As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson prepares to leave the Obama administration Thursday, a federal employees union disparaged her tenure an “anti-union and anti-employee regime.”
E&E News reports that Steve Shapiro, executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3331, sent a message to Jackson on Monday that detailed the various problems that unions had with her tenure, and compared them to the labor fights that raged on in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.
According to Shapiro, Jackson never personally addressed the union’s concerns, but instead used other agency divisions to respond to the unions. Shapiro added that they often responded with “attacks.”
Likewise, Jackson had only one town hall meeting with agency employees as administrator.
“Not since the time of Anne Gorsuch Burford have EPA’s unions seen such hostility,” said Shapiro, referring to the EPA’s head under President Ronald Reagan. “Some EPA regions and laboratories have done better, but at headquarters, we are in a new Dark Age.”
“EPA employees are greatly concerned about what may happen under sequestration,” said Shapiro. “Unlike some other federal agencies, which have done a good job in partnering with the unions, all you did at EPA was have your managers give the unions a belated briefing, which some people report conveyed little useful information.”
The message was also sent to EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe to do better working with unions than Jackson did while he is acting administrator.
“We can hope for better times and that you will clean house and rid [the Office of Administration and Resources Management] of its anti-union regime,” Shapiro said. “Let’s get started on making EPA headquarters the ‘best place to work’ in the federal government.”
The EPA did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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