A coalition of five unions, representing several thousand unionized civilian workers employed by the U.S. Department of Defense, have formed a coalition to protect their rights and protest a plan they say would destroy the federal civil service system.
The Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, submitted to Congress by Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, proposes sweeping changes to how the Department of Defense (DoD) would operate. The proposed plan takes
power away from Congress, from the commanders of the armed services, and from unionized defense workers and concentrates the power in Rumsfeld’s hands, as Secretary of Defense. Language that gives Rumsfeld “sole and unreviewable
discretion” or “sole and exclusive discretion” appears no less than 12 times in the document.
U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie, who serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, called the Rumsfeld plan, “. . .a direct attack on thousands of Hawaii working men and women. Congress is being asked to give its blessing to a scheme that undermines the principles of civil service, the right to a living wage, and—ultimately—collective bargaining itself. It’s no secret that once the Bush Administration imposes these conditions on DoD, it wants to extend these changes to the entire federal work force.
“These folks are our family, friends, and neighbors,” Abercrombie said in a press release on June 13, 2003. “What happens to them affects thousands of island families. It will affect our state economy in the form of smaller paychecks, declining retail
spending, and hard times for the businesses that depend on their patronage. In short, this affects all of us in Hawaii.
Hundreds of Hawaii defense workers circled the Prince Kuhio Federal Building on Ala Moana Blvd. to protest a Bush administration plan that threatens thousands of civilian workers employed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The rally was held on June 25, 2003.
“These policies also weaken the support infrastructure for our military forces. Defense workers perform important work that contributes directly to military readiness. The effectiveness of America’s Armed Forces benefits directly and materially from the dedication, skill and expertise provided by an experienced, professional work force. Reducing the quality of this national defense asset is a disservice to the nation and the men and women in uniform,” Abercrombie noted.
Unions protest
The Hawaii Coalition of Federal Defense Unions asked other unions to support their cause in a letter dated June 20, 2003:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The federal Department of Defense unions and workers are the latest target of the Bush Administration.
We are being attacked by the “Rumsfeld Plan” which, if passed by Congress, would give Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld dictator-like control over all Department of Defense (DoD) personnel matters.
Under this plan, Rumsfeld would be able to set up whatever personnel and labor relations rules he wants, and
would seriously weaken, if not destroy, the federal civil service system. Pay will no longer be determined by
community standards, but on the basis of the supervisor’s subjective annual appraisals.
There would be no guarantee of vacation or sick leave, and workers would not be sure what their family’s
health care coverage would be. Workers could be laid off at a moment’s notice with no seniority rights and federal DoD unions could be a thing of the past. The new policy is simple Rumsfeld gets to decide!
We federal DoD unions know that only labor solidarity will give us a chance to defeat this terrible plan. We
have united as the “Hawaii Coalition of Federal Defense Unions” and intend to fight this attack!
The five unions are: International Association of Machinist, Lodge 1998; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1186; American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1213; Hawaii Federal Employees Metal Trades Council; and National Association of Government Employees-SEIU, Local 556.
Your right to overtime is protected
ILWU members are lucky to have a union
Under new rules proposed by the Bush administration, millions of non-union workers could lose overtime pay. Federal law requires employers to pay overtime to workers who work more than 40 hours a week. The existing law also allows employers to deny overtime pay to certain managerial, administrative, and professional workers who are paid a salary.
The old rules contained two important safeguards to determine if such workers could be exempt—they had to: 1) Customarily and regularly exercise discretionary powers; and 2) could not devote more than 20 percent (40 percent in retail or
service establishments) of time to activities that are not directly and closely related to exempt work.
However, the new rules proposed by Bush’s Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao eliminates these safeguards and allows new exemptions for computer, administrative, and skilled workers. These changes gives management the discretion to exempt millions of additional workers from overtime protection.
Under the new rules, an office worker can be exempt from overtime as an administrative worker if they hold a “position of responsibility,” defined as either performing work of substantial importance or performing work requiring a high level of
skill or training. Skilled workers can be reclassified as “learned professionals” and exempt from overtime for skills they learn on the job.
In addition, the new rules eliminate the 20 or 40 percent limit on non-exempt work. This allows management to give an employee the title of assistant manager, exempt that employee from overtime, and have that employee take work away
from hourly workers who are covered
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