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Union Position Paper on RSA Staff Cuts and May 26, 2005 Rally
May 20, 2005

POSITION PAPER ON RSA STAFF CUTS National Council 252 of Education Locals American Federation of Government Employees (AFL/CIO)

Most people know that Unions protect jobs of our workers. Few persons know, however, that Unions also have an abiding belief in protecting human rights to ensure that the playing field to access jobs is leveled so that all potential workers are on a more equal footing to compete for positions in the new global economy.

Our planned May 26 information/demonstration rally takes place this week. The National Council 252 of Education Locals of the American Federation of Government Employees' involvement in this rally goes beyond the protection of our federal Rehabilitation Services Administration's (RSA) regional office workers' jobs. Our Union's involvement in this week's rally is for the much broader issue of fighting for the human rights of all individuals with disabilities to have equal access to jobs in the world of work. Not participating in this rally was never an option for this Union. And for this reason we have co-sponsored the May 26th rally.

I want to thank the National Federation of the Blind for having planned the rally. I also want to thank the thirty-one (31) organizations "co-sponsoring" the event, and, among them my brothers and sisters represented by the National Council 252 of Education Locals of the American Federation of Government Employees affiliated with the AFL/CIO.

Thirty-one organizations are sending their members from all corners of this nation to gather on the front porch of the Department of Education. So many, coming from so far, to attend the information/demonstration rally testifies to the broad level of support for preserving human rights for individuals with disabilities.

We stand at a historic juncture in the disability rights movement, a critical crossroad we have come to where we are calling for a bipartisan legislative effort, working together, to not let a few powerful and misguided individuals take action to tear down the basic foundation that all of us have work a generation to set up for the delivery of quality rehabilitation services for people with disabilities.

The good Secretary of the Department of Education has given us no alternative to avoid urging our Union members, bargaining unit employees and our brothers and sisters from other Union locals from participating in the May 26 rally. And she still leaves us with few choices in how to respond to the Department's proposal to abolish the RSA regional offices.

The decision to gut the RSA was made by a few individuals in isolation. It was a cheap, offensive stunt that may have garnered initially political favor; but the lingering reality is that their decision will leave a permanent legacy that cannot be overlooked or dismissed as nothing less than a horrendous act that is both unsympathetic and dismissive of the needs of people with disabilities.

The decision by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) to puncture the very heart of the RSA operations by gutting half its staffs and by eliminating its ten regional offices was made without consultation and input from the Union, from the disability community, nor from individual consumers or the consumer organizations that represent them. The decision was a personal fixation by a few powerful and misguided individuals. Decisions to restructure an organization need analysis, and the OSERS' senior management had no real interest in complicated analysis; their goal from the start was to get rid of regional offices. To them they already knew the answers; it was received wisdom.

Government bureaucrats working in isolation are not the repositories of wisdom. The genius instead, lies with the consumers of government programs and the providers on the front lines delivering the services of those programs. By the time the OSERS' senior management meets with the Union, RSA regional staffs and consumer groups, the effort is largely a "nonevent."

In his first teleconference with RSA employees, the Assistant Secretary of the OSERS gave proposed Department budget cuts as the reason for doing away with the RSA staffs and regional offices. The Union's response was that there were other prudent measures for reducing overhead then solely, by cutting staffs. The Union assumes a concomitant responsibility to help the OSERS get the job done with the highest cost savings, but with whatever is needed to protect our workers and to protect the quality of rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities.

The OSERS' approach to cost savings using "body counts" is as wrong as the government's approach to using body counts in trying to win a losing cause in the Vietnam War. General Pete Pace shuddered at the recollection of the time 35 years ago when Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and the generals thought they were winning if the kill ratio of North Vietnamese to U.S. was high enough. In his illustrious recent response to that embarrassing moment in the history of our country the General retorted, "The purpose should not have been to go kill X number of people, the purpose should have been to remove a regime. If you could do that without killing anybody, you win. If you have 1,000 people killed and you haven't done anything to replace the regime, you lose. So numbers don't count."

OSERS' senior management has limited their cost cutting measures solely to numbers, "body counts," not to reaching cost savings targeted to "enhanced program efficiency." If they had taken this sensible approach then they would have recognized that external and internal audits show that the strength of the RSA program lies in its regional office field operations. The Union has maintained that the cost savings are there without gutting the very heart of the RSA operations, regional office staffs.

The Department's proposed dismantling of the Rehabilitation Services Administration by abolishing all regional offices and cutting the RSA staffs in half most surely will affect negatively the delivery of quality rehabilitation services through the service delivery networks.

Downgrading the Commissioner of the RSA (a presidential appointee confirmed by the U.S. Senate) to a "director" of the RSA is a 180-degree reversal from the continued call for an increased profile of that position in the Department.

By promoting the WIA Plus super waiver authority, this administration is opening the door wide for state politicians strapped with high deficits to raid and plunder federal funding of the VR program.

Consolidating all job placements under One-Stop Centers that lack the vocational rehabilitation knowledge to decide overall and specialized service needs of persons with disabilities, will leave many individuals with disabilities "behind," when it comes to job placement into the world of work. And this is happening at a time when there is an explosion of globalization with the flattening of the world of work to that of a global economy, where ever-increasing-competition for jobs are placing demands on workers and on their political systems faster than they can adjust to in a stable manner.

Never in the history of the federal vocational rehabilitation program have we witnessed an administration so insensitive to the needs of our handicapped population. The flawed OSERS' management decision is a self-inflicted wound making this administration look callous and small-minded, offending deeply and profoundly the very consumers served by the federal agency.

The choice to be made by this Union is momentous. Do we allow a few powerful and misguided individuals, whose sole mission is to advance their narrow ideological agenda, to fuel the fires of overheated polarization of a society that will alienate its good citizens with disabilities? If so, then most assuredly, this administration will pay a political price in the next elections. A highly publicized figure is that this administration's 3 percentage-point popular vote margin was the smallest margin of any incumbent president ever to win reelection. Perhaps not so well known are the figures of an estimated 54 million individuals with disabilities in the United States, roughly 20 percent of the population. Nearly half of these individuals have significant or multiple disabilities. These numbers and percentages say clearly and loudly, that people with disabilities are not a marginal force in American politics that can be dismissed easily or quietly.

The choice to be made by this Union is momentous. If you believe that government programs should be accountable to the people, not the people to the bureaucrats who run them; if you believe that government programs should promote equality of opportunity for all, not for the chosen; ... and if you believe that government programs for people with disabilities should include the interests of individuals with disabilities, not left to the captive partial interests of a few; then you understand that the diversity of people with disabilities participating fully in the restructuring of their tax supported program is a source of strength, not a sign of weakness.

This flawed OSERS management decision to dismantle the RSA will create a social earthquake for people with disabilities. If the proposed organizational restructuring is carried out, we will lose the talent and leadership of our next generation of people with disabilities whom our society needs for competing in a global economy.

The decision by the Department of Education to dismantle the RSA is real, painful and pervasive and for those of us who understand fully the effect of this flawed OSERS' management decision, the administration will create a serious perception problem. All people with disabilities see the decision as hostile to their hopes and aspirations. We face the risk of a society of alienation and unhappiness of a group of individuals with disabilities who no longer can believe in the American Dream. By its proposed actions this administration will relegate individuals with disabilities to a second class citizenship, leaving many of them further behind in their continued struggle to participate freely for access to all jobs in our society.

The choice we are left with today is for a nation of consumers with disabilities and their advocates to take back their program to guarantee a future in which people with disabilities can be competitive in their quest for jobs in a global economy.

We must educate members of Congress and the public to take immediate and responsive action to stop the dismantling of the RSA.

I urge all our Union members to attend this peaceful information/demonstration rally May 26. Every one of us can feel privileged knowing that we work in a great federal department, gracious to our Employer to hear us out in a composed and dignified manner, but absolute in our demand.

It will be necessary for you to take annual leave for the period that you are away from your "duty status." I have instructed Education Local Presidents to meet with bargaining unit employees in their respective Union locals to give guidance and counsel on the proper procedures for you to follow to attend the rally. Do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of further assistance. I hope to see you May 26.

Jerry Doyle
Executive Vice President
National Council 252 of Education Locals
American Federation of Government Employees
U.S. Department of Education

Covered copy to:
Union Officers
Union members
RSA Regional Employees
Rally Co-Sponsors

Rally at Department of Education: May 26, 2005

RALLY SPONSOR: National Federation of the Blind (NFB);

RALLY COSPONSORS
Email:
1. AIM Independent Living Center New York (AIM CIL-NY);
2. American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD);
3. American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB);
4. American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR);
5. American Council of the Blind (ACB);
6. American Rehab ACTion Network (ARAN);
7. ARC of DC;
8. Art Education for the Blind (AEB);
9. Center for Disability Law & Policy, The (CDLP);
10. Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indians of Alaska;
11. Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, The (CRCC);
12. Consortia of Administrators for Native American Rehabilitation(CANAR);
13.Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation(CSAVR);
14. Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Behavioral Health Care in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey;
15. DC Center for Independent Living, The (DC CIL);
16. District of Columbia Statewide Independent Living Council, The (DC SILC);
17. Helen Keller National Center, The (HKNC);
18. Independent Living Support Foundation of DC (ILSF);
19. National Alliance of Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers in Vocational Rehabilitation (NAMSFVR);
20. National Association of Blind Rehabilitation Professionals(NABRP);
21. National Association of the Deaf (NAD);
22. National Association for Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS);
23. National Coalition on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB);
24. National Council 252 of Education Locals of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO;
25. National Council of State Agencies for the Blind (NCSAB);
26. National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE);
27. National Rehabilitation Association (NRA);
28. New Jersey Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association;
29. Oregon Rehab ACTion Network (ORAN);
30. Parents of Blind Children-New Jersey (POBC-NJ);
31. Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 668;
32. University of Kentucky Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Counseling;
33. UK Rehabilitation Counseling Student Association, University of Kentucky;
34. Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL);

Dear Colleagues:

THE HOTEL: Holiday Inn Capitol: 550 C Street, Southwest, Washington, DC 20024

THE RALLY SITE: In front of the Department of Education (north side), 400 Maryland Avenue, Southwest, Washington, DC 20202

ARRIVAL: Buses and vans can be unloaded in front of the hotel or at the rally site.

PARKING: Large vans and buses can be parked at Union Station. See attachment: Directions between hotel and Union Station. Vehicles under 66 can park in the Holiday Inn parking garage entrance on 6th Street Southwest (maximum fee $15).

RALLY MARSHALS: We will designate rally marshals to give directions and be of assistance. They will be wearing National Federation of the Blind badges.

SCHEDULE:

9:30 a.m.: Go to the Discovery Room in the hotel. Signs will be distributed to participants, along with rally information. Next, proceed straight to the rally. Rally marshals will direct the traffic.

10:30 a.m.: Rally begins. Proceed with chants, songs, and sign waving.

Noon: Rally program begins. We prepared a large banner which lists the cosponsors to hang behind the stage.

DURING THE RALLY:

BACK HOME:

For those in your organization who cannot come to the rally, here are some things they can do at home to be helpful. Please urge your members at home to do any or all of these actions.

Email (or Fax: (202) 401-0596) a personal letter to Margaret Spellings; with a copy to Christina Wilson; or call her office at (202) 401-3000. Each person should email or fax a copy of this letter to his or her elected representatives in Congress.

Contact the local press and get an article in the newspaper or on television or radio. The local NFB in Hawaii got an article printed already and now can work on a follow-up article getting printed during or just after the rally.

Write a letter to the editor or an opinion piece and get it published in the local press.

Go to local political forums and press conferences. In Florida, a local group of the NFB went to a press conference Secretary Spellings held and they asked some pertinent questions.

Write and sign a petition to be emailed or faxed to Secretary Spellings. In Maryland, a local organization wrote a petition that was signed by all 500 members.

Hold your own press conference, and pass out Press Kits to educate the reporters on the issue.

This rally will be held rain or shine.

See you there!
Joanne Wilson
National Federation of the Blind

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