(Texas AFL-CIO eNews)
Jeff Darby of the American Federation of Government Employees reports that the National Council of Field Labor Locals (NCFLL), which represents 10,000 workers in the U.S. Department of Labor, is challenging an order by George W. Bush's Secretary of Labor censoring its publication.
The union says that Bush political appointees objected to the union's characterization of the administration's policies affecting federal workers.
"We are taking the matter to arbitration and we're confident that we'll win," Council President Ron Yarman said in a news release. "We believe that an impartial third party will agree with us that this is 2003 and not 1984. However, we're outraged that even after an arbitrator rules in our favor, the DOL won't incur any meaningful penalties for muzzling free speech and fair comment by the union."
NCFLL's December newsletter discusses White House orders to privatize 125,000 federal jobs. A cartoon on the same page lampoons Bush for his decision to cut the 2003 federal pay increase.
The labor department sought to ban distribution of the publication through inter-office mail. Under the collective bargaining agreement that applies to NCFLL, only "libelous or scurrilous" material may be banned from the in-house mail system.
The material in question can be found at www.ncfll.org, in the latest newsletter posted. The standard of criticism in the article and satire in the cartoon is clearly mainstream and probably not as tough as what you can find on many editorial pages. (In fact, White House press corps dean Helen Thomas was quoted this weekend calling Bush "the worst president ever. He is the worst president in all of American history.")
This censorship incident is a walking argument for the need for federal employees to maintain both union and civil service protection, so they won't be subjected to constant political loyalty tests in addition to the requirement that they do their jobs well. Instead, under cover of national security, the Bush administration has doggedly sought to weaken federal unions and, in some cases, eliminate them.
--
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Il etait enfin venu, le jour ou je fus un pourceau!" - Comte de Lautreamont, Les Chants de Maldoror, 4th Hymn, Strophe 6