by Mike Hall AFL-CIO Weblog May 17, 2007
This Public Service Recognition Week, according to the Office of Personnel Management, is "designed to honor the men and women who serve America as federal, state and local employees." So what does the Bush administration do?
It announces the outsourcing of jobs of 250 Labor Department workers and AFGE says there are enough questions about the $71 million privatization award to trigger a congressional investigation.
Alex Bastani, president of AFGE Local 12, which represents the workers, says:
During Public Service Recognition week, we celebrate the high quality of work of federal workers and their contributions to this nation. Abolishing these positions is a slap in the face to all federal workers.
Since taking office more than six years ago, the Bush administration has sought to privatize and outsource large chunks of the federal workforce. In May 2003, the Bush White House announced a goal of privatizing some 850,000 federal jobs. Privatizing federal jobs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was pointed to as one of the major factors for the care wounded veterans endured that drew headlines earlier this year. (Click here <http://www.aflcio.org/issues/ bushwatch/index.cfm> to read more about Bush's privatization efforts at the AFL-CIO's BushWatch site and here <http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=Privatization> for more from AFGE.)
The workers who will lose their jobs-mostly African American women-perform critical administrative functions at 13 Labor Department agencies.
Says Bastani:
We are concerned that this competition has been unfairly awarded and disproportionately impacts minority employees.
AFGE this week asked for the congressional inquiry and says that when the Labor Department put the work up for bid, it excluded critical job functions and grossly undervalued others.
Bastani says:
The contractor will have to perform to a higher level of work than it bid to perform, increasing the actual cost of the bid. It is highly questionable whether the work in question can be performed for the amount stated in the initial bid
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/05/17/bush-outsources-public-sector-jobs-during- public-service-recognition-week/
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