Why Unions Don't Belong in Federal Government

1. Currently in the works are personnel reforms that will fundamentally change how the performance of government employees is measured. The DoD initiative grabbing the headlines for the last year or so is the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) which will implement, among other things, is a performance or market-based pay program. The importance of this program is that government employees will be held accountable for their actions and rewarded for good performance.
   
   Anyone who works in the private sector realizes that this is just how businesses ensure they have good workers aligned with their strategic mission. But cultural differences asside, the federal government is actually doing something good here - effectively building a worforce that has performance measures and resources available to hire good workers from the private sector to do an even better job for the federal government.
   
   This article explains the ongoing struggle with unions as the federal government implements the NSPS system across DoD. Federal (and private) unions from the AFL-CIO oppose this measure simply because it removes them from the collective bargaining power of negotiating standard raises - not based on performance (of course).
   
   Chowda