Federal agencies have been told to report on their labor-management cooperative activities under a 2009 executive order that created the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations.
In a memo to agencies, the council said that "It is more important now than ever before for labor and management to work together as they face today’s challenges . . . To do this, it is critical that we identify where forums or their equivalents exist, and the level of success they have achieved. We must also identify best practices and common obstacles to success for labor-management forums throughout the executive branch; so that all may have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others."
Unions also were asked to submit their views, one report for each bargaining unit per forum, council or committee, through an online reporting link.
In addition to creating the council and establishing the cooperative forums, the order called on agencies to widen their scope of bargaining to include subjects that are negotiable at management’s discretion, and to involve unions in certain decisions before they are made. A pilot program of widened bargaining in a dozen agencies is ongoing; an interim report a year ago found the results to be inconclusive, in part because of the difficulty of measuring the impact.
The memo is here: http://www.lmrcouncil.gov/meetings/handouts/Reporting%20Tool%20Message%20from%20NCFLMR.pdf
