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Bush Signs and Unions Win

Before delivering his State of the Union, Bush signed a defense bill that ensures unions keep their collective bargaining rights and that employees retain their civil service rights to appeal major disciplinary actions.

The Pentagon had tried to curb those rights as part of the new National Security Personnel System. The new law exempts blue-collar Defense employees from the NSPS and ensures that NSPS employees performing at satisfactory levels receive an annual raise, locality adjustments and an opportunity for performance-based raises and bonuses.

The legislation marks the end of a four-year effort by a coalition of federal unions to fend off the department's plan to curtail their bargaining rights.

"There are not many wins in our history bigger than this one," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said that "with these changes, the NSPS has a much better chance of being a success. This reform is without a doubt a victory for Defense workers."

AFGE, which has been in federal court fighting to keep its bargaining rights at Defense, has notified the government that it will drop an appeal to the Supreme Court. Although the litigation did not seek to stop performance-based pay under the NSPS, Gage said the new law will give unions an opportunity to push for fair treatment of employees when decision on pay raises are made each year.

The system currently covers 110,000 Defense workers; none are covered by union contracts.

AFGE is open to talks on how to update old civil service rules, such as job classification standards, and to bargaining at national rather than local levels, Gage said. AFGE prefers to meet with the Pentagon "sooner rather than later, for a frank discussion of where to go from here," Gage said.

Mary Lacey, who heads the NSPS program office, said, "We look forward to hearing from all of the unions and working with them."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address ishttp://barrs@washpost.com.