As the potential of another BRAC looms closer, the 21st Century Partnership is calling for the management at Robins Air Force Base and the union to put aside their “personal agendas” and work towards a common goal.
“Their personal agendas are more important to them than the health of the base and the community,” said retired Maj. Gen. Bob McMahon, the president of the partnership, about what he said was a “small group of individuals” on both sides.
McMahon called the relationship between base management and the union the “No. 1 threat to Robins Air Force Base.”
“They need to understand this could adversely affect us in the next round of BRAC,” he stated.
“This isn’t a base management problem. This isn’t a union problem. This is a middle Georgia problem,” he stressed. Although he did note, “This can only be resolved by those that work and live inside the fence.”
During the meeting, a chart was shown that depicted the number of grievances and arbitrations for fiscal year 2012 and 2013 for Robins Air Force Base, Tinker AFB in Oklahoma and Hill AFB in Utah. Robins had 328 grievances compared to Tinker’s 110 and Hill’s 142 in fiscal year 2012. In fiscal year 2012, Robins had 229 arbitrations, whereas Hill had 64 and Tinker had 32. There were 204 grievances filed to date in fiscal year 2013 at Robins, Tinker had 42 and Hill had 57. Robins had 173 arbitrations, Hill had 33 and Tinker has only had five to date this fiscal year.
Although the partnership showed only two fiscal years’ numbers, McMahon told the group of community leaders that “this situation did not arise overnight.”
McMahon did offer hope during the meeting saying, “The good news is that we have time to react … only if we being to act now.”
After the meeting, Col. Mitchel Butikofer, commander 78th Air Base Wing, released this statement: “Organizations always have room for improvement and we are committed to working with our labor representatives to sustain Robins AFB as a world class provider of readiness. Our partnership with our union is vital to the success of our diverse national defense missions. Improving the lines of communication and cooperation with labor is an area where we can and must do better. We need a strong partnership based on trust and confidence. We welcome any opportunities to improve our partnership with the union so that we can continue to provide the cost-effective readiness our nation needs.
Our workforce, and the warfighters we support across the United States and around the world, deserve nothing less.”
HHJ News
