Posted on 06/09/2009 6:07:02 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
6/8/2009 - VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFNS) -- Vance Air Force Base civilian employees went on strike at 12:01 a.m. June 8 after a collective bargaining agreement expired between CSC Applied Technologies LLC and its three sub-contractors -- PRI/DJI, DenMar and M1 Support Service -- and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 898.
Normal flying operations at Vance AFB have been temporarily suspended and the base is currently assessing the mission impact of the strike.
Vance AFB is a joint specialized undergraduate pilot training base. Base officials train more than 400 Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and allied student pilots annually for worldwide deployment. Base officials train pilots in the T-1 Jayhawk, T-6A Texan II and T-38 Talon.
"The (71st Flying Training Wing's) response to the strike is driven by several factors," said Col. Richard Murphy, the acting 71st FTW commander. "One is the concern for the well-being of our personnel, and the families who live on base. For example, while the strike continues, Air Force augmentees from Columbus AFB, Miss.; Altus AFB, Okla.; and Luke AFB, Ariz.; have been brought in to ensure that we have a fire department staffed to respond to emergencies on base. We also have security forces augmentees from this base activated to ensure the safety of base personnel and property."
Vance AFB officials coordinated inbound and outbound traffic to ensure neutral parties can continue to enter and exit the base freely, and to comply with applicable regulations and command instructions.
Base officials said they look forward to the resolution of these negotiations, but remain impartial during the strike.
Well, they are certainly saving money now by using contractors, aren’t they?
They should all be shot for treason.
Located at Enid, Oklahoma.
Sounds like the USAF needs a clause like the aircraft controllers...strike and you no longer have a job.
Fiat motors to take over and share the operation with the Unions.
Women and children hurt most.
Penske buys Vance
Pick a headline.
Your ‘leaner’ AF at work. They shouldn’t be suprised when they dump those afsc’s to civilians and the civilians strike.
The article is confusing. It is currently illegal for Civil Service members to strike. The last time a local employee tried to organize even a pay protest she was hauled off by the FBI. So I assume that it is contract workers who are striking. But they would have to strike the contracting company. I’m pretty sure they have “no strike” clauses too. What gives?
The contractors screwed up and hired Union workers.
Among other things, Union workers tend to strike if they disagree with pay or working conditions.
IOW, if they were military, they would have no choice but to suck it up. These cats have the choice, and they used it.
Slowing student training is not going to stop the world or the war(s).
What IS interesting (from the story) it seems the entire base function set was contracted out. And since it is a training base, not a warfighting base, that sorta makes sense.
Wonder how big those (A76) savings are now?
Do unto them as Ronald Reagan did to the air traffic controllers. They can easily be replaced.
That has not been my experience. There's good and bad in the bunch.
The military should be just that...military.
There's a mix of them too. Just go look at the military folks your average MPF (personnel) or Finance office if you want to see the higher concentration of lazy, stupid and arrogant.
Only have to shot one. The balance will fall in line quickly.
But, contrary to popular belief, you can fire civil service. If you don’t like the contractor, you’re stuck with them for the period of the contract. They’re paid up front. If you don’t like them, the worst that you can do to them is kick them off base.
I agree that active military should be the maintainers. Most of the civilian shop types that I’ve dealt with are less than impressive, I’d say 1 or 2 out of ten deserve to be there.
The “dollar savings” from hiring contractors is a total scam. It actually costs more to hire contractors. Contractor pay comes from a different pot of money that has more $$ available, that’s why DoD organizations have been on such a kick to run off civil service and bring on contractors. Civil service pay is $25-30/hr per man, hiring a contractor is >$200/hr per man, the math isn’t hard (that’s not what the contract worker gets in his paycheck, it’s what the company gets).
Civil service people can be a serious pain in the butt, but people are kidding themselves if they think contractors are any better. When you contract, you have to pay them up front and think of everything up front. If something changes, you can have your civil service guys turn-to and get it done. The contractor will just tell you “Pound sand, it’s not in the contract”, and you’ll have to renegotiate that contract before they’ll lift a finger, they don’t give a fat crap about your Mission Capable Rate. I’ve seen millions doled out to contractors that couldn’t or wouldn’t do the work and nothing was done because Legal decided the cost of litigating wasn’t worth what could be recouped.
I’m not saying civil service is wonderful, I’m just saying that I’ve seen every bit as bad from contractors. Don’t even get me started on Northrop-Grumman and Boeing....
There are crooks with FedGov contracts - and look for the politician in the woodpile on those....
The FedGov is the crummiest customer you could have - internecine battles, petty power struggles and dealing with just plain stooopid folks is the contractors lot.
If the contractor won't react, blame the toad that wrote the contract. The ones I had the QAE duties on (worth 100s of millions) - the contractor was very responsive and the burden rate was just 61% to a high of 84%.
Hardley the $200/hr. One of the contractors I monitored made a point of hiring ex or retired GIs, talk about vet friendly./// The biggest worry is you get stuck a lowball bid and the contractor folds his tent over the weekend and vanishes. Quite the mess to clean up.
When you see burden rates of 4, 5, or 600% - look for the politician in the woodwork. I'm out of the contracted labor biz, completed my last FedGov gig and will never go back. I just don't have the patience anymore.
I definitely agree with you. The best companies were the medium-size guys who had hired ex-gov engineers who were prior military.
The big Boeing/Lockheed/etc. can be unpredictable. They have pockets of greybeards that have been around for 100 years, have incredible knowledge, and are great guys to work with. In other areas, they’re impossible to work with. It’s weird.
I ran across a few folks that had an incredible sense of entitlement or thought they were doing me a favor to show up and work.
My solution was to call in the lead (or contractor rep), contracting officer and ‘go over’ the contract requirements, esp the damages part.....
I never had to actually ban anyone from the work area, as a last resort it works but can make life pretty rough for you - at least for a while...
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