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NTEU - Has given TSOs a concrete plan on how we can bargain away PASS. We have detailed what our attorneys and DHS negotiating team. We composed a 15 page CB White Paper that details how we will bargain many of your issues. In one of our recent TSA Update - Eliminating PASS. NTEU has more experience than ANY federal union bargaining alternative types of pay systems, because we represent revenue creating agencies like FDIC where employees compensation structures are more complex and can be bargained.
Under the Bush administration, when PASS was implemented at TSA, MAX HR was the other system being implemented to replace GS in the rest of DHS. There were 5 unions, including NTEU and AFGE, representing 60,000 DHS employees being moved onto this PASS-like system. Immediately,. NTEU filed suit as lead counsel for all five unions, and took DHS to court. NTEU vs. Chertoff. NTEU won the court case on behalf of all 60,000 employees including their members and AFGE's. MAX HR was never implemented at CBP and other DHS agencies due to the best union legal team in the country. CBP not only still enjoys being on GS, but we lobbied successfully for a significant pay raise for them to GS12.
AFGE - They have not supplied TSOs with any clear cut bargaining plan or details on how their negotiating team will approach these issues or examples of how they have done this elsewhere. Instead, TSOs have ended up with an AFGE petition to end PASS. Many of you have seen this in the past and many of you are scratching your heads, asking why try it again now only a few days before a collective bargaining election. There is little reason to have petitions circulating in a collective bargaining environment, especially when the winner of the election will be the official voice for all TSOs.
During the Bush Administration, during the same period that PASS was being implemented and DHS's MAX HR, there was a third pay for performance system called NSPS at Department of Defense. NSPS was not being implemented on any NTEU member agencies, but it was at AFGE. In the spirit of solidarity as we won the case for all DHS, NTEU coached and supplied AFGE attorneys with all of our legal briefs that won the case against DHS. But this time AFGE was lead counsel in the similar case of AFGE vs. Rumsfeld . AFGE could not get it done and lost the case! 9 years later with a favorable political environment these DoD employees have been rescued from NSPS.
Here is a 35 page detailed legal analysis of NTEU's victory and AFGE's failure.
The only way to get GS will be through lobbying. NTEU is an independent union and have our own lobbyists on staff. We have 2 solely dedicated to DHS, that will work tirelessly to get you GS pay. AFGE on the other hand uses AFL-CIO for lobbying and with 12 million other members, GS pay for TSOs will not exactly be on the top of the list.
When the federal pay issues were being tossed around congress, President Colleen Kelley testified before them and we sent personalized letters to all the congressmen with real life stories. AFGE had a protest on capitol hill, where President John Gage called members of Congress "mentally retarded". Gage's comments on video here. Do you think this is how to get congress to give you what you are asking for?
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