Outsourcing effort on track despite union protests

Despite a federal employees union's efforts to keep several hundred jobs in-house, the Army is moving forward with a contract to outsource a major logistics system.

Last month, the Army's Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM) awarded a $680 million contract to Computer Sciences Corp. to modernize the legacy computer systems that control the Army's logistics. The contract marked the first time the Army waived Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 requirements for competition between federal employees and contractors.

The waiver of A-76 requirements meant that up to 500 employees at software centers in St. Louis, Mo., and Chambersburg, Pa., were not given the opportunity to defend their jobs through a public-private competition. But John Morris, president of Local 1763 of the National Federation of Federal Employees in St. Louis, is not giving up without a fight.

On Dec. 6, the union filed a request for an injunction stopping the outsourcing effort in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri. The Army has filed evidence refuting the union's claim that proper procedures were not followed. The court is still considering the complaint.

Workers in the St. Louis center also filed an age discrimination complaint against the Army, which has instructed CECOM to settle the complaint. The union is also lobbying members of Congress to intervene. Finally, Morris has filed an appeal under the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act, questioning the Army's contention that the software center workers' jobs can be performed in the private sector. The union is arguing that the logistics system workers perform inherently governmental tasks.

"We don't want this bad precedent set for thousands of other government workers," Morris said.

A spokesman for CECOM said CSC is moving forward with implementation of the contract.