The American Federation of Government Employees has
issued a vote of no confidence against Department of
Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld for what it said was
failure to live up to promises to ensure collective
bargaining and due process rights for Defense personnel
under the national security personnel system.
The department’s decision to appeal a recent federal
judge’s ruling overturning the personnel reforms
prompted the vote as an expression of frustration,
and an accompanying resolution by AFGE’s Defense
Conference, which was then backed by the AFL-CIO and
the United DoD Workers Coalition.
While the judge deciding the case struck down labor
relations and collective bargaining provisions in the
new rules, the decision did not conclude that the
department had failed collaborate with unions in
drafting them.
The Pentagon meanwhile said it will move forward at
the end of April with implementing the first phase
of the NSPS rollout — spiral 1.1 — despite the
ruling, though that phase would cover only about
11,000 non-union employees and not include
labor-management and appeals provisions. NSPS is
expected to eventually cover almost all of the
department’s civilian workforce of more than
600,000.
