Our Problem, Message; Our Solution, Get the Message Out: Civil Servants are Stewards of Good Gov'tMarch 9, 2004By Gerald Swanke We have got a problem-a big problem. Certainly you know the main part of this potentially fatal problem-the DOD, National Security Personnel System (NSPS) reform plan. However, you may not be aware of the more complicated solution to it. And you are the only one that can help your Union solve it. While AFGE must and currently is developing a national counterproposal to DOD's reform, that will not be enough-because of the structure of the law authorizing DOD's NSPS, it won't even get close. Therefore, understanding a real potential solution is the most important moment in both our Union and DOD civil service careers. A shared understanding of the response message from your AFGE leadership, stewards, and members could make history. It must make history-and delivering that focused response is our collective responsibility. What we want and need is a complete reversal of the Bush Administration's NSPS personnel reform plan. Our problem is that we can't get there from here. AFGE as the Union can't get what we need if what we SAY is "DOD's reform plan has nothing to do with national security and is really an unfair union-busting tactic." Although the statement is accurate, and comparing the rights to collective bargaining as a threat to national security is an insult to every DOD civil service patriot in the country - that anger and that message will not solve the problem. Because the REAL PROBLEM is that the public and media don't care about whether or not you have effective collective bargaining rights or how you will be affected by personnel reforms. Our "message" in response to the Bush Administrations DOD personnel plan (and the Potential Answer to our conflict) must be a strategized and our united, public reply must tell the story about what we do. America cares about that, and the media, might-but only if WE build that bridge. A Bridge that connects what we do to the interests of American's security. We have to Tell America What We do. In the case of DOD, the stories of our members that support America in the war on global terrorism are the key to our strategy. We need to tell the story about how our members have supported (INSERT HERE YOUR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT) military/facility mission in IRAQ, Afghanistan, Haiti, Bosnia, Kuwait, Turkey, and every where else they have been quietly and invisibly supporting America's defense. We must connect stories with the media about our members who have worked and are working 24 hours a day in direct support of a military mission. America's silent and unseen heroes, DOD workers-our members, have been doing this for years. Our job now is to make the boss aware of what we do. We have a choice to make, leave the supervision of our members to DOD management, or expand it to include the American public. It is after all the American voter and taxpayer who is the real DOD boss. Now is the time in our job as unionists to remind the boss that a secure America needs these working heroes and America's security depends on protecting these heroes. We need to tell the boss what we do and in telling what we do we will show America, that these working heroes are America's security, and in order to have a safe and secure America, these heroes deserve and must have the security of the constitutionally provided right of freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of speech, the right to due process, and the right to meaningful collective bargaining through the union of their choice-AFGE. As leaders of this Union, you are the only qualified builders of that bridge-you know where it starts and where it must go, and now we together must find a way to span the distance. Every Local leader must understand the need for an Internal message and help develop one for your facility to mobilize every member of your Local, every Bargaining Unit employee at your facility, and every DOD worker that will listen. Then, and only then, will they begin to understand the need to focus on a single external message that America does care about: What We Do. INTERNAL MESSAGE: What we need! How the reform will hurt them. Why should our workers, our bargaining unit, care about the reform bill? We must educate them because this is not a drill! Our difficult task must begin by developing an internal message that educates our members, stewards, and those workers who are not yet members of AFGE, of the threat that will wreak havoc on their standard of living, diminish their paychecks, destroy their working conditions, and scramble the lives of their families. Too many of them don't even know, or believe, what is going to happen to them if the NSPS is put into play in the manner the Bush Administration desires. They must understand what is at stake. They must see the pending harm in store for them. They must recognize the ferocity of the storm that is about to strike them. Because if they don't, they'll never understand that they must mobilize together with all of DOD civil service, to make Congress call for public hearings to hold the DOD changes in abeyance. If our members don't understand that the potential for Congressional hearings on the reform plan is the only thing that can save their individual rights in DOD, (whether it's COLA's for salary, step increases, shift assignments, or protections in a RIF caused by privatization) they will never be able to help us help them. And without them, we will never have the required capacity to save them or their union. EXTERNAL MESSAGE We must have in every DOD facility a union member who can speak clearly on the mission essential functions of defense that our members deliver for our real bosses-the taxpayers. That story is one the media and the public will care about. In no way is this to suggest that this will be an easy task, or a quick solution to our problem. But I am convinced it is our best potential solution. The AFGE NEC Defense Committee has developed a four point plan for response to DOD. The first element is our response in counterproposals. The second element is Congressional hearings to hold the changes in abeyance. The third element is a mobilization strategy nationwide in every AFGE local to make the second element possible. And finally the fourth element is to engage a legal strategy to oppose implementation of the Bush Administration's DOD NSPS where possible in court. I know that for a leader of a DOD Local to listen to a member of the NEC talk about "Here is what we need to do" is rather presumptuous given you are in the fight of your lives. But the fact is, We Are in the Fight of Our Lives. Right now, every rank and file DOD member must have leadership that is not afraid to tell them what they need to hear, instead of what they want to hear. YOU are that leadership and every AFGE leader like you, myself and all the members of the NEC included have that responsibility. Let's lead. While all elements of our four step plan must integrate and all must compliment the other, the Congressional Hearings are the likeliest way to hold off implementation of the NSPS. For that reason, understanding the need for a unified AFGE external message is the cornerstone of our possible success. Our united message Civil Servants Are Stewards of Good Government-can be stated in many ways. And the best way is to use the vocabulary taxpayers in your community understand. Tell them what you and your co-workers do to make their country safe in their communities, in their newspapers, their radio stations. Remind them all of your loyalty and oath to the American citizens, taxpayers and Constitution. Without DOD civil service, there is no government by the people. All that is left is government by the corporation, for the stockholder. And there isn't a working citizen in the country that doesn't understand that. Lets take our flag back! If any of you can help me translate this to others, God bless you! Lets Roll! |
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