IS THIS A PLOY? IS OBAMA 'LOSING' UNION SUPPORT? OR, IS HE 'USING' UNIONS AS A SMOKESCREEN?

Union blasts secretive Obama administration over looming shutdown

By Jim McElhatton

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The Washington Times

8:12 p.m., Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Weeks after President Obama took office, John Gage, the head of the largest union for federal workers in the country, gave a speech hailing the new administration as a champion for “transparency, accountability and good government.”
But in a sharply worded federal lawsuit filed last week, that same union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), accused the Obama administration of keeping important government records secret.

Representing more than a half-million federal workers, the union sued the White House budget office and its director, Jacob J. Lew, in U.S. District Court in Washington over what it called the office’s “unlawful” failure to respond to an expedited Freedom of Information Act request.
The union filed the information request last month because it wants the Office of Management and Budget to turn over contingency plans on how federal agencies will handle a potential government shutdown, including a list of all federal employees who will continue to report to work “to protect life and property.”
AFGE officials also want to know about any guidance from the OMB regarding when federal agencies should implement shutdown plans and how they should do so.
“It’s not something that should be cavalierly handled,” Mr. Gage said. “If a shutdown goes on, there will be federal employees who are going to be hurt financially. They should know before the eve of a shutdown what is happening, and it should be done orderly and not in a last-minute rush.”
Asked about the lawsuit, an OMB spokeswoman Tuesday said the administration has taken unprecedented steps to improve government transparency and “shutdown planning is no exception.”
“We still believe there is an opportunity to avoid a costly government shutdown, which would cause undue harm to the lives of federal employees, the services millions of Americans rely on and the economic recovery,” spokeswoman Meg Reilly said.
“Plans for shutdown operations, which are governed by the law, remain in development and are pre-decisional at this time. When plans are finalized and reviewed for sensitive information, we will work with agencies to provide it to the public.”
In its request for shutdown plans, the union asked OMB for expedited processing, citing an urgent need for the information.
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