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Returning Due Process to D.C. Workers
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I was surprised at the visceral tone of The Post's editorial on the D.C. Council's decision to enable the Public Employee Relations Board to operate with a quorum of one.
For two years, city employees have been denied due process of law because Mayor Adrian M. Fenty did not meet his responsibility to recommend qualified nominees to serve on the PERB, twice recommending individuals with whom he had close personal ties but who had no labor relations experience. As a result, despite growing public awareness of the mayor's arrogance, these employees' contracts have been abrogated and ignored -- and some have been arbitrarily fired as scapegoats following revelations of systemic cracks in the city government.
While the response of the D.C. Council may have been unconventional, it was necessary. D.C. public employees provide services on which millions of residents and visitors rely. It would be unconscionable to force these public servants to continue to be subjected to the whims of Mr. Fenty's and Attorney General Peter Nickles's sensitive egos and blistering senses of vengeance without the protections afforded by due process.
JOHN GAGE
National President
American Federation of Government Employees
Washington
