Rock Island Arsenal Command Blurs Line Between Civilian and Military Labor

by Tracy Kurowski I conducted an interview with Diane Scott, President AFGE 2119, which represents the people who work at the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center (JMTC) of the Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) located on an island in the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois. Recently, RIA command decided to hire new workers through Personnel Force Initiative (PFI) rather than direct hire. PFI workers cannot join the union and are not entitled to union benefits and protections. What is PFI or Personnel Force Initiative? PFI is basically a program where National Guard and Reservists are used for supposedly “hard to fill” positions. National Guardsmen and women or Reservists apply for civilian jobs at the Rock Island Arsenal. On the outside this appears to be a good idea, but when investigated further this is not as rosy as one might think. The members of AFGE 2119 are largely veterans themselves and strongly back veteran’s rights and veteran’s preference and rights to government jobs. But PFI is not pro-veteran. What happens is the reservists or guardsmen and women hired through PFI are put on active duty, given orders and get sent to where that job offer is at. They are not paid according to union wages, but according to their rank. Our big concern is that this initiative should only be used for hard-to-fill positions and should be cheaper than directly hiring government workers who have a choice to join the union. But the trouble with this initiative is the government has to pay for housing for the called-up soldiers, their meals and transportation, and pay the hiring firm an 8% surcharge for each PFI hire. How is this a cheaper alternative? Also, with 10% unemployment in the Quad City Area, how is the RIA not able to find local people for these jobs? What kinds of jobs are being listed through PFI? The RIA had fourteen jobs listed, a combination of blue collar, white collar, and management positions. PFI circumvents hiring for manufacturing jobs our local represents as well as AFGE 15 [union representing white collar] and even management positions. The problem you have here is when you have a Colonel that is in charge, there is nobody in management that is going to speak out against it. A lot of things about PFI management likes. For example, management doesn’t have to do appraisals [job reviews] which are really time consuming. Management hates doing them; employees are not that crazy about them either, but they are important for job reviews, upward mobility, etc. We had an earlier problem and still do with RIA hiring contractors to do our work. It was like working next to a scab. If contractors want to take leave, all they have to do is tell their contractor supervisor, who in turn contacts the federal manager – it cuts down on management’s workload. Tell me more about the situation with contractors doing bargaining unit work. Being a federal employee is a never-ending fight. During the 1990s we had constant layoffs or reductions in force. The Army and Department of Defense were trying to force us out by starving us for work, yet somehow we managed to survive. Then in 2005, we barely survived being placed on the BRAC list. But due to 9/11 and the ongoing conflicts, we ended up with more work than we could handle. The Arsenal contracted out work to local companies and hired around 700 people who were forced to work ungodly overtime. We finally seemed to have hit a plateau where things are calming down and the majority of overtime is done voluntarily. But then in 2009, management started hiring contractors from an out-of-state agency to contract out our bargaining unit work. They are working side by side with our people. We objected to management, but we are prohibited from striking. If we were in the private sector this is just like having someone cross the picket line. Are there any Guardsmen or women or Reservists hired through PFI now working at the Arsenal? No. They said a while ago they had selected three people to fill some positions. I don’t know what happened or if they turned the positions down. No one has showed up. Also since RIA has to pay for moving expenses for PFI hires – it is open throughout the U.S. – maybe they found the cost was too much if someone from Florida wanted a position, RIA has to pay for the move. Can PFI be stopped if the union is able to prove it is more expensive? We brought it up, but their alibi is that the initiative it doesn’t say that. They’re just turning a blind eye to it. We start asking questions, and they tell us it’s non-negotiable. In fact, it isn’t in your contract? Right. Describe the blue collar jobs listed in PFI. Most of our positions are for electricians, machine repair, or machinists. Are PFI hires eligible to join the union? No. They are considered active duty. They’ll be in military uniform. There is no grievance procedure like what bargaining unit members have. It is the same with the contractors. Reservists or national guardsmen and women only have recourse for discipline or layoff through their chain of command. What is the current employment situation at the Arsenal? Glad you asked that – we are at one of the highest levels we’ve been in years with 1700 workers, 1200 in our bargaining unit. JMTC has had 160 contractors. Now this is what is so strange. RIA has let go of thirteen contractor machinists. There are still twelve other contractor machinists, yet on their website the RIA is trying to hire through PFI for the same positions that were let go. They keep saying they can’t get machinists, but then turn around and lay off contractor machinists and start seeking PFI machinists instead of just hiring someone through the normal process. It just doesn’t make any sense. How does RIA list positions for regular hiring process? They would normally go through the civilian personnel website, the Resumix system. The trouble is with some of these jobs, like maintenance, I know the supervisor has been given resumes, but the supervisor didn’t want to hire any of them. We have an electrician school right here in the Quad Cities, and you’re telling me you can’t hire a local qualified electrician? Has the PFI been used before? When the war started we were short of welders, we were really hurting for welders. The RIA brought thirty navy welders in for about thirty days. That’s it. And I remember years ago when I first started they had a few machinists, but nothing else recently. Why do you think they are doing this? RIA is circumventing the government hiring process, and veterans’ preference. I served in the military, and the whole meaning of veterans’ preference is gone with PFI. Under normal hiring, after one year probation ends, the employee is entitled to recourse rights – but with PFI there is no grievance, no arbitration, they cannot join the union or participate in negotiating or have job protections. The PFI hires are pretty much out on their own. Our union feels this is an illegal practice. We submitted the contractor issue to arbitration, and should have had the arbitration in May but it was postponed until September 2010. I feel a lot of this is retaliation against us, the union, since we opposed the contractor issue, so now they’ll do this out of spite. And like I said, it makes management’s job easier. Contractors really have no rights. If the manager said Joe contractor is not working out, he can be fired that day with no recourse. They can’t do that with a federal employee. They have to prove cause. Even a term has some rights to try to fight a termination, such as EEO. Can a PFI get hired into a full-time position? Some do get full time jobs through this but it’s rare. Plus why wouldn’t a person, even if a reservists or guardsmen, apply through normal channels instead of PFI? PFI is choking off any promotional opportunities for our current employees. People are stuck in the jobs where they’re at. Some PFI positions are supervisor jobs. There are union people who would want to be supervisors or go into other positions such as Machine Repair. In the past machinists could apply and get selected for Machine Repair where they are not under the same scrutiny and pressure and time standard’s criteria. Have you contacted the Congressional delegation? We are working on getting a letter ready and next week we will start to make appointments. But we don’t have much faith. They did nothing to change the contractor issue last year. We met with both Republicans and Democrats, met with all of our delegation. They made a few phone calls, but never firm demands that they stop contracting out our work. I was like, are you scared of the Colonel? I think they’re more worried about their relationship with the Colonel than with the union. As far as we can tell they haven’t done anything. Now it’s leading to this – to PFI. It’s not going to stop unless they speak up for us. As far as we can tell, there is no law governing this except a charter established by the Assistant Secretary of Defense. As far as we are concerned PFI isn’t intended for stateside use, unless it’s for this oil spill, as an example, but not for community-based employment where there are likely qualified candidates to be found in the local area. This Colonel leaves in September, and we hope whoever comes next will listen to our concerns. Tracy Kurowski has been active in the labor movement for ten years, first as a member of AFSCME 3506, when she taught adult education classes at the City Colleges of Chicago. She moved to the Quad Cities in 2007 where she worked as political coordinator with the Quad City Federation of Labor, and as a caseworker for Congressman Bruce Braley from 2007 - 2009. Tracy Kurowski writes a labor update every Monday on Blog for Iowa