Purpose
The goal of the website is to provide the best information, news, links, and other content possible, with interactive features, to promote an active dialogue throughout the GAO Analyst community and encourage the development of a vibrant GAO Analyst union built upon the principles of representative democracy.
This interactive website was founded by a group of GAO analysts to help facilitate an open process for the formation of the GAO Union governing structure as soon as possible after our successful election on Wednesday, September 19, 2007.
As noted in the IFPTE-produced Sept 6, 2007 video, “The Union: All of Us Together,” there is general agreement among the GAO Analysts that the Union at GAO is “us”– that is, the Analysts of GAO. As such, we need our own website.
So we took the initiative to establish our own GAO Union website during the month prior to our successful election on September 19, 2007, so that we could “hit the ground running with our self-organizing activities” the day after the election.
We believed we should not expect IFPTE to maintain a website for us. For example, the CRS Union, the CRS Employee Association (CREA), website is owned by CREA, not IFPTE (see crea website domain ownership.pdf). The gaoanalysts.org website was purchased by and is owned by IFPTE (see gaoanalysts website domain ownership.pdf).
Originally, the founders of this site wanted to transfer ownership and control of this GAO Union website to the Interim GAO Governing Group (Interim Council) as soon as it was elected and established. In the meantime, we planned to administer this interactive website as openly and as fairly as possible.
Subsequestly, after the union election, a vocal faction involved in the new union organizing expressed opposition to making http://gaounion.net the official website of the union, preferring to rely on the IFPTE owned and administered site at www.gaoanalysts.org. Moreover, this faction does not want the official union website to have a capability for readers to post comments or engage in blog discussions. Therefore, the founders of this site decided to continue maintaining this website in order to
- offer an alternate source of information, news, and links for GAO staff;
- provide a space (an electronic “coffee shop”) where individuals are able to post their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions;
- nurture the development of a vital public sphere in GAO, with wide-ranging discussions, debates, and other forms of deliberative democracy across the agency and throughout the GAO Analyst population (the union “bargaining unit”).
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to send us your comments (to the website Founders listed below).
Eugene Beye (IAT)
Patricia Farrell Donahue (SI)
Ethan Iczkovitz (IT)/PDP
Robert Kershaw (IT)
Henry Sutanto (IT)
Jonathan Tumin (HSJ)
Daniel Wexler (IT)
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WHY GAO ANALYSTS WANTED AND VOTED FOR A UNION
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GAO Analysts Perform the Basic Work of the Agency and Deserve to Be Full and Equal Partners with GAO Management
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GAO Analysts conduct the audits, investigations, research, and analyses of the agency, and they summarize the results of their work in GAO’s reports, testimony, consultations, and other services for the Congress, federal agencies, and the American public. Therefore, GAO Analysts are the foundation of GAO’s mission performance and success as an agency. The effectiveness of GAO — the Watchdog of the Congress — is directly related to the capabilities (unique expertise, talents, gifts, knowledge, experience, skills, and competencies) and the willingness (dedication, commitment, teamwork, collegiality, morale, and esprit de corps) of GAO Analysts to contribute to GAO’s important mission. Therefore all GAO processes, systems, structures, and people should be aligned to nurture, empower, and unify staff capabilities and willingness to contribute to GAO’s mission and to culivate the development of strong personal working relationships with our clients, customers, and each other.GAO works best when Analysts and other employees are treated fairly and with respect by Management, and when the basic human dignity of each individual at GAO, no matter what their rank, is respected and affirmed. GAO — like any human enterprise — thrives when the people in the organization are fully engaged and supported in their work and are encouraged to excel, support each other, and contribute to the organization’s success.
To help realize such goals, during a courageous 20-month campaign, GAO Analysts systematically and diligently self-organized themselves; gathered the necessary signatures to petition their Personnel Appeals Board to hold a union election; and on September, 19, 2007, with a turnout of 74% of eligible voters, overwhelmingly approved–by a 67% to 33% margin–the idea of “banding together” in the first Union in the agency’s 86-year history.
By this decisive political action, the 1800 rank and file Analysts of GAO signaled–in the stongest way possible–that they expect and will demand to be full and equal partners with GAO Management. Though their new union, GAO Analysts expect to be welcomed by their Management in shaping the current and future direction of their agency, and negotioning the terms and conditions of their employment. This will enable the rank and file analysts to exercise a much stronger role than they have had in the past to improve their agency, and help make GAO a better and more rewarding place in which to work and contribute to the Congress and the goal of more economical, efficient, and effective government.
Robert Kershaw, GAO Union Organizer, Founder of http://gaounion.net, & IT Representative to the Union Interim Council
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See below for other reasons for forming a union at GAO
WHY GAO ANALYSTS NEED A UNION? (from IFPTE’s website: www.gaoanalysts.org)
1. GAO Analysts Deserve the Protection of a Binding Employment Contract
2: GAO Analysts Need a Voice in Congress on Pay, Benefit and Retirement Issues
3: GAO Analysts Need Access to Qualified Legal Representatives
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