Niyamath Parveez

It is very common for trade unions to get involved when a company or organization tries to introduce a number of outsourcing measures to reduce the number of employees at a firm. Reducing employee numbers is an excellent way to lower the labor costs, one of the highest factors for a firm to consider. Being able to remove this cost from the running of a business brings a great deal of benefits to the company that manages to do so but the down side is fairly evident for the staff employed. Given the current economic downturn, losing a job can be extremely harsh and staff members and trade unions are keen to fight against this happening.

The sad thing, it is quite common for the trade union to have very little impact or influence on these decisions and it almost seems like it is pointless for these bodies to exist in the modern era. However, every so often, a positive result is obtained which gives everyone hope that the day of the trade union still has some life left in it. America may not be the best place to look for to see a sign of life when it comes to trade unions defeating outsourcing measures but this is exactly what has happened.

The word of a Government watchdog is always very important and they have made the recommendation to the Defense Department that their recent decision to outsource is perhaps not entirely lawful. The plan was to ship 400 jobs to an outsource supplier but it was found there was a serious flaw in the judging criteria used in the vetting and tendering process. Any complaint of this matter is quite serious and obviously there was a lot of time spent on viewing the overall process.

The American Federation of Government employees made the complaint which has been upheld but some people believe that the complaint was made by a body that was too close to the decision. The American Federation of Government is the trade union group that represents the employees who would lose their job if the decision was verified. That may seem as though they have a vested interest but a trade union has a duty to work for their members and the level of fight on show will no doubt give hope to everyone that these bodies still have teeth.

The key reason for the dubiety and doubt in the tender of the original winning party came about because of the extremely low level of retirement benefit that was factored in the total cost. There were also doubts about the supply costs factored in and similar questions over the efficiency assumption levels. If other tenders made the same mistakes or errors in their bids, it may have allowed their bids to have appeared more attractive so the fact that the American Federation of Government employees felt it was necessary to make this complaint is not as unfair as even the most ardent critic of trade unions may have previously thought.