AFGE takes vote of ‘no confidence’ in Defense leadership

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing Defense workers, on Tuesday announced that members have adopted a statement of "no confidence" in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, indicating they have lost trust in his handling of personnel reforms.

Representatives of AFGE's Defense Conference, a coalition of 39 local AFGE branches that represent Defense employees, took the vote last Friday just before the start of the union's annual legislative conference.

John Gage, president of AFGE, said the vote was in response to a recent court decision against labor relations portions of Defense's proposed National Security Personnel System. The next step for the unions, he said, will be to mobilize the membership to write letters to Congress and to Rumsfeld, pressing Defense to drop the contested labor relations portion of its plan and develop new measures in consultation with labor groups.

"Secretary Rumsfeld…told Congress and the employees of DoD…that DoD would not and was not taking away the collective bargaining rights of DoD employees," the statement agreed to Friday by the union representatives said. "Secretary Rumsfeld has proven that what he says and what he does are very different."

"A vote of no confidence shows that you've become aggravated to the point of no return," said Don Hale, chairman of AFGE's Defense Conference. He argued that Rumsfeld exceeded the bounds of what Congress authorized, in proposing to cut sharply into collective bargaining rights, and said that the union is ready to work with the department to develop appropriate guidelines.

"It would be much better if we sat down together and came up with a personnel system," Hale said.

But while Judge Emmet Sullivan, in his recent decision against the NSPS labor relations provisions, did conclude that the regulations went beyond congressional intent in favoring departmental flexibility against collective bargaining rights, he rejected an argument by the unions that Defense had failed to collaborate with them while developing the system.

"While defendants may not have met Congress' requirements with enthusiasm, the court finds no evidence that defendants acted in bad faith," Sullivan, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote.

Defense spokeswoman Joyce Frank said she is not aware of details of the AFGE's statement, but reiterated the department's position of moving forward with the personnel system in consultation with unions. "We will continue to engage in this collaborative process with the goal of implementing a system that aligns with our national security mission," she said.