Thread: DLA outsourcing, Worker Intimidation

Lawmakers Press Pentagon to Halt DLA Outsourcing Study: At the urging of AFGE, eight senators and 12 House members recently asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reconsider a plan to compete nearly 300 jobs at four Defense Logistics Agencies sites and instead consider internal re-engineering to achieve quicker savings and workplace efficiency. DLA has plans to invite bids from companies to bid on operation and support jobs at three supply centers in Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; Richmond, Va., and Fort Belvoir, Va. DLA agreed with AFGE that internal re-engineering would be a better alternative and less disruptive than conducting a public-private job competition. The agency sought permission from the Office of the Secretary of Defense but the request was denied.



Worker Intimidation at Charlotte Airport Prompts Protest from AFGE: AFGE earlier this month demanded explanations from the Transportation Security Administration after TSA workers at North Carolina's Charlotte Douglas International Airport reported that they had been intimidated from talking about or joining a union.



Charlotte Transportations Security Officers reported that managers went to checkpoint and baggage areas and told TSOs that, via directive of TSA in Washington, TSA does not recognize unions, that their union membership is invalid, and that the airport's human resource administrator now was their union representative. The managers also told the TSOs that they are no longer allowed to talk about a union on airport property.


AFGE immediately called TSA Assistant Administrator for Human Capital Richard Whitford, who told the union that it was not TSA policy to bar TSOs from talking about or joining a union. AFGE also talked to the airport's assistant federal security director and HR administrator, who told the union that there must have been a misunderstanding and that they would issue a statement correcting the misinformation. They also mentioned possible disciplinary action for the managers who spread the misinformation. AFGE made it clear that the reports the union received were very unusual and extremely serious, and the union wanted TSOs to understand that they can speak about the union on airport property during breaks, that the HR administrator is NOT their union representative, and that their union membership is valid. Charlotte management reportedly got an earful from the TSA headquarters about the issue.



West Virginia BOP Correctional Officer Assaulted: A Bureau of Prisons correctional officer was recently attacked after discovering homemade wine in a cell at the maximum-security prison in Hazelton, West Virginia. According to Al Popielarcheck, executive vice president of AFGE Local 420, the officer suffered a broken nose and injuries to his elbow, knee, and neck. Popielarcheck said there have already been several attacks by inmates at the Hazelton prison this year.



Meanwhile, an improvised explosive device went off inside Victorville Federal Penitentiary in California during a routine search of inmate property. No one was injured.



Federal prisons have become dangerous places to work and AFGE has been pressing lawmakers for an increase in funding for BOP to address the serious understaffing and prison overcrowding problems. AFGE last week held a candlelit vigil in Washington D.C. for Correctional Officer Jose Rivera who was stabbed to death by inmates last year while patrolling the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California.


Visit www.afge.org to read AFGE's 2009 issue paper on the union's efforts to make federal prisons better and safer places for employees, inmates, and the communities surrounding the prisons.