Now, this is interesting. One of the things I have written about many times, as have others, is why there is a need for public sector unions. One of the main purposes of unions is to protect the workers from harsh bosses and companies and make sure working conditions are within excepted norms. Liberals always tell us government is super mega-awesome and benevolent, so why would we need a union for government workers? We, um, because of this, perhaps?
(Daily Caller) The Daily Caller has obtained an internal “report of violence in the workplace†notifying top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency about the abusive behavior of a political appointee close to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
The report and call for an independent investigation and action highlights the behavior of Stephanie Owens, an EPA deputy associate administrator in the Office of the Administrator’s Office of External Affairs and Environmental Education. It details a March 14 incident in which Owens, a political appointee, verbally attacked a bargaining unit employee to the point that the union member was afraid to return to her office — for the second time in two weeks.
The memo is dated March 15 and was penned by Steve Shapiro, the executive vice-president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3331 — the largest bargaining unit at EPA. It goes on to explain that this is just one of many incidents involving Owens that have created a “climate of fear†in the department.
According to the document, while the union has officially complained about Owens’ behavior in the past, she has remained in her position and EPA has not addressed the union’s concerns about her behavior or the “climate of fear. (snip)
The document calls on the EPA to launch an “immediate, independent, credible, outside investigation†into the incident and the “climate of fear†staff has been reporting to their union. AFGE further notes that the moment the incident is corroborated, Owens should be immediately removed from the OEAEE premises — if not the entire EPA campus — until an investigation is completed.
So, the “climate of fear” has nothing to do with globull warming, but with abuse by high ranking EPA officials of which the EPA has done nothing to stop. The story goes on to highlight that many more employees feel that the political appointees are arrogant and abusive to the EPA employees.
“Communities, small businesses and others subjected to EPA’s torrent of regulations under Administrator Jackson have had to deal with their own ‘climate of fear,’†(Bonner Cohen) continued. “Now, it appears that same phenomenon prevails within the agency.â€
Maybe there is a need for public sector unions in order to protect the workers from “management”, at least when Democrats are in charge.
Hmmm… Can’t see why there’s a “climate of fear.” Just because EPA administrators like to talk about “crucifixions?”
Well, there is that.
Nice to see that you are no longer accusing union activity by “thugs” Teach hearts unions !
John, it is not necessarily unions which are bad. Some are helpful and good. But, some, especially the leadership, go to far and create bad situations. When I worked for AT&T, the sales reps were unionized. It was a service union, so we could terminate a poor performing employee, and it was in the contract. Yet, the reps received automatic raises based on scale rather than performance. So, instead of giving a top performer a 5% raise (top raise), they’d get the same as a so-so rep.
There are good points and bad points. With public sector the problem is is that they vote for and donate to the same people who will then negotiate the contracts, a clear conflict of interest, not too mention this hoses the taxpayer.