Obama labor relations proposal draws praise

Union leaders this week applauded a draft executive order on labor-management relations for broadening the scope of subjects eligible for bargaining and granting an appropriate mix of organizations seats on a labor-management council.

The White House declined to comment on whether the draft order, reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday, was in fact the document President Obama is considering, or whether its release is imminent. But multiple union officials confirmed that the provisions in circulation essentially are those they have discussed with the Obama administration.

The order, similar to one President Clinton issued, would create an executive branch council on labor-management relations and separate forums within individual agencies. But the Obama draft differs in several respects, including avoiding the term "partnership," which became a key word in the Clinton administration.

National Federation of Federal Employees President William Dougan applauded a section of the Obama draft that would make bargaining over (b)(1) or so-called permissive subjects mandatory for all federal agencies. Those subjects normally are not liable to negotiation in the federal sector, and include issues such as the number and qualifications of employees assigned to work on projects, the technology involved and work methods.

While the Clinton executive order simply instructed agency heads to "negotiate over the [permissive] subjects…and instruct subordinate officials to do the same," Obama's draft order goes a step further. The proposal says Obama has decided agencies will negotiate over permissive subjects at a national level, and "any attempts by department or agency heads or their subordinate officials to revoke my election shall have no force or effect."

Without that requirement, some agencies might balk at bargaining over permissive subjects, Dougan said. The language in the proposed order ensures consistency governmentwide, he noted.

Unlike Clinton's order, Obama's proposal would not require labor and management representatives to be trained in consensus-based bargaining techniques, including dispute resolution methods that bypass traditional grievance and negotiating processes, and interest-bargaining approaches that avoid portraying negotiation as competition. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, in February criticized consensus requirements, noting they could give a false sense of the common ground between labor and management.

Obama's proposal also would change the composition of the council charged with overseeing governmentwide labor-management cooperation. While the director of the Office of Personnel Management still would chair the panel, the draft would eliminate the seats Clinton set aside for the deputy secretary of Labor, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and head of the AFL-CIO's public employees division.

Those members would be replaced by the president of the International Federation of Technical and Professional Engineers and representatives of the Senior Executives Association and the Federal Managers Association under Obama's version. That draft also would add a spot for another federal employee union. (The American Federation of Government Employees, National Treasury Employees Union and NFFE would retain the seats Clinton granted them.)

Mark Roth, AFGE's general counsel, praised the proposed changes to the board's composition, saying the new members would have a stronger interest in participating and would bring more relevant experience than the representatives they replaced.

"We actually were instrumental in getting some of the folks who were on it under the Clinton order off it, because our experience was they really never stepped up to the plate," he said. "They never cared, [and] they never stepped up. The Department of Labor [and] the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service [are] nice [agencies]. But what did they accomplish?"

Dougan said he thought including two more federal employee unions on the council would be productive, because they would broaden the cross-section of front-line employees represented.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley declined to comment specifically on the proposed executive order, but said re-establishing some kind of formal relationship between unions and management was a priority.

"It does not matter if the new system is called 'partnership' or 'collaboration,' or simply 'team work,' " she said. "Any new system of cooperation between management and employees should ensure that the voices of the front-line workforce are heard and respected concerning important workplace matters."