President Bush issued an executive order on Monday that takes away the collective-bargaining rights of 8,600 federal employees who have been designated as critical to national security. These workers are employed at offices within the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and Treasury departments.
Collective bargaining rights allow the union to negotiate work rules on behalf of their members. These rules typically cover working hours, scheduling and promotion procedures, among other activities.
The order is an amendment to Executive Order 12171, issued by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, which allows the president to exclude workers engaged in national security from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program, ostensibly because they are too vital to allow them to go on strike or engage in other work actions. The order has been amended 12 times, including three times by Bush.
“This executive order came at the request of the agencies and reflects how the federal government has operated in a post-9/11 world, and we feel it’s important to continue our ability to respond to national security threats and cement the lessons learned during this administration," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel explained.
But not everyone is so quick to drink the Kool-Aid. Matt Madia at the non-profit, government watchdog group OMB Watch astutely points to the auspicious timing of the executive order.
"Seems a little funny that Bush would wait so long to strip away employees’ collective bargaining rights if they pose such a significant threat to national security," said Madia. "We sure are lucky terrorists didn’t win in the interim."
Collen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 1,500 workers at the affected Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), said in a statement that ATF employees “have had collective bargaining rights for more than 30 years and there is no indication that having those rights interfered with their mission before.”
Peter Winch, national organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, called the move “an abuse of discretion in the last few days” of Bush’s tenure.
But the unions might be getting red in the face over a moot issue. The Washington Times claims that of the 8,600 employees affected by this order, only 920 currently elect to participate in collective bargaining.
Executive orders are also relatively easy to reverse by future administrations. Unlike regulations which require many more hurdles to be cleared, executive orders simply require the stroke of the president’s pen. Spokesmen for unions that endorsed President-elect Barack Obama's candidacy are already lobbying him to overturn Bush’s order when he takes office.
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