This week saw a realization of the best guesses of last week.  The omnibus appropriations bill was not passed by unanimous consent as the Republican leadership had hoped.  The bill is opposed by many on both sides.  Fiscal hawks oppose it for its great heaping of pork and special set asides for pet projects (most of which appeared after a shady conference process if that doesn’t sound too eerily familiar). Then there are the provisions for contracting/privatization, overtime redefining and others which all flew in the face of what the House and Senate originally voted for, and which magically appeared after conference (second verse, same as the first … once again the will of congress is hijacked by a few in the leadership under white house pressure)  In order to limit effective opposition (the objectionable material is contained in single agency appropriations acts) all of these appropriations acts have been lumped together so that what you have now is about four fifths of government appropriations all in one giant omnibus.

So now we have a grand game of Potomac blackmail in play.  Since the bill is so large and contains so many essential provisions, those who hold up the bill over objections to a mere 1% or less are painted as obstructionist and unreasonable.  In a beautiful spin with a twist, the very people who irresponsibly changed the intent of Congress and also packed pork into this legislation are now threatening to paint others as irresponsible for objecting to it and holding up this “important and necessary” legislation.  Ya’ gotta love it.  As I mentioned last week, provisions in this omnibus weaken the protections of fair representation in contracting competition as well as removing most requirements to demonstrate that a job function would be better off if done in the private sector.  Also we are concerned with the revisions to overtime eligibility.

And that overtime issue will segue nicely into a very important subject.  If the new guidelines for overtime eligibility remain in this legislation we would not qualify for overtime pay due to the size of our salary.  The operational impact of that aside, we would have to hope the Dept. of Transportation does not adopt these provisions for the federal sector (it’s not mandatory but look at the lay of the land in the Government right now.)  Barring that, our CBA (which covers the issue) would protect our current overtime situation and that my friend is where the worry is.   We just extended our contract for another two years which, in and of itself, is an accomplishment.  But what happens when that time runs out?  I think it is pretty much apparent that all aspects of the CBA will be on the table.  This overtime issue and many other hugely important things will be potentially under attack and our ability to bargain effectively (remember it took White House intervention last time just to make the FAA bargain) will be greatly influenced by the political landscape at that time.  Keep that in mind in November.  Make sure you are well aware of the candidate’s position and records on labor issues and other points of interest to our organization and profession.  If you don’t, please don’t complain to me or NATCA about wholesale changes to this line of work and the impact to the service it provides.