Obama Administration To Explore Ways To Give Federal Employee Unions More Say In Agency Decisions

Unions have been dissatisfied for years with their lack of “pre-decisional involvement” in management decisions. They say that, at many agencies, decisions are already made before management comes to labor to discuss them. Labor leaders such as Bill Dougan, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, have often said that sometimes, top agency leaders commit to pre-decisional involvement, but managers in front-line offices seem to ignore those orders. “The most important topic for me is pre-decisional involvement,” Dougan said. “Where the work needs to be done, where the rubber meets the road is those labor-management forums down at those individual installations.”