WASHINGTON, D.C. — The legislation considered by the U.S. House of Representatives today authorizes the Bush Administration to strip workers of their existing collective bargaining rights and civil service protections as their jobs are transferred into the new Department of Homeland Security.
In demanding that workers lose their right to collective bargaining, the President and his allies in Congress revealed a senseless mistrust of federal workers, who for decades have served honorably in jobs that many of them will continue to do in the new department. But now, in a dangerous politicization of civil service, a Bush Administration political appointee can assert that existing collective bargaining rights are “obstacles to the war on terror” and workers will have no recourse to protect what they have earned.
The AFL-CIO has stood with the Administration in the war on terrorism, and the firefighters, emergency personnel and construction workers who put all else aside during the tragic events of September 11th showed to the world that being a union member is no obstacle to doing one’s job or performing feats of bravery and patriotism.
For several months now the Administration has repeatedly refused any compromise that would have created the new department without dismantling the rights of workers. The delay in creation of this department was led by the Administration, while the men and women who guarantee that the federal government works for America continued to do their jobs and serve their country under great uncertainty. It is a shameful and unprecedented assault on workers that the U.S. House of Representatives has turned its back to them and it is our hope that the U.S. Senate can show our nation’s workers greater respect.