This article appeared in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/education/06homeless.html?hp

        

See if there is any truth here....

        

The President has something to say to working families.  This is much better that what we have seen in the pass eight years.

 

        

We all like the end of summer holiday,  but it came with a price.  We tend to believe things just happen and we some be grateful when thing just happen.  But as with many other move forward in America someone had to pay a heavy price.  Here is a short video of the origins of Labor Day.  If you are on a FS computer this video may not play due to being from youtube.

        

Where are you on this issue Congressman?  There are many people in WNC in need.  Are you standing with us?

It is time for Congress to move in the direction of the people.




People of WNC ?

        

                                                                                                               

Here is listing of current outreaches for jobs with the Forest Service in NC.

For other job listings USA JOBS.

        

Recently NFFE - FSC announced the below.  Take some time to read it here and let us know what you think.  Your Union has been working on ths for quite awhile and we need to get it right since it affects many employee.

Update - June 1, 2009

I am pleased to report to two key victories for Forest Service employees! A few weeks ago, I reported that two long-running union efforts were on the verge of bearing fruit: reforming the safety investigation process and standing down the reclassification of fire program managers to the GS-0401 series (see May 5, 2009 FSC Update). I am pleased now to report the following achievements.

Confidentiality of Safety Witness Statements

Safety witness statements obtained by OIG at Thirty-Mile were ultimately used to prosecute one of our firefighters for criminal negligence. At Dutch Creek, a criminal investigation was initiated by a FS Law Enforcement Officer who participated in the safety investigation.

Your union strongly supports an effective safety program. However, the kind of candid disclosures and speculations that are needed in a safety investigation are not possible under the looming threat of prosecution. That is why we are working hard to ensure the confidentiality of disclosures made in safety investigations.

The NFFE FSC collaborated with agency Safety and Law Enforcement and Investigations (LEI) leadership to develop a policy for serious incidents. LEI investigations were already required for serious incidents. The problem is they were getting mixed up with Safety investigations. The new policy builds a firewall between them. We believe this new policy will significantly improve employee rights. Now:

• LEI must inform Safety of whether a criminal investigation will occur prior to initiation of any safety investigation.
• LEI and Safety investigations will be conducted independently.
• Law Enforcement Officers will not participate in safety witness interviews.
• Safety witness interviews will not be disclosed outside of Safety.
• Employees will know the type of investigation being conducted and their rights before they participate

Be aware that safety witness statements even under the new policy are still subject to disclosure to third parties using discovery, subpoena, etc... Your union is actively pursuing legislation that would prevent disclosure under these circumstances. In the meanwhile, your union obtained agency agreement to inform employees about their rights at the time they are interviewed. Be sure you know the new policy and your rights in investigations. (See the links below for more information.)

Stand Down of GS-0401 Conversions

Following up on the momentum created by our recent Congressional testimony and recent contacts with Department and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) officials, your union has convinced the agency that an effective stand down of the conversion of fire program managers to the GS-0401 series was needed. Under the new stand down, no incumbents in GS-0401 will be removed from their positions and all new positions below the GS-13 level will be filled in the GS-0462 series. (See the links below for details.)

Although we worked hard to minimize negative effects, we realize the stand down is not perfect. In the long term, the agency has agreed to work to develop new job series to describe wildland fire management work. While details are yet to be worked out, we believe natural resource academic credentials should be required only when they are directly related to the duties of the specific position. We will press for field employees to be involved in the development of the new classification scheme.

Because development of new OPM series can take several years, we have recommended to leadership that the GS-0301 series be used in the interim. This series provides equivalent advancement opportunities as provided by the GS-0401 series. The NFFE FSC will continue to advocate for a fair career path that is open to all qualified firefighters.

In solidarity,

Ron Thatcher
NFFE Forest Service Council President

For  a link to the Forest Service Council Site and more documents click here.

        

Always Remember

        

Jon Stewart gets it again....

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

        

House Committee on Natural Resources

Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, & Public Lands

 

Regarding

 

Restoring the Federal Public Lands Workforce

 

March 19, 2009

 

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. 

 

I’m Ron Thatcher, President of the National Federation of Federal Employees’ Forest Service Council. In this capacity, I am honored to represent approximately 20,000 dedicated public servants committed to the professional and ethical management of the 192 million acre National Forest System.

 

Forest Service employees are among the most dedicated public servants in the federal workforce.  This is why obstacles to getting our work done decrease our morale as well as our effectiveness.

 

One such obstacle is the erosion of the land management workforce as more funds out of a flat budget go to wildfire suppression each year.  We support the approach taken by the FLAME Act, in which funding for catastrophic wildfires does not come at the expense of land management work.

 

Another problem is a seemingly endless stream of ill-planned and harmful reorganizations and new technologies, methods, and policies. For example:

·         administrative support personnel were removed from field offices and command to centralized service centers that report to Washington,

·         a “self-service” model in which highly graded employees now perform more clerical and administrative tasks has been put in place,

·         mandated use of phone support for field-going employees

·         the rush to put new software in place before it is tested

Employees simply can’t get to the jobs they were trained to do because they are bogged down with administrative tasks they weren’t trained to do.

 

The centralization of Human Capital Management has probably been the biggest problem:

·         The list of problems goes on and on. For example, we bring some 15,000 employees onto the roles each field season.  Now, some are sent to work before they are “hired,” with a promise that we’ll get their pay to them later.  When they go off the roles at the end of the season, their lump sum payments are often delayed by months. 

·         Employees at all levels report the occurrence of a shift of power and authority away from the field to the centralized Human Capital Management organization – an unintended consequence of removing the supervision of these functions from field managers.  One employee noted, HCM is supposed to be a support function, but has become “the tail that wags the dog.”  Another said, “It’s like they created a kingdom that answers to nobody.”

 

Finally, I want to mention the reclassification of fire managers into the GS-0401 series.  This imposes new academic requirements which in many cases are unrelated to the duties of these positions.  This may force as many as a third of our field generals in the war on fire out of the jobs they have successfully performed for years.  Plus, it imposes a glass ceiling for some of our most capable leaders coming up through the ranks.  The knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead a fire crew into harm’s way are not obtained in a classroom – they are obtained by specialized agency-developed training and on-the-ground experience.

 

So, how did we get to this point? In every case, we hear the same thing: leadership didn’t ask the field. In many cases, the ultimate decision can be traced all the way up to former President Bush: competitive sourcing quotas were the driving force behind the centralization and downsizing of Human Capital Management.  Other decisions, such as timetables that prevented adequate testing of new software applications, were mandated by the Department or by even higher levels of the government. In these cases, even our agency leaders were excluded from the decision-making process.

 

However, not all sources of top-down, secretive, and unaccountable decision-making are outside of the agency.  It is agency officials who elected to exclude field employees, even the agency’s top field managers with decades of experience, from the decision to reclassify fire managers.

 

We believe it is time for a new way. It is self-evident that front-line employees are the ones who know the best way to get their jobs done.  We need to tap into this collective wisdom. To make the best decisions, the agency needs to engage employees as advisors, even as collaborators.

This is particularly true of the Forest Service, an institution in which one size doesn’t fit all because of the diversity of lands, from Alaska to Alabama, for which the agency is responsible.

 

This new way of doing business will require officials to embrace the principles of transparency and accountability articulated by President Obama. The payoff will be shared accountability and shared ownership – a decision informed by better information and a workforce motivated to make the decision work.

 

To encourage this, we recommend passage of a Federal Labor-Management Partnership Act and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009. These bills would help put an “accountability infrastructure” in place that would allow employees to collaborate with agency officials on the difficult problems we face.

 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, this concludes my oral statement. Thank you for the opportunity. I would be happy to answer any questions.

To Join <Click Here>                     To Read the full Testimony <Click Here>