EPA Union Blasts Lisa Jackson for ‘hostility’ to employees

EPA Under Jackson – “A new Dark Age”

This is from Inside EPA, a beltway subscription service.  I don’t have a link so I have to provide the full text of the article.

Wonder why the union waited until Jackson’s last day?

Union blasts Jackson for ‘hostility’ to employees, likens her to Reagan-era administrator Burford

Jessica Estepa, E&E reporter

Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A day before her final day at U.S. EPA, a federal employees union sharply criticized the tenure of departing Administrator Lisa Jackson.

In a biting message sent Monday to Jackson and Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe that details the numerous problems unions had with her tenure, Steve Shapiro of the American Federation of Government Employees deemed Jackson’s tenure an “anti-union and anti-employee regime,” comparable to the labor fights in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.

“Not since the time of Anne Gorsuch Burford have EPA’s unions seen such hostility,” Shapiro said, referring to EPA’s administrator under President Reagan. “Some EPA regions and laboratories have done better, but at headquarters, we are in a new Dark Age.”

According to Shapiro, the executive vice president of EPA bargaining unit AFGE Local 3331, Jackson never personally addressed the union’s concerns, instead allowing others in the administration, human resources, and labor and employee relations divisions to handle responses, often with what he called “attacks.”

Additionally, he said Jackson held only one town hall meeting with employees during her tenure, unlike another former administrator, Carol Browner, who served during the Clinton administration.

The latest show of Jackson’s “effective indifference” has resulted in a lack of discussion about the potential sequester impacts on agency employees, Shapiro said.

“EPA employees are greatly concerned about what may happen under sequestration,” he wrote. “Unlike some other federal agencies, which have done a good job in partnering with the unions, all you did at EPA was have your managers give the unions a belated briefing, which some people report conveyed little useful information.”

Shapiro also used his message to urge Perciasepe, who will serve as acting administrator until a replacement is chosen, to do better than Jackson with employee relations. Union officials will likely meet with EPA top brass later today (E&ENews PM, Feb. 12).

“We can hope for better times and that you will clean house and rid [the Office of Administration and Resources Management] of its anti-union regime,” he said. “Let’s get started on making EPA headquarters the ‘best place to work’ in the federal government.”

EPA did not return a request for comment on Shapiro’s message.