Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), who has long experience in federal workplace
issues, told a gathering of NTEU members that it is “a new day for
federal employees,” and that in the new administration, “unions
are important partners toward ensuring worker insights are considered.”
Akaka, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on the
Federal Workforce, spoke at the closing luncheon of the annual Legislative
Conference and declared his staunch support for several of NTEU’s
priority legislative issues for 2009.
These include pay parity between federal civilian and military personnel;
adequate staffing for federal agencies; limits on the contracting out of
federal jobs; an end to pay-for-performance personnel systems; full collective
bargaining rights and whistleblower protections for federal employees, particularly
those in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); as well as a
return to labor-management partnerships.
“No one stands up for the rights and benefits of federal employees
like Sen. Akaka does,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, who
praised the senator as a “longtime champion of the federal worker,”
and added that few in Congress can claim his overall track record of success
in fighting for the issues that federal workers care about. “He is
a clear leader in Congress regarding the issues that federal employees care
about,” she said.
Sen. Akaka called on the hundreds of assembled NTEU members to ride the
cresting wave of opportunity that a new, more employee-friendly administration
has brought to the federal workplace. “Government functions best when
all its members work together,” he said.
Sen. Akaka recounted his support for recent successful NTEU legislative
initiatives, including the long-sought enhanced law enforcement officer
retirement benefit for Customs and Border Protection Officers and prohibiting
the Department of Homeland Security from using any appropriated funding
to implement a regressive pay-for-performance personnel system for rank-and-file
employees.
The senator expressed disappointment that other NTEU’s priority legislative
issues were not acted upon during the last Congress, but promised to continue
his full-throated support of federal employees and the critical role they
play in the government.
“There is no doubt that skilled, well-trained and dedicated federal
employees are essential to the success of the federal government,”
Akaka said. “It is impossible for government to function without their
hard work.”
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