200 Convene in Los Angeles for DoD New Beginnings Conference
Wednesday, September 29, 2010(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Los Angeles, CA – From September 20-23, about 200
representatives of federal unions, the
Department of Defense (DoD), and the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) met in Los
Angeles, CA to brainstorm ideas for potential
changes at DoD regarding performance
management, hiring, and workplace
incentives.
DoD was given
authority in the fiscal year 2010 Defense
Authorization Act (the same bill that repealed
the National Security Personnel System) to make
Department-wide changes in these three
areas. This conference was an opportunity
for DoD to get union input on these topics
before beginning the process of shaping
reforms.
Called the “New
Beginnings” conference, this gathering was the
first significant labor-management conference
at DoD since President Obama signed Executive
Order 13522 in May of 2010 establishing the
labor-management forums throughout the federal
government.
NFFE and the IAM
were well represented at the conference, with
15 representatives from our unions in
attendance. Our representatives at the
conference were able to share their experiences
and the experiences of their Local members,
giving all the DoD workers represented by NFFE
and the IAM a real voice in the development of
potential reforms.
The task at hand
during the conference was not to debate
specific proposals, but for labor and
management to cooperatively develop a
collection of ideas on which a smaller design
team, composed of labor and management, would
draw to shape jointly-created proposals.