Related Articles

Congress Puts An End to Anti-Union
Rules at Defense Department

 October 14, 2009

The controversial National Security Personnel System – long opposed by Defense Department workers and their unions – is on its way out.

“This is a sweet victory for all governmental workers,” said IBEW Government Department Director Chico McGill.  The IBEW represents 12,000 workers at the Department of Defense.

The NSPS was terminated earlier this month by a joint congressional committee which removed the program from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. “Repealing NSPS clears away the toxic atmosphere that has been impeding positive exchanges between Defense Secretary Bill Gates and unions,” said Ron Ault, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. 

The NSPS, instituted by the Bush Administration in 2003, effectively denied basic collective bargaining and civil service rights to some 750,000 Defense Department employees and watered down seniority rules by placing authority over pay raises in the exclusive hands of supervisors.

“The program was an attempt to destroy civil service regulations,” McGill said. “It was a broken system that turned employees against managers.”

McGill particularly credits the work of New Hampshire Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D), who helped write the legislation that eliminated the program. 

Once the reauthorization act is passed, federal agencies must halt NSPS by the start of 2012. “It’s huge news for federal employees,” McGill said. “They have their collective bargaining rights back.”