The Southeast regional offices of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of
Labor Statistics were picketed on Wednesday by 81 employees who work for Office Resources Inc. (ORI), a contractor
at the Atlanta offices of BLS.
The group was joined by Charlie Flemming, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO.
The group was joined by Charlie Flemming, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO.
An online video of the protest is available here.
The ORI workers are fighting for their first union contract after joining the International Association of Machinists last year.
BLS contracts out part of its collection activities
including telephone collection for their Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
(JOLTS) and the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey that produces national employment information.
The BLS Southeast Region handles data collection for a
number of statistical surveys, including the Consumer Price Index, most of
which are collected by federal employees led by long-time Regional Commissioner
Janet Rankin.
While BLS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor,
it has traditionally kept its distance from other USDOL agencies and tried to
avoid controversial and political issues.
The agency describes itself as “the principal
fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor
economics and statistics.”
The BLS mission “is to collect, analyze, and disseminate
essential economic information to support public and private decision-making.
As an independent statistical agency, BLS serves its diverse user communities
by providing products and services that are objective, timely, accurate, and
relevant.”
The BLS Director for Public Affairs was unavailable for
comment.
