Comments:

February 17, 2005

  DoD NSPS Comments

  , 

   DoD NSPS Comments:

  As someone concerned about workers' rights, I am writing to express my concerns about changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD).  The proposed regulations, known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).  This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. 

  The federal government should hold itself to a higher standard when it comes to the treatment of its employees, not stoop to the level of predatory anti-union employers by engaging in unfair labor practices such as violating contracts negotiated in good faith. I am angry that these proposals seem to treat the employees who help defend our country as the enemy.  Most DoD employees work hard and are committed. Mistreating employees will only serve to hurt the agency’s mission, thereby weakening national security rather than strengthening it as this proposals creators claim. 

  Annual pay raises, bonuses, fair work schedules, overtime pay and work locations are all subjects of mandatory bargaining. These workers legally exercised their collective bargaining rights and have lived up to their part of their contracts. Why should they be treated differently and have their rights taken away simply because they chose to serve their country through entering the civil service? This system will change the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated.  These rules would create a system in which federal managers can be influenced by favoritism and create an environment where workers will be distracted from the agency's mission by unfair treatment and fear of reprisals from their supervisors. Taking away these workers' rights does nothing to serve the civil concerns of the American people.  

  These regulations are an attack on workers’ basic rights.  Part of the federal government's job is to protect workers from employers who treat them unfairly. That the government would take away rights that should be held sacred from its very own workers is both unfathomable and immoral. Furthermore, NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers’ welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job.  I strongly urge you to force DoD to rethink this proposal.  We need work rules that preserve fairness, serve the American people, and respect the rights of Defense Department workers.