Search:

Custom Search
Photo of Bob Gilson

Senate Holds Hearings on FLRA Nominees: Acting Committee Chair Thumps Bush Administration

By Bob Gilson

Friday, September 19, 2008

You can have daily headlines from FedSmith.com delivered right to your desktop each business morning. The service is free and you don't get junk e-mail as the price of your subscription. Just visit our newsletter page to sign up!

Bob Gilson is a consultant with a specialty in working with and training Federal agencies to resolve employee problems at all levels. Both before and since retiring, Bob has negotiated on behalf of Federal clients. A retired agency labor and employee relations director, Bob has authored or co-authored a number of books dealing with Federal issues. To contact Bob about this article or about training or assistance at your agency, use this contact form.

General advice on handling personnel problems may not be applicable to specific situations. Be sure to check with your human resources advisors for guidance in your particular personnel situation.

On September 11, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a public hearing to consider the nominations of Carol W. Pope and Thomas M. Beck to be Members of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

Senator Akaka (D-Hawaii) was acting Chairman of the committee and the only senator present for the hearing.  He questioned both nominees on how they would deal with the Authority's backlog and staff.  Akaka, who along with Sen. Clinton introduced legislation in 2007 (S. 2197 -`Federal Labor-Management Partnership Act of 2007') to encode partnership as the Federal government's labor relations system, engaged in some Bush bashing, a favored sport among current House and Senate Majority members.  He lashed out at the proposed (now defunct) attempts by the administration to build a new labor relations structure for Homeland Security and Defense.

Here are links to the Senator's press release on the hearings and to his proposed partnership legislation.

I understand the Senator asked questions about revisions to the statute perhaps hinting that the Democrats have plans to rework Federal labor relations with a legislated version of labor-management partnerships.  We may get to find out if there's a Democrat elected to the White House in November.

As always, any opinions expressed above are mine and mine alone.

FYI, I'll be conducting an Advanced Employee Relations: Focus on Case Management in the D.C. Area at the end of October.  More information by through the Training Institute's Open Enrollment Schedule.

© 2009 Robert J. Gilson. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced without express written consent from Robert J. Gilson.

Add a Comment about this Article

** All fields are required.
Note: Your comments will not show up right away. FedSmith.com selects the most insightful comments from our readers for posting. If selected, your comments will show up in the comments section after they have been reviewed and approved. See our terms of use for more information.

Readers' Comments

  • Unkle Sam, How long have you been in management? Partnership does work, sometimes it takes a little longer, but the product is always better. In my job you can't have managers who ran from traffic decades ago, make decisions on new equipment to help the ATC system. They simply do not understand ...
    Posted: September 19, 2008 11:46 AM
  • i certainly wouldn't call that press release bush bashing, it just stated what was true....
    Posted: September 19, 2008 9:53 AM
  • Partnership was a failed labor policy under the Clinton Admininistration. Let's hope that the next President will not go back to it. Our country simply can't afford it....
    Posted: September 19, 2008 9:03 AM

View All Comments »

MORE BY BOB GILSON

Contact Bob Gilson or read more articles on the author's page.