WHEREAS, civilian Department of Defense employees strive and work to support and deploy our armed forces by assisting them in overseas operations, such as when shipyard welders volunteer to travel to the Middle East in order to up-armor Army and Marine Corps vehicles; and

WHEREAS, these voluntary practices are covered by collective bargaining agreement and have shown no impediment to national security or to the Department of Defense's mission; and

WHEREAS, current laws already give the United States Department of Defense the flexibility it needs to balance employment policies and environmental protection with national security and military readiness; and

WHEREAS, the National Security Personnel System dilutes veterans' preferences at a time when Iraq war veterans are in need of employment and reduces the rights of veterans who are currently employed by the Department of Defense; and

WHEREAS, the National Security Personnel System renders the collective bargaining process meaningless by effectively eliminating the role of unions, limiting an employee's statutory appeal rights, allowing the Department of Defense significant avenues to ignore contractual obligations, and by eroding most protections afforded civilian Department of Defense employees under Title 5 of the United States Code; and

WHEREAS, the attacks on labor undertaken by the Bush Administration suggest that the actual intention of these proposals is part of a larger effort to outsource civilian Department of Defense jobs, including those vital to national security; and

WHEREAS, the nation has witnessed the unacceptable response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the recent hurricane disasters and this unacceptable performance can be attributed in no small part to nepotism and cronyism; and

WHEREAS, the National Security Personnel System lacks proper checks, balances, and oversight to prevent favoritism, nepotism, and cronyism; and

WHEREAS, collective bargaining rights are the keystone of any just labor-management relations system; and

WHEREAS, in essence, the National Security Personnel System is a regressive attack on hardworking civilian Department of Defense employees that would roll back over forty years of workers' rights that labor unions have fought hard to secure; and

WHEREAS, the proposed National Security Personnel System will negatively impact approximately seven hundred thousand civilian Department of Defense workers nationwide, sixteen thousand of whom are in Hawaii; and

Whereas, the National Security Personnel System ignores and does not employ any provisions of title 5, chapter 71, United States Code (establishing federal employees' collective bargaining and appeal rights), even though Congress stated that the Department of Defense could not waive such provisions; and

WHEREAS, Congress gave the Department of Defense the authority to impose a new personnel system in the interest of national security; and

WHEREAS, nothing in the National Security Personnel System deals with national security, despite national security concerns being Congress' sole rationale for giving the Secretary of Defense authority to change the Department of Defense's pay and personnel system for civilian employees; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that this body opposes the Department of Defense's attempts to weaken civilian Department of Defense employees' existing collective bargaining and statutory appeal rights; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body urges Hawaii's congressional delegation to work to rescind the broad grant of authority to the Secretary of Defense and, in light of his abuse of that authority, instead require the Department of Defense to continue to adhere to title 5, chapter 71 of the United States Code; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body urges all state and county officials to communicate their support of the Department of Defense employees' collective bargaining rights to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Defense, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Defense, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title:

Federal Employees