Leavin' Stephen

EPA unions withdraw from cooperation agreement

Posted at 12:37 PM on 04 Mar 2008

Union local presidents representing the vast majority of U.S. EPA employees have withdrawn from a cooperation agreement with their Bush-appointed supervisors, claiming "abuses of our good nature and trust." In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the unionized workers wrote that he retaliates against whistleblowers and ignores principles of scientific integrity "whenever political direction from other federal entities or private sector interests so direct." The union leaders cited the agency's refusal, against staff recommendations, to grant California a waiver to regulate vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions, and its insufficient address of health concerns regarding mercury from power plants. An EPA spokesperson responded, presumably with a straight face, "As a 27-year career EPA scientist, the administrator values the expertise and advice of his staff and will do so through his time in leadership."

sources: Associated Press, OneWorld

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Comments: (6 comments)

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Unions for 10,000 EPA staff speak out...

And yet just six days ago the EPA Administrator testified before Congress that the denial of the California waiver application did not hurt staff morale. Was he unaware that the unions representing 10,000 EPA staff were about to disabuse him of that notion?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/ ...

Max Weintraub is the director of the Environmental Justice & Health Union

by Max Weintraub at 3:59 PM on 04 Mar 2008

Get Back To Work

The EPA "union" would do itself a service if it focused on cleaning up the environment for real, and stopped milking Superfund sites for decades.

I've got a site right outside my window -- I haven't seen it change for 7 years.

What does the EPA do about the physical earth...or is it another IPCC -- hot air and whining.

Texeme.Construct(Participant)

by jabailo at 1:57 AM on 05 Mar 2008

Superfund...

The EPA "union" would do itself a service if it focused on cleaning up the environment for real, and stopped milking Superfund sites for decades.
I've got a site right outside my window -- I haven't seen it change for 7 years.

They've been tryin' to do the work...but Johnson keeps on blocking their efforts, that's why they're backing outta the agreement.

As for the Superfund sites, they generally take a decade or longer to clean, and, unfortunately, they are at the whimsy of federal funds. It generally takes over a billion dollars to clean an average Superfund site, and unfortunately, many legilators would rather see that money go somewhere else.

And since Superfund site funding is seperate from the general funding of the EPA, they haveta rely on the federal government to decide what sites will be cleaned and what the timeframe for that will be.

by Tasermons Partner at 3:03 AM on 05 Mar 2008

WOW

The EPA has more than 10,000 Employees. Hmm, how many of them are supervisors. In the past 7 years the Bush administration has made every effort to auction the environment for neoliberal consumption. What has the bloated employee base of the EPA been doing up until now? What makes a person want to work for the EPA?

by gohuskies at 6:51 AM on 05 Mar 2008

Workers and policymakers...

What has the bloated employee base of the EPA been doing up until now? What makes a person want to work for the EPA?

Most of the people who work for the EPA are scientists and monitors, not policy makers. They supply the info. and recommendations, and the policy makers and funders decide what tod do with that info. Unfortunately, when corrupt policymakers/administrators like Johnson are in place, they'll tend to ignore or purposely misinterpret the data.

And the scientists have apparently gotten so frustrated with that they now are taking actions in protest.

by Tasermons Partner at 9:53 AM on 05 Mar 2008

Size of government...

The U.S. government has approximately 1.4 million military and two million civilian (i.e., non-military) employees. The U.S. EPA is teeny compared to the rest of the U.S. government.

Max Weintraub is the director of the Environmental Justice & Health Union

by Max Weintraub at 12:33 PM on 05 Mar 2008
[ Parent ]

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