Unionized workers at the Quad Cities’ largest employer are speaking out against a Bush administration plan to change federal rules for Department of Defense workers nationwide. It would effect thousands of workers at the Rock Island Arsenal. Randy Donnelly is president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2119, the largest of the Arsenal’s unions. Donnelly says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is grabbing at power he should -not- be allowed to have. Donnelly says Rumsfeld is requesting that “Congress enable him to create the new laws and regulations and the Constitution specifically states that Congress enacts and makes the laws and that the administration enforces ’em.” The proposal would change how defense workers are paid and would make it easier for the government to hire and transfer people. Donnelly says it would also change how workers are evaluated by their supervisors.It would also do away with “premium pay” or time-and-a-half for any hours worked over 40 in a week. Donnelly says the proposed measure is part of a much larger bill that’s passed in the U-S House that pumps 400-billion dollars into defense programs next year. A similar measure has passed the Senate and a conference committee is to meet next week to iron out differences. Donnelly says his members are lobbying Congressmen from Iowa and Illinois to vote against it.Donnelly and dozens of his union colleagues marched through Davenport on Wednesday to draw attention to the proposal. Bush administration leaders say the current rules may damage the national security mission and are decades old. Union leaders call the plan an assault on their rights. Donnelly says “Men and women have died for the right to bargain with management on these rights.”
