GSA to proceed with warehouse closings

The General Services Administration announced Wednesday that the agency will move forward with plans to close eight supply warehouses, despite an arbitrator's order last week to cancel the shutdown.

Arbitrator Jerome H. Ross ruled last week that the GSA decision to shut the warehouses violated an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees. GSA Administrator David J. Barram said the agency will appeal the decision to the Federal Labor Relations Authority and, in the meantime, will continue to carry out the details of the closings.

"While I take this decision very seriously, I do not agree with it. I believe that we made the correct business decision, and the arbitrator even acknowledged that management had a right to make it," Barram said.

GSA announced in July that it would close the warehouses, which stock supplies for federal agencies. The decision could eliminate as many as 2,000 warehouse employees' jobs. GSA, which serves as the government's central procurement agency, plans to move toward a system it calls a "virtual platform," in which most supplies will be delivered directly from vendors to agencies.

Some vendors have expressed concern about the decision.

"We feel that we're going to lose a whole lot of business," said Tom Kentfield, manager of government operations at Polaroid Corp.'s Fairfax, Va. office. "A lot of customers won't know that they can come directly to Polaroid. Now that they find [the warehouses] are closed, they're probably going to take their credit card and go down to Wal Mart."

According to Kentfield, Polaroid does several million dollars worth of business annually through the warehouses. "We have already had several of the supply centers order nothing from us this year," he said.

Bruce Williams, a spokesman for AFGE, which represents the warehouse employees, said the union's national office is prepared to take the matter to federal court.

GSA plans to keep open lines of communication with the union, Barram said. "During this change, we will continue to talk with employees, managers, the unions and other stakeholders about the ongoing process of helping GSA employees take the next step in their careers," he said.