Labor-management charter signed

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The 96th Test Wing commander and the president of American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1897 signed an agreement to establish a labor-management forum.

The forum, which consists of 10 members, five from management and five from labor , was established to promote cooperation between both parties in a non-adversarial, collaborative and unique manner.

According to the charter, "the parties agree to work together as a team with a common focus." One of the primary goals is to create a high performance work environment that addresses future challenges while fostering a high quality-of-work life for employees.
Brig. Gen. David Harris, test wing commander, said he trusts his management team and union leaders to proactively identify problems and to craft solutions to better serve the missions and taxpayers.

"There's a great deal of work that goes on at Eglin Air Force Base, and all of that work is done by workers. There's management, but management doesn't work without labor and labor doesn't work well without management, it has to be a partnership," Harris said. "In order for that partnership to work, there has to be trust and communication between the union and the leadership. It's time to get this ball rolling."

AFGE Local 1897 president, Thaddeus Wallace, agreed.

"I'm really pleased; a lot of work has gone into this effort," he said. "We are finally coming to a point where management and labor can sit down and work things through pre-decisional involvement in a forum that will benefit the mission. Once we get started, we'll see a lot of improvement."

Harris and Wallace will co-chair the forum which will meet quarterly or as needed.