For Immediate Release
Friday, December 03, 1999
510 More FAA Employees Vote For AFSCME
WASHINGTON —Responding to major policy changes that threaten employee benefits and protections, 510 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) became a part of Council 26 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) on December 2. In an election held at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., 419 employees turned out to cast their ballots with 339 voting for AFSCME and 49 voting against union representation. (31 ballots are challenged.) The employees work in the Office of Regulation and Certification, Office of Airports, Office of System Safety and Office of Civil Rights.
"This election gives employees back the ability to negotiate for rights lost under the new personnel system, where we had no influence over our futures," said Sherry deVries, program analyst and union supporter. "This is about a lot more than money. It's about having a voice in the workplace."
In April 1996, FAA employees lost critical protections that other federal employees enjoy under Title V. The lifting of Title V provisions meant FAA management no longer was required by law to provide sick and vacation leave, overtime after eight hours of work in a day, holidays, jury duty or witness service, grievance procedures and military leave for the reserves and National Guard. Recently, the FAA has been introducing what it calls "personnel reforms" without employee input.
Lifting of Title V coverage, however, also allowed FAA employees to be among the few federal employees to bargain over wages and benefits in addition to conditions of employment. Said Johnnie Smith, an aircraft safety inspector and an election monitor, "Management pushed us into this. We'll now have a say-so in our benefits, our future."
"The FAA union vote represents a new brand of unionism for federal workers and professional workers," said Carl Goldman, Council 26 executive director. "There is a movement to listen less and take more from federal workers - take away traditional job security, the wage structure, even retirement benefits. FAA workers are professionals concerned with the FAA mission and they have made it clear that they will have a voice in the agency's future as well as their own.
"Title V was the federal employee's social contract," Goldman added. "Now FAA employees will have a union contract."
