Government affairs

Today, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the Federal Labor-Management Partnership Act of 2018 (S. 2340), which would formally establish a Federal Labor-Management Partnership Council, similar to the one President Obama created and President Trump disbanded back in September, 2017.

According the bill, the council would consist of: the director of the Office of Personnel Management, the deputy director for Office of Management and Budget, the chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, as well as the deputy secretaries for the remaining agencies, two members from the largest federal employee unions (the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union), and four individuals from other federal labor organizations.

By formally establishing this council, and not leaving it to the whims of executive orders, the bill encourages agency management to work more closely with labor unions by meeting once every quarter and together advise the president on labor-management relations.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are co-sponsors of the legislation. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK) introduced a companion bill (H.R. 4878) in the House.