Pentagon Proposed Regulations Attack Teachers' Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Teachers and school professionals working on American military bases overseas are getting swept up in a disturbing trend to deny union rights to civilians who pose no security risks, the American Federation of Teachers said today.

"The government is using the war on terror and terms like ‘streamlining’ and ‘efficiency’ as pretenses for taking democratic rights away from teachers in Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DODDS)," AFT President Edward J. McElroy said Saturday May 28,  at the Overseas Federation of Teachers (OFT-AFT) Convention in Italy.

The Defense Department has proposed regulations that would have an adverse effect on all existing union agreements, leaving these teachers with limited rights to collective bargaining or fair recourse to adverse employment actions. These proposed regulations follow similar rules enacted in January denying protections to 170,000 federal workers in the Department of Homeland Security. The AFT represents nearly 1,000 teachers and professionals working in DODDS on U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Turkey, Spain and Italy.

Union representatives for OFT-AFT members say they did not have adequate involvement in developing these regulations. "The Defense Department already had its plan worked out, was only going through the formality of consulting the unions and turned a deaf ear to our suggestions and concerns," says OFT President Marie Sainz-Funaro.

The United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, which includes the OFT, has offered amendments for each section of the proposed regulations. The OFT and other unions representing Pentagon workers have been meeting with the Defense Department on the proposed changes since April 18, 2005. When these "meet and confer" sessions conclude, the proposed regulations will be sent to Congress.

McElroy says the AFT will continue fight to protect workers’ rights. "We have recently seen workers stripped of their bargaining rights in Indiana, Missouri and the Department of Homeland Security," he said. "The latest proposed rules are part of a trend that has grave implications for the democratic rights of all public sector workers and the taxpayers they serve."

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