AFGE Week in Review (Sept. 17, 2007)
NSPS Employees Won’t Get GS Raises in 2008, 2009: About 110,000
employees working under the Defense Department’s new personnel system
known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) will not get
across-the-board pay raises in 2008 and 2009 as they expected. According
to a Sept. 7 memo sent by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England
to Pentagon offices, NSPS employees in January 2008 will get only half of
the basic GS pay increase and the other half will go to performance pay
pools. In 2009, the entire GS raise will be allocated to pay pools.
AFGE denounced the change, saying managers already have the
authority to reward high performers under the GS system. NSPS will lower
the standard of living for DoD employees over time and likely reduce
their retirement payments. The system will be fraught with favoritism
where pay is more budget and personal relationship driven. It will
squeeze employees and hinder organizational performance. AFGE is working
with lawmakers to roll back
NSPS.
AFGE Holds Press Conference to Sound Alarm on Danger of Farm
Bill: AFGE, along with the Consumer Federation of America (CFA)
and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, held a
press conference on Sept. 11 at AFGE Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to
warn the public of the danger of the House-passed farm bill that would
allow meat producers to have their meat products inspected by states
instead of the stricter federal inspectors. Carol Tucker Foreman,
distinguished fellow at CFA and former assistant secretary of Agriculture
for Food and Consumer Services during the Carter administration, said the
bill turned back the clock on the country’s food inspection system.
Congress 40 years ago created the federal meat inspection program because
the states failed safety standards. Foreman added that federal inspectors
are better trained and do a better job than state inspectors. As the
Senate is expected to take up its version of the bill this month, AFGE
President John Gage told the
press conference that lawmakers should oppose any provisions that would
endanger the public. There should also be more federal inspectors, not
fewer, to do this important job of protecting public health. AFGE
represents 6,000 federal food inspectors.
AFGE Denounces Health Insurance Premium Hikes: AFGE criticized
the increase in federal health insurance premiums that will shift even
more cost from the government to federal employees and retirees. The
Office of Personnel Management announced Sept. 13 that the average cost
of health insurance for employees and retirees enrolled in the Federal
Employees Health Benefits Program will increase by 2.1 percent. However,
the premiums for Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, which attracts 60 percent
of FEHBP enrollees, will go up between 3 and 8.5 percent. Health
insurance premiums have risen by 64 percent over the past eight years,
leaving more and more federal employees uninsured. AFGE is calling on
Congress to pass legislation that would increase the government
contribution so that health insurance is more affordable.
AFGE Asks DoD, Air Force IGs to Look into Sheppard A-76: AFGE is asking the
Defense Department and the Air Force inspector generals to investigate
whether the Air Force has violated federal law when it continues on with
an outsourcing study of base operations support at Sheppard Air Force
Base in Texas.
In a Sept. 11 letter sent to the IGs, AFGE specifically asked them to
determine if the Sheppard A-76 study has exceeded the 30-month time limit
stipulated in the 2007 DoD appropriations act and if the Air Force has
illegally used federal funds to carry out the study. The IGs were also
asked to determine the total cost of the study, which began in 1999 and
restarted again in 2003.
GAO Critical of BRAC: The Government Accountability Office
(GAO) said the Defense Department overestimated savings from base
closings and underestimated the costs of construction projects called for
by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions. In two reports
released Sept. 13 examining the Pentagon’s military base consolidation
effort, GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, also found several
challenges in implementing the BRAC decisions, including competing
priorities that may force the Army to choose between fully funding the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or paying for BRAC-related
construction.
Inside Government: AFGE’s radio program, Inside Government, on Sept. 17
discussed AFGE’s recent court victory in the AFGE vs. Stone case in which
the appeals court ruled that TSA violated the First Amendment speech and
associational rights of an Oakland Airport TSO when the agency fired him
for engaging in union activities three years ago.
AFGE Assistant General Counsel Gony Frieder Goldberg, who
worked on the case, discussed the issue and what it means for future cases
of its kind. The program also featured Stan Painter, Chairman of AFGE’s
National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, who talked about AFGE’s
effort to block the Farm Bill, which would stop federal meat inspections.
Painter discussed the public safety risks associated with transferring
federal meat and poultry inspections to the state and local level.
Inside Government airs every Friday at 10 a.m. EDT nationwide on www.federalnewsradio.com and
1050 AM in the Washington,
D.C., area. The one-hour
program discusses issues that impact all federal and D.C. government
employees.
