What Is the Takeaway from NSPS?
Major Michael D. Mierau Jr.∗ I. Introduction Within the realm of public sector collective bargaining, there has been a substantial amount of litigation in the last several years. This is, in great part, due to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the permission from Congress to create a new personnel system within the Department of Defense (DoD). The clash between the unions and the federal government is the result of these two departments’ contention that they cannot efficiently transform their personnel systems with the constraints they perceive are imposed upon them by collective bargaining. To fully grasp the issues in contention between these forces, one must understand the definition of collective bargaining in the federal workplace. The Federal Sector Labor Management Relations Act (FSLMRA) defines collective bargaining as: the performance of the mutual obligation of the representative of an agency and the exclusive representative of employees in an
