Gore set to order more bargaining with unions

The Clinton Administration may order federal agencies to promise to negotiate with unions over more issues.

In a draft memorandum obtained by GovExec.com, the administration would order agency heads to sign an agreement expanding labor bargaining rights. The memorandum is a follow-up to President Clinton's 1993 Executive Order 12871, which established the administration's policy of pursuing labor-management partnerships. Sources said Vice President Al Gore would issue the memorandum.

That order instructed agencies to bargain with unions over "the numbers, types, and grades of employees or positions assigned to any organizational subdivision, work project, or tour of duty, or on the technology, methods, and means of performing work."

Federal labor-management relations law (5 U.S.C. 7106(b)(1)) allows, but does not require, agencies to bargain over those issues. Some agencies contended that Clinton's previous order to increase the scope of bargaining did not have the force of law.

Unions disagreed, arguing that the President's order made it mandatory that agencies bargain over the issues in question.

The Federal Labor Relations Authority, which decides federal labor-management disputes, agreed with agencies that the executive order does not require agencies to bargain over those issues. Only a change in law would force agencies' hands, the authority ruled.

The new memorandum, however, would put political pressure on agencies to increase bargaining. The draft memorandum instructs agency heads to sign a form reading, "this is notice that I am hereby making the election to bargain over the matters set forth in 5 U.S.C. 7106(b)(1)."

In a recent survey by Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government, only 25 percent of federal employees said management and unions work cooperatively on solving problems. Forty-eight percent voiced no opinion, while 27 percent said labor-management relations are poor.