FederalDaily - December 4, 2006
Latest Round of Postal Contract Negotiations Fails
As an extended Nov. 30 bargaining deadline passed, the U.S. Postal Service again failed to reach a
new national agreement with four postal unions after months of negotiations. The American Postal Workers
Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association
and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) for the first time are bargaining together. Negotiations
were extended past Nov. 30, but the talks were subject to termination by either party on 24-hours notice.
After the latest deadline expired, NALC President William H. Young told members in a Dec. 1 online
bulletin: “the Postal Service had a choice in this round of bargaining: Build a durable partnership
with the NALC to capture the ‘last mile’ of delivery for the USPS, or give in to the siren
call of Wal-Martization and contracting out. Unfortunately, it has made the wrong choice and has signaled
its intention to pursue the disastrous policy of outsourcing city carrier work.”
:: Back to Top ::
Groups Protest State Department Policy on HIV
In recognition of World AIDS Day, gay and civil rights organizations sent 17,000 petitions to the
State Department, urging it to end employment policies which the groups said discriminate against people
with HIV. The petition asks that the State Department revise its policy that disqualifies certain candidates
solely on their HIV status. Such a policy is medically “dated” as well as potentially discriminatory
and illegal, said Bebe Anderson, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal, a gay-lesbian advocacy group. “The
State Department is basing its blanket ban against applicants with HIV on outdated medical information
and stereotypes about people with HIV,” Anderson said on Nov. 30. Lambda Legal currently represents
two men, both of whom sought to become Foreign Service Officers and were denied because they have HIV,
the group said. In a lawsuit, Lambda Legal charges that the State Department’s policy violates
the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits the federal government from discriminating against people with
disabilities. To see more, go to: www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/press.html?record=2065
:: Back to Top ::
GAO: DoD Needs to Improve Depot Funding Data
The Department of Defense (DoD) needs to keep a better accounting of the amount of private-contractor
maintenance work that is done on military depots, a government report found. The Government Accountability
Office (GAO) report dated Nov. 30 looked at DoD’s financial management systems and the processes
used to collect and report on depot maintenance work. Under the law, military departments and defense
agencies may use no more than 50 percent of annual depot maintenance funding for work performed by
private-sector contractors—the so-called 50-50 rule. Although DoD reported to Congress that it
complied with the 50-50 rule for Fiscal Year 2005, GAO could not validate compliance because of weakness
in the DoD financial tracking system, the report said. GAO recommended DoD improve the accuracy of
depot maintenance workload allocation funding data, report obligations rather than expenditures and
establish measures to ensure proper accounting of inter-service workloads between the public and private
sectors. To see the report, go to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d07126high.pdf
:: Back to Top ::
NTSB Should Adopt Better Management Practices, Report Says
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) needs
to more fully adopt better management practices and consider closing its new accident training center.
In a Nov. 30 report, GAO looked at the extent to which NTSB follows leading management practices, and
at the cost-effectiveness of the NTSB’s training center—which opened in 2003 and contains
the wreckage of TWA Flight 800. Although the NTSB has recently made progress in following leading management
practices, it still needs to do a better job, the report said. GAO said the agency did not obtain budget
authority for the net present value of the entire 20-year lease for its training center lease obligation
at the time the lease was signed in 2001. Furthermore, the training center hasn’t been cost-effective,
partly because much of the NTSB staff receives its training elsewhere. “Potential strategies
to increase revenues or decrease costs could increase the cost-effectiveness of the training center;
however, vacating the space may be the least-cost strategy,” the report noted. To see more, go
to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d07118high.pdf
:: Back to Top ::
|
