Bush's Parting Shots at Workers

I found this front paged over at Dailykos:

Ah, the carnage of the the long goodbye:

WASHINGTON — President Bush issued an executive order on Monday that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security.

Mr. Bush said it would be inconsistent with "national security requirements" to allow those employees to engage in collective bargaining with respect to the conditions of their employment.

Among those affected are 5,000 employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is now part of the Justice Department.

The text of the executive order can be found here.

Because nothing ensures our national security quite like people who aren't allowed to organize for decent pay and working conditions. Seems to me these are exactly the types of employees you would want to keep off the "disgruntled worker" list.

This is most excellent, isn't it?

Not only has this administration tossed workers aside, destroyed enforcement of labor laws, reduced funding for OSHA, MSHA and fought against regulations for just about everything, here, they even take a pot shot at the employees at Energy, Transportation, Homeland Security, Treasury and of course, Justice, from the White House:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7103(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code, and in order to reflect the effects of the reorganization and restructuring of the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and the Treasury on their subdivisions exempted from coverage under the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Determinations. The subdivisions of the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and the Treasury set forth in sections 2 through 6 of this order are hereby determined to have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. It is further determined that chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, cannot be applied to these subdivisions in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.

And just what offices are affected, here are just a few:

Department of Energy:
(e) The Savannah River Operations Office.

Homeland Security:
(a) Office of the Military Advisor.

(b) The following office within the Management Directorate:

(1) Office of Security.

(c) Office of Operations Coordination.

(d) Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement.

(h) The following offices and subdivisions within United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

(1) The Office of Investigations.

(2) The Office of International Affairs.

(3) The Office of Intelligence.

(4) The National Incident Response Unit.

(i) The following office within the Transportation Security Administration:

(1) The Office of Law Enforcement/Federal Air Marshal Service.

Isn't this a most excellent list of random agencies and subdivisions?

ec. 4. Department of Justice. Executive Order 12171 of November 19, 1979, as amended, is further amended by:

(a) revising subsection (g) of section 1-209 to read as follows:

"(g) National Security Division."; and

(b) adding to the end of section 1-209 the following new subsection:

"(h) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives."

It's pretty far reaching for a list of obscure agencies. The funny thing is that at a general schedule 13 and up, most (I think all, but am not positive) postions are actually exempted positions. Which means you are unable to be represented by a union. Now, even the lower grades in this offices are excluded? Seriously? Gee it's like getting slapped in the face while someone's pissing in your mouth. At what point is enough enough?