It is an honor to speak again at the annual Secretary’s Awards Ceremony. My orders as usual were to usual to make “favorable remarks for no more than three minutes. I usually speak longer and this year it will be very hard to have favorable remarks about the Department of Labor.
I congratulate those winning the awards, and celebrate the opportunity to be with people I really like and admire. But my heart is heavy with the impending loss of some of our co-workers, losing their jobs to the philosophy of government for sale to the highest bidder and no matter the cost in shoddy service and impacted lives. But we did achieve Green!
As we enter into the 7th year of this Administration’s Reign of Error, where the new catch phrase is “oops”, contracting out and outsourcing has turned the work of DOL into what the French call “Merde! DOL employees spend most of their time trying to get travel vouchers processed, bills paid and basic services accomplished by unseen contractors utilizing electronic systems that don’t work and wasting millions of dollars in tax monies. Time better spent in servicing the American worker. But we did achieve Green!
The loss of close to 400 DOL employees in the latest round of A-76 competitions is just the latest string of administrative errors and lack of due diligence. Amid outcries of shoddy handling of the how the data of work was handled through the awarding of the contracts, DOL forged ahead without due diligence permitting the same contractor to perform both the Performance Work Study and the Most Efficient Organization study. Onto awarding the competition without verifying whether the winning contractor was in compliance with federal laws, even those that DOL is charged in enforcing as well as those articles in the NCFLL bargaining agreement. But we did achieve Green!
Management explained to those who are impacted that it was not the jobs that were bid on just the functions of those jobs. This provides little solace to people whose names appeared on a list doing the same functions as others who names weren’t on the list and who are facing a Reduction in Force, the government nice word for being laid off. Of course, the function got very easy to bid on when on the technical functions were taken out of the work-study. Those functions that remained became merely clerical and were not inherently governmental. So DOL lost the competition and almost 400 of our co-workers from across the country and the national office will leave us. But we achieve Green!
I would say more but I don’t want to dampen the celebration of the achievements of those who are being awarded today. Congratulations to the winners, you deserve the award. To the rest of you, those not receiving an award and especially those who may be impacted by the loss of function, all I can offer you is the undying gratitude of a beat old union representative who thanks you for your years of dedicated service to the American worker. I have always been honored that you permitted me to speak on your behalf at the bargaining table, in the House of Labor and in the Halls of Congress.
My work was easy, all I had to do was remind people that I represented Department of Labor employees; your work always spoke for itself. I got to stand in the spotlight while you provided beacon. I thank you, on behalf of organized labor and the millions of other workers who make America work. Your hard work provided the security of their pensions, the guarantees of their wages and benefits and a safe and healthful workplace. Your hard work provided training and opportunity for the young and minorities and retraining for those who lost their jobs to “downsizing” or outsourcing. Your impact on what makes America work is profound. Those of you who are leaving, you made a difference, for those of us who remain we will attempt to carry on in the best traditions of the example you set for us.
As I said to anyone I ever had the opportunity to meet, I was proud to use the NCFLL slogan “WHERE AMERICA WORKS WE’RE WORKING FOR YOU. You have my solemn promise I will never let anyone forget your service and dedication. I will continue singing your praises and letting everyone know of your dedication to duty. I will continue to fight to retain every job and every function in the Department of Labor as long as I have the strength and the breath, Never again will we achieve Green on the backs of DOL employees.
Thank you and God Bless!.
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