Pearl Harbor shipyard
workers picket
More than 100 Pearl Harbor shipyard workers demonstrated yesterday morning against a bill in the U.S. Senate that opponents say will overhaul the civilian personnel system by eliminating benefits enjoyed by 16,000 federal workers here.
Wayne Wagner, president of the Hawaii Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, estimated that 2,500 unionized employees in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard will be affected by the proposal supported by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Union pickets, holding signs saying "Protect workers' rights" or "Defeat the Rumsfeld plan," lined Kamehameha Highway at the Makalapa Gate to Pearl Harbor before yesterday morning's work shift began.
Jason Holm, Navy spokesman, said "matters of compensation and benefits are determined at levels much higher than the shipyard. We will work with any decision made by higher command, and as such we neither endorse or dissuade our employees participating. We do, however, support any organization exercising its right to free speech."
Wagner said the union has written to Hawaii's four congressional members, and "they support our position."
Wagner said Rumsfeld's proposal has already passed the U.S. House and was before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs yesterday. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Rumsfeld has said the Pentagon needs to be freed from many civil service laws to organize its 746,000 civilian employees into a work force that is better prepared to meet such challenges as global terrorism.
But Wagner said the "so-called National Security Personnel Act" would eliminate veterans' hiring preferences, remove collective-bargaining rights and virtually eliminate overtime pay.
"It would also deny employees the right to appeal discriminatory actions by supervisors," Wagner said.
The union further believes Rumsfeld's proposal would waive the current requirement against hiring relatives.
Wagner said the bill will mean unionized workers would lose their guaranteed annual wage increases. Rumsfeld's proposal would permit officials to tie annual raises to performance rather than longevity in the job. Without a good performance rating, a civilian defense worker might not get an annual raise.