| Comment Number: | OL-10506853 |
| Received: | 3/13/2005 4:58:24 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| Attachment: | Impacts of NSPS RegulationsBy changing the basic civil service.wpd Download Adobe Reader |
Comments:
AFGE LOCAL 15 TACOM-RI(AFL-CIO) P.O. BOX 1703 Moline, Illinis 61299 Terri Blackburn, vice-president ______________________________________________________________________ March 13, 2005 Program Executive Office National Security Personnel System Attn: Bradley B. Bunn 1400 Key Boulevard Suite B-200 Arlington, VA 22209-5144 RE: Comments on Proposed NSPS Regulations RIN 3206 AK76/0790 AH82. Dear Mr. Bunn: I am providing comments on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 15 TACOM-RI, about changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD). The proposed regulations, known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), were published in the Federal Register on February 14, 2005. AFGE Local 15 TACOM-RI is the exclusive representative of more than 1,000 bargaining unit members in all matters of collective bargaining at the Tank Automotive and Armament Command located at Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Il. Members of AFGE Local 15 are committed to providing best equipment and support to the war fighter. AFGE Local 15 serves as an advocate for employee rights and a countervailing power to the Agency, ensuring that the nation's war fighter is fully equipped to perform his/her duty. The NSPS proposal treats the employees who help defend our country as the enemy. DoD employees work hard and are committed. Mistreating DoD employees will hurt the Department=s mission. This system will change the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated. These rules create a system in which federal managers are influenced by favoritism rather than serving the civil concerns of the American people. It is a travesty that under the guise of protecting America from threats to its sovereignty, that certain leaders of this country have so despicably repeated the mantra that the DoD NSPS rules are necessary. The rationale provided includes enabling the department to (1) act swiftly in response to national security, (2) remain unencumbered by negotiated agreements and bargaining rights in response to real or perceived terrorist activities, and (3) safeguard the public safety. It is an affront to every DoD employee to suggest that, without applying a hammer of decidedly regressive regulatory personnel regulations to Department workers, employees would fail to understand that the critical nature of its mission rises above any labor-related perspective Why Is DoD Going Backwards in Time? On February 1, 2005, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new Human Resources Management System began the U.S. government down the slippery slope of returning to a political patronage and spoils’ system. On February 14, 2005, the anniversary of the Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, the Department of Defense=s (DoD) proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS). The NSPS will further accelerate the descent of professional federal civil service back a hundred years. The NSPS eliminates many of the fundamental rights of Federal employees who are currently serving in the Civil Service System. These civil service rights and protections, provided under The Pendleton Act and further codified by the Federal Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, are the backbones that made the federal civil service the envy of the world, and ensured that government work was performed in a professional, nonpartisan fashion. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of Federal employees I have worked with are highly motivated, hard-working employees.