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CWA Fights for GPO Jobs and Public’s Right to Know
Testifying before a congressional committee July 10, Bill Boarman, CWA vice president for the Printing Sector, fought successfully for hundreds of union jobs threatened by a Bush administration proposal.
The administration wants to take over the GPO’s $425 million procurement budget and the subcontracting of work to the private sector.
Boarman told the Joint Committee on Printing that such action would take work away from small union printers who likely couldn’t afford to compete in a decentralized bidding process.
Even more important, Boarman said the proposal from the federal Office of Management poses a threat to the public’s right to know by curtailing the GPO’s function of storing federal publications and online documents in regional depositories where they are accessible to the public. Decentralizing procurement — allowing government agencies to manage their own printing and photocopying — would deprive the regional depositories of many important government documents, Boarman said.
In an interview he said suppression of information is central to President George W. Bush’s homeland security program. And he pointed out to the committee that Attorney General John Ashcroft advised federal agencies in a memo that “protecting sensitive business information” is a valid defense for stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests.
“In light of the unfolding Wall Street scandals and congressional interest in ferreting out wrongdoing by corporate executives, such instructions could understandably be interpreted as a license to withhold important information. That would certainly stymie the loud demands for justice that all of us are hearing today,” Boarman said.
Public Printer Michael DiMario, head of the GPO, told the committee that the administration’s plan could save the government no more than $32.5 million, not $70 million as suggested by the OMB.
“Without those revenues, we would be forced to reduce our workforce by approximately 50 percent, or 1,500 staff,” DiMario said.
CWA members account for 400 of 2,000 union-represented employees at the GPO, Boarman said.
On July 10, the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended full funding for the GPO for fiscal year 2003 and strongly opposed the OMB plan on the grounds Boarman cited. Both the House and Senate bills order agencies to continue to contract printing through the GPO pending further studies.
The administration wants to take over the GPO’s $425 million procurement budget and the subcontracting of work to the private sector.
Boarman told the Joint Committee on Printing that such action would take work away from small union printers who likely couldn’t afford to compete in a decentralized bidding process.
Even more important, Boarman said the proposal from the federal Office of Management poses a threat to the public’s right to know by curtailing the GPO’s function of storing federal publications and online documents in regional depositories where they are accessible to the public. Decentralizing procurement — allowing government agencies to manage their own printing and photocopying — would deprive the regional depositories of many important government documents, Boarman said.
In an interview he said suppression of information is central to President George W. Bush’s homeland security program. And he pointed out to the committee that Attorney General John Ashcroft advised federal agencies in a memo that “protecting sensitive business information” is a valid defense for stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests.
“In light of the unfolding Wall Street scandals and congressional interest in ferreting out wrongdoing by corporate executives, such instructions could understandably be interpreted as a license to withhold important information. That would certainly stymie the loud demands for justice that all of us are hearing today,” Boarman said.
Public Printer Michael DiMario, head of the GPO, told the committee that the administration’s plan could save the government no more than $32.5 million, not $70 million as suggested by the OMB.
“Without those revenues, we would be forced to reduce our workforce by approximately 50 percent, or 1,500 staff,” DiMario said.
CWA members account for 400 of 2,000 union-represented employees at the GPO, Boarman said.
On July 10, the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended full funding for the GPO for fiscal year 2003 and strongly opposed the OMB plan on the grounds Boarman cited. Both the House and Senate bills order agencies to continue to contract printing through the GPO pending further studies.