Working Families and Politics 2002: Legislative update

Tuesday, November 5th is Election Day
and around the country there will be important battles waged for House and Senate seats and for governor’s mansions. The outcome of these elections will help determine the legislative landscape for at least the next two years.

Top Issues for Working Families
The following pages give a summary of some of the top legislative issues facing working families in the coming years, as well as a more in-depth analysis of the anti-labor legislation that attempts to prevent and curtail workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively and the Medicare prescription drug issue.

Be Informed
Use the internet tools section to guide you to some of the web sites that will help you investigate the issues and the candidates.

Homeland Security Act of 2002 (H.R. 5005)
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the intelligence failures that have since been revealed, President Bush has pushed for the creation of a new Cabinet level department for better coordination between the many agencies engaged in domestic security activities. The bill crafted by the House creates a new Department of Homeland Security encompassing customs, border protection and enforcement agencies. The Department will include the Coast Guard, Customs Service, border inspectors, elements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service, among others.

The bill also gives the President the authority to eliminate collective bargaining rights and civil service protections for federal employees. Hard won gains in dignity and respect at the workplace that have been negotiated over decades by federal employees and their unions in a long-term bargaining relationship with the federal government could be eliminated. Existing job requirements, job classifications and pay grades could be replaced by a new system, imposed unilaterally. So far Senate Democrats have refused to strip workers in selected departments of their collective bargaining rights, and President Bush has threatened to veto any bill without such provisions. He evidently believes denying workers their rights is more important than improving coordination across departments.

The following is a summary of how the House bill could affect workers.

Erosion of seniority
Collective bargaining provisions and civil service regulations outlining minimum requirements and seniority protections for employees and job classifications are eliminated. Instead, the Secretary of the Department will implement a subjective performance management program that would be open to favoritism by managers.

Pay based on performance review
Existing pay rates and guaranteed pay increases are replaced by a new “flexible” pay system, ignoring longstanding civil service pay grades. Guaranteed salary increases are replaced by subjective performance evaluations by Department management.

Union and employees eliminated from decisions affecting the workplace Workers and their unions are removed from personnel and policy decision making procedures, and the ability of workers to contest and appeal unfair personnel decisions are severely restricted.