House defeats union rights amendment for federal employees
The House defeated an attempt to preserve the union rights of employees in the proposed Homeland Security Department on Friday.
The House defeated an attempt to preserve the union rights of employees in the proposed Homeland Security Department on Friday.
By a 222-208 vote, the House rejected an amendment from Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., that would have guaranteed collective bargaining rights for employees moving to the proposed department. Morella's provision prohibited the Bush administration from waiving union rights, even for national security reasons.
Late Friday, the House passed the full homeland security bill on a 295-132 vote.
Lawmakers also defeated an amendment from Reps. Martin Frost, D-Texas, and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., that would have blocked the administration from cutting the pay of employees of the proposed department. The measure would have applied Title 5 to homeland security employees and strengthened whistleblower protections. The votes are a setback for federal employee unions, who strongly supported the Morella and Waxman-Frost amendments. "It's a sad day in America when a majority of members of Congress would so easily dispose of collective bargaining rights," said Brian DeWyngaert, assistant to Bobby Harnage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
"Civilian employees have performed critical work at the Defense Department in war after war, and Defense has never once had to come forward and say we just can't get the job done because of collective bargaining rights," DeWyngaert said.
Also on Friday, the House approved an amendment from Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., that would let the president waive union rights for employees in the department in times of national emergency. Shays' amendment is a slight variation from the bill reported by the Select Committee on Homeland Security, which allows the administration to rescind union rights for national security reasons.
On Friday morning, President Bush criticized attempts to curtail management flexibility for the new department and reiterated a threat to veto the Senate version of the homeland security legislation, which preserves union rights.
"I'm not going to accept legislation that limits or weakens the president's well-established authorities-authorities to exempt parts of government from parts of federal labor-management relations statutes when it serves our national interest," Bush said at a White House ceremony.