Readers' Comments
Total Comments: 100
Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
OPM's Closely Held Report of Union Official Time Use
Total Comments: 100
Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
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March 16, 2010
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Official time for union stewards etc.
Fed
Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:57 AM
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I cannot speak about the agency author is talking about, but I can give my impressions concerning the agency I work for.
The purpose of this time is for union activities. A major part of union activities is to represent non management people who are accused of various wrongdoings by management. This is done by union stewards who are paid their normal salaries for this activity. There are other union activities that I am not familiar with, but an NTEU officer or steward would have to explain that. These are charges that the author is talking about. They are negotiated in the contracts with management.
Would the author prefer that the workers have no representation? Would the author prefer that the workers pay the full freight? Probably yes, because this is another example of his anti union-anti worker nonsense.
It is easu to put these numbers in perspective. What are these numbers relative to the cost of running the government. Bet it is very low.
Hourly rates
Fed Agency
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:04 AM
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Bob - I think your comment that "union reps looking for more pay" should check out the MSPB or SEC is a bit misleading. It's not that certain agencies are simply more generous in paying their union reps. At least with respect to collateral duty union reps, they are paid at their regular rate of pay for representational activities. Thus, their rate of pay is a function of their position and not necessarily what Agency they work for. If you have agencies were only professional employees (generally GS-13+) happen to be represented by a bargaining unit, then their rate of pay will consequently be higher.
I do appreciate your providing the link to the OPM report - it is interesting to see that at my own agency (which shall remain unnamed!) there was a huge increase in the number of representational hours reported from FY2007 to FY2008. I have no idea why.
Numbers
DoN
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:05 AM
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The hourly rate for the Armed Forces Retirement Home, $20.40, somehow seems lower to me than the $21.30 for the IBWC, and they actually charged some time. I also found it interesting that there is an Agency with one member in a Union; I wonder how frequently they need to hold elections to pick representatives, etc.
Is that all?
Navy
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:46 AM
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ONLY $120 Million?! Under-reporting is definitely a problem. At our activity we have at least 20 folks on FULLTIME union time plus all the part-timers running around. At an average of $50k each that comes to $1 million just for the full-timers (just in salary, not the accelerated rate to cover benefits). By those stats our one activity would have 1 percent of the official time, for the ENTIRE government. I'm sure we are not the only ones where official time is virtually uncontrolled. Just one union has a budget providing for 17 fulltimers, but they think they need 23.
YOUR tax dollars at work. I suspect the real figure is more like $1 billion, not $120 million.
Here's an Opinion for the Author!
USCIS
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:50 AM
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Don't think your piece of writing is fooling any conscientious readers. No matter what side of the Labor/Management debate folks are on, it's an easy mark to imply that this is wasteful money without presenting any information as to what the official time hours are used for. Please do us all a favor and at least try a little harder. Talk is cheap. Official time costs money for a reason.
Re: Here's an Opinion for the Author!
DOL
Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:01 PM
Union Official Time
HUD
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:54 AM
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What he report should measure is not the cost versus what the Union brings in in dues, but what Union's try to save the Agency/what improper employment actions they correct.
For example, it was my local that brought out management's waste of over $4 million on an inter building move. Even when we elevated the issue, nothing was done to correct the problem. I have always advocated that if a contractor can do the job effectively and more efficiently, they should do so. Our local as well as several others documented hundreds of millions in waste. Since that was not the policy at the time, we were ignorred - and continue to be.
Maybe not all Union locals act the same way, but some of us make every attempt to protect the taxpayer (because we are them); protect the Agency (since that is our best means to job security), and protect our people from arbitrary rules promulgated by untrained management.
Official time
Agriculture
Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:54 AM
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There is no causal relationship between official time and dues. By linking the two measures, your piece implies that some sort of mechanistic or causal relationship must exist. This is a dubious assumption at best, and one you should explicitly articulate if you aspire to intellectual honesty rather than just union bashing. You may as well howl at the moon about the costs of agency management as a ratio of managers' association membership fees. The amount of official time used should be related to the amount of legitimate representational work that must be performed. That's the system. Dues have nothing to do with it. Though I do have to agree with you that I'd like to see the dues/official time ratio increase -- there are too many employees getting representation for free who need to step up, join up, and pay their fair share for services rendered.