Reply #14: Have cheered all the support of union workers here on DU. [View All]

[sad sally]

If that support holds true for all union workers - both public and private - this treatment by the Executive branch of NFFE employees (federal union employees) regarding the looming shutdown seems shoddy at best. They had to file a FOIA to get information...

Federal workers fed up with lack of information about possible shutdown, Tuesday, April 5, 10:14 PM

Like a marriage showing the strain of money troubles, the relationship between federal employees and the Obama administration is fraying as the possibility of a government shutdown grows stronger.

Generally, that relationship has been a good one, despite the two-year pay federal pay freeze pushed by President Obama. But the current source of friction is less about money than about information.

With a shutdown looming, Uncle Sam had acted, at least until late Tuesday, like he could see, hear and say no evil when it came to telling the public — and federal employees in particular — what closing the government would mean for them.

“It’s getting our goat a little bit,” John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said at a morning news conference.
...
Despite all the public debate, the charges flung back and forth daily between Republicans and Democrats, and “the gravity and notoriety of this matter, nearly all Federal Executive Branch agencies have failed or refused to release their contingency plans to either the public or to federal employee unions such as AFGE,” the suit says.

The union wants agency contingency plans and “a description or list of employees or positions that would be required to work without pay in the event of a shutdown.”

The AFGE filed a Freedom of Information Act request March 2 with the OMB seeking that information, then filed suit March 30 when it was not provided. The FOIA letter also requested information on the operations that would continue during a shutdown and the employees needed to keep them going.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/politics/federal-workers-fed-up-with-lack-of-information-about-possible-shutdown/2011/04/05/AFpk27lC_story.h?du