| 1: GAO Analysts Deserve the Protection of a Binding Employment Contract |
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GAO employees have few of the employment rights granted by law to other federal employees — except the right to organize and bargain collectively. |
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Once GAO employees form a Union, they will have the right to negotiate a binding contract with GAO including policies and procedures for pay and promotion, leave, hours of work, health and safety, training, transfers, details, reductions in force, and other terms and conditions. |
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Once GAO employees have a Union, GAO can no longer unilaterally change terms and conditions of employment. For example, GAO could not change the pay and promotion system, reorganize or lay off employees, or close an office without first giving notice and an opportunity to bargain to the Union. |
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A contract would include a grievance and arbitration procedure allowing employees to enforce their contract rights and challenge arbitrary and unfair management practices. Employees would be entitled to Union representation and time on the job to exercise these rights. Arbitration cases would be decided by a neutral third party, who is completely independent of GAO, i.e. not a GAO employee. |
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Once GAO has a Union, GAO will have a legal obligation to provide the Union with documents, data and information necessary to conduct collective bargaining and represent employee rights. The Union will also have the right to survey employee opinion and issue reports that meet GAO standards for accuracy, reliability, and objectivity. |
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The EAC is not a Union, and has no legal power to represent employees or hold GAO accountable. The EAC has been repeatedly denied critical information about GAO processes and outcomes by the CG. The EAC has no power to get data and no right to survey employee opinion. Indeed the CG describes the EAC as “purely advisory”. |
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| 2: GAO Analysts Need a Voice in Congress on Pay, Benefit and Retirement Issues |
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GAO employees must actively seek Congressional support to maintain adequate funding and support for employee pay, benefits, and retirement, as well as the critical GAO mission. We cannot simply rely upon the CG to represent our concerns. Other Federal employees have understood this for decades. At agencies such as DoD, SSA, NASA and Treasury, Federal Unions make a difference every day. It is time for Analysts to follow their example. CRS, GAO's sister agency, has had a union for decades. Learn more about the CRS Employees' union. |
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GAO employees need their own voice to hold management accountable for promises made—and broken—such as the CG’s written and oral testimony delivered under oath to Congress that he would he would give all satisfactory performers at GAO annual pay increases that at least protected them against inflation when he asked Congress’s approval for his proposed "human capital reform" legislation.
A union will hold management to its word that no GAO employee be denied their COLA. |
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| 3: GAO Analysts Need Access to Qualified Legal Representatives |
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The Union will provide access to trained legal professionals to help GAO employees protect their employment rights, before administrative and court tribunals. The union will hold management to its promise to not tolerate discrimination in any form, and demand that managers who discriminate will be held accountable by management |
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