BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dissatisfied professionals and secretaries at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's facility in Cincinnati have switched unions. Computer specialist Jim Dryer led the local out of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) this summer.
The problem was with NFFE, not EPA, he said.
Mr. Dryer, who has spent 39 years in federal service and has been with EPA since Congress and President Nixon created it almost 30 years ago -- was president of the local under NFFE.
He was unhappy with NFFE's national leadership and its financial management. Among the alternatives were the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the Teamsters and Communication Workers of America.
At his urging, members -- many of them chemists and engineers -- voted 39-1 to affiliate with NTEU.
The local is the bargaining unit for about 400 EPA employees, 22 in Edison, N.J., and the rest at the national research laboratory near the University of Cincinnati.
The bargaining unit includes virtually everyone who is not a manager or contract employee.
Mr. Dryer -- who remains president of the local -- said the New Jersey employees' headquarters is housed in Cincinnati for historic reasons.
The new affiliation reflects a national effort by NTEU, which has added about 2,000 EPA employees, most of whom are in the agency's Washington headquarters and Atlanta facilities. All were in NFFE bargaining units, NTEU attorney Mike McAuley said.
Mr. Dryer is working to bring EPA employees in other cities and other federal agencies into NTEU.
"We welcome working with either of them," E. Timothy Opelt, senior official for research at the Corryville EPA facility, said Wednesday.
He said EPA promotes labor-management partnerships and top officials meet "all of the time." He said the change should not affect that or the contract, which remains virtually unchanged. John Paolino, national director of collective bargaining for NFFE, said he assumed Mr. Dryer and his co-workers were "disgruntled" with NFFE election results.
Mr. Paolino said NFFE and NTEU cooperate in Washington and are accustomed to locals shifting affiliations.
He said NFFE has about 19,000 members and 130,000 in its bargaining units. Mr. McAuley said NTEU has 150,000 to 180,000 people in its bargaining units, including at least 97,000 members.
