Government employees thank Boyda for work on their behalf

Today the American Federation of Government Employees issued a press release thanking Congresswoman Nancy Boyda for her work on the Armed Services Committee on their behalf, making it possible once again for civilian men and women who work for the Defense Department under the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) to come together as one voice to ask for better compensation and benefits.

The issue had been a contentious one, with the government acting directly to limit the ability of civilians to collectively bargain.

DoD misled the Congress about the intentions to preserve collective bargaining and ensure a fair appeals process governing suspensions and terminations. The court suits brought by the unions established that DoD intended to strip employees of their rights to a fair hearing and their right to bargaining collectively contravention to DoD’s promise.

These core rights not only assure fairness for employees, but these rights are vital to a merit based career civil service instead of a politicized system. The firing and hiring process in the Department of Justice became highly politicized. NSPS would have opened up DoD to that kind of chicanery on a much bigger scale.

Boyda deserves the thanks of working men and women all over the country for her work on their behalf, from voting to make it easier to form a union to this bill forcing the DoD to back off a highly suspicious plan- she deserves our thanks, and she has them from all of us here.