EPA's Labor-Management Breakup
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | 09:28 AM
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | 09:28 AM
The old labor-management partnership councils at federal agencies created under the Clinton adminstration are ghosts of their former selves since President Bush dissolved them in 2001. But now the one at the Environmental Protection Agency is officially out of business, the Washington Post reports today. Unionized scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency have severed their official relationship with management, citing concerns that leaders are failing to follow "principles of scientific integrity."
"It's gotten worse than ever in terms of the agency just doing unilateral decision-making," said J. William Hirzy, executive vice president of Chapter 280 of the National Treasury Employees Union and a senior scientist in EPA's risk assessment division. "We're tired of it."
Comments
Dear "used to work there". You are so right. When I worked at the EPA, a senior manager said that we could no longer say that there was a "morale" problem at the Agency. Rather, what we had was "employee sadness". You see, morale problems are issues that management has to resolve while employee sadness is totally the responsibility of the employee.
Used to work there too. | Thursday, March 13, 2008 | 07:39 AMThere are 16 Local Unions representing at least 10,000 EPA scientists, engineers, environmental protection specialists and support staff.
Barbara-TAP | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 04:43 PMAll science is questionable; that's the nature of science. If you couldn't revise a theory due to new facts, it wouldn't be science.
But there are acceptable methods for challenging a theory, and unilateral political decisions are not part of the acceptable methods.
mister quark | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 10:54 AMEven if so, what's the bigger story, that, or EPA engaging in questionable science?
mister neutron | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 09:34 AMWhy don't you report how many of EPA's 18,000 employees are union members.
Unions at EPA represent a very, very small number of people.
nva guy | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 08:49 AMStrangest place I ever worked at. They used to have a senior manager who made you fill out a leave slip for one hour if you were 15 minutes late. Then he made you leave the office for 45 minutes. His excuse was that the time system would not allow for less than one hour increments. The union put a stop to that. I'm sure the union has valid concerns because that agency is too political and does not subscribe to a higher standard.
Used to work there | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 08:27 AMABOUT THIS BLOG
Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.
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