2008 Federal Employment Statistics with Interactive Map

Federally Employed Women (FEW) on March 10 announced the release of a new interactive map which includes state and congressional district breakdowns of the numbers of federal employees and retirees. The new statistics are important for lawmakers, who need to know the extent that federal workplace issues affect their states and districts, said Sue Webster, FEW president. The map draws its numbers from the Office of Personnel Management’s November 2008 Federal Employment Statistics database, as well as from the Department of Labor’s 2007 Quarterly Census of Employment. Employment by federal agency, along with the state and congressional district breakout, is also on the FEW interactive map, which is posted at www.eyeonwashington.com/few_map_2008. In addition, previous years’ maps are available on the site. “We are always asked by lawmakers and their staffs how many federal workers and retirees live and work in their state and district," said Cecelia Davis, FEW’s vice president for congressional relations. The map “displays how many Americans are or were employed by the federal government.” To see more, go to: www.few.org.

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AFGE Testifies Over Critical Workplace Issues in Federal Prisons

Federal prisons are chronically understaffed even as correctional officers face an increasingly violent inmate population, American Federation of Government Employees’ (AFGE) Council of Prison Locals (CPL) representatives told House lawmakers March 10. CPL President Bryan Lowry and Legislative Coordinator Phil Glover testified at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on funding for the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The union said serious inmate overcrowding and correctional worker understaffing plague the BOP system nationwide, creating hazardous conditions for both workers and inmates. For years, CPL has advocated in favor of staffing increases to return BOP to the 95 percent staffing levels of the mid-1990s. The union said that staffing should be expanded to allow the placement of two correctional officers in each high-security penitentiary housing unit—particularly during the evening watch shift (3 p.m. to 11 p.m.), and the placement of at least one correctional officer in each medium- and low-security housing unit on all shifts. Lawmakers also should ensure that BOP issues all correctional officers protective vests that are stab-resistant, and equip correctional officers with non-lethal weaponry, such as batons, pepper spray and/or TASER guns, the union said. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=966.

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