Debates at the First Meeting of the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations

A couple of debates have dominated much of the first meeting of the reconstituted government-wide council on federal labor-management relations. Among the hot issues:

-Whether labor relations officials should be required to be involved in agency-level engagement teams. Some unions are saying their trust in labor relations officials was severely degraded during the Bush administration, but management representatives are saying it's critical that folks with relevant subject-matter expertise be allowed to be involved.

-Are grievances a legitimate measurement of whether the labor-management engagement process works? Union leaders say the forums won't be dealing with the treatment of individual employees, but some management representatives say they're a key indicator of climate.