Bush, unions tangle over national security exemption to labor laws

President Bush and federal unions are in a political tussle over a longstanding law that lets the president prevent government employees from joining unions.

The president and union representatives are preparing for a showdown over the law when Congress returns next month to complete legislation establishing the new Department of Homeland Security. The House version of the legislation would let Bush keep his power to shut down or block unions at the new department, while the Senate version would limit such authority.

"I am deeply concerned about this provision of the Senate bill. It strips me of authority," Bush said in a speech Thursday. "If this bill were to go through, this bill would take away the authority that every president since Jimmy Carter has had, which is to exempt agencies from collective bargaining requirements, if I were to determine that our national security demands it. It's important during times of war that we be flexible to meet our needs."

Under the federal labor-management statute, which became law during the Carter administration as part of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, the president can issue an executive order blocking employees from organizing under a labor union in any agency or part of an agency that "has as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work," after determining that collective bargaining rights would get in the way of national security needs. In addition, the law specifically prohibits unions at several agencies, including the FBI and the CIA.

Union representatives are worried that President Bush will use that authority to shut down some if not all of the 17 unions that represent tens of thousands of employees who would be transferred to the new department. The National Treasury Employees Union, for example, represents Customs Service inspectors, and the American Federation of Government Employees represents Border Patrol agents.

Every president since Carter has issued executive orders eliminating collective bargaining rights at agencies. For example, Carter blocked unions at the IRS' Criminal Investigation Division; Ronald Reagan disallowed union representation at the Federal Air Marshal Program, Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service; George H.W. Bush stopped unionization at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Preparedness Directorate; and Bill Clinton blocked labor organizing at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

On Jan. 7, President Bush issued an executive order prohibiting unions at five Justice Department divisions-U.S. attorneys offices, the Criminal Division, the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol, the National Drug Intelligence Center and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represented several hundred employees at U.S. attorneys offices and in the criminal division.

The order came on the same day that the Federal Labor Relations Authority convened a hearing to consider a petition by employees of the U.S. attorneys office in Miami to unionize under the National Treasury Employees Union.

Union representatives see the Justice Department action, coupled with the administration's refusal not to commit to letting Transportation Security Administration employees unionize, as a sign that the administration would shut down unions in the new Homeland Security Department.

"There are grounds to suspect that the Bush administration, out of anti-union sentiment, would arbitrarily take away the collective bargaining rights of Border Patrol agents and Customs agents," said Phil Kete, an American Federation of Government Employees attorney.

Bush administration officials say that union members would keep their bargaining rights for at least a year, but add that the president should have the authority to take away those rights when national security is an issue, since he has that authority at all other agencies.

"They will be able to be in a union if that's what they choose to do," Bush said. "But I need flexibility to be able to run this department. I need the flexibility to be able to look at the American people and say we're doing everything we can to protect the homeland against an enemy that hates us."

Several lawmakers have taken up the union issue. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the administration cannot provide an example of when collective bargaining rights impeded national security. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that employees currently covered by the full force and effect of [civil service protections, including union rights] will have no adverse affect on the security of our homeland," Hoyer said in a letter last month to fellow lawmakers.

Chester Newland, a professor at the University of Southern California who helped draft the labor-management provisions of the 1978 act, said security-related agencies lobbied at the time to be exempt from collective bargaining rules, while unions lobbied for as many agencies to be covered as possible.

While some federal security agencies won exemptions, Newland noted that some of the strongest unions in the country are at security agencies-local police and firefighter forces.