Big Win for IFPTE-TVA IT Workers

Statement by Leaders of IFPTE on President Trump's Executive Order Regarding TVA

EA-IFPTE 1937 President Gay Henson (green strip outfit) with her members impacted by TVA’s initially move to outsource their jobs after meeting with President Trump

Trump Executive Order slams TVA offshoring of IT jobs

EA/IFPTE Local 1937 members traveled to Washington earlier August to meet with and inform President Trump that their jobs were slated to be privatized and ultimately off-shored by federal utility, The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The meeting coincided with the President’s signing an Executive Order aimed at holding federal agencies like TVA accountable for contracting out federal jobs to H-1B dependent companies whose intention is to offshore the work. EA, Local 1937 President/Eastern Federal Area Vice President, Gay Henson, commented after the meeting, saying that the Executive Order, “will finally force the TVA to do the right thing and abandon its misguided effort to discard hundreds of workers who have dedicated their careers to TVA and the Tennessee Valley community.

Gay Henson, President, Engineering Association (EA), IFPTE Local 1937:
“The workers here at TVA whose jobs are slated to be offshored are thankful and relieved to see the White House issue this executive order. Through street protests, at the bargaining table and in myriad other ways, our union has repeatedly tried to convince TVA management that it is wrong to export the jobs of hardworking TVA employees to offshore firms during a pandemic. The decision to send work abroad and bring replacement workers in through the use of H-1B visas is a clear violation of TVA’s mission to create jobs in the Tennessee Valley–and generate electricity. This executive order will finally force the TVA to do the right thing and abandon its misguided effort to discard hundreds of workers who have dedicated their careers to TVA and the Tennessee Valley community.”

Paul Shearon, IFPTE International President:
“IFPTE is pleased that the White House has finally heard our calls to intervene in this senseless offshoring of federal employee jobs at TVA. It is bad enough that TVA has continued to hand these jobs over to IT offshoring firms when it does not save money and all our workers meet or exceed performance expectations, but to do so during a pandemic is heartless. We’re pleased the White House weighed in on this issue but it should never have gone this far.”

Matt Biggs, Secretary-Treasurer/Legislative Director:
“IFPTE’s priority all along has been to save the jobs of these dedicated workers while making it clear that TVA should rethink its aggressive pursuit of offshoring and privatizing jobs in the future.”

Please Note:
Matt Biggs explains the history behind TVA’s decision to replace TVA tech workers with employees of firms based abroad in this guest commentary that recently appeared in The Knoxville News Sentinel.

IFPTE Letter to TVA Board of Directors

February 24, 2020

Honorable James “Skip” Thompson, Chair
Board of Directors - Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
400 West Summit Hill Drive WT7
Knoxville, TN 37902

Dear Chairman Thompson:

We are writing on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) workers represented by the Engineering Association (EA/IFPTE Local 1937) who were notified last month by the TVA that their jobs would soon be outsourced. As you can imagine, as the elected officers of the EA and IFPTE, and representing most of the 108 impacted workers, we are extremely disappointed that TVA has decided to move these IT functions not only outside of TVA itself, but possibly outside of the Tennessee Valley, or even the United States. We are further concerned that this was done with little to no transparency, and not in accordance with TVA’s own contracting decision processes.

First and foremost, it is important to emphasize that TVA’s decision to outsource IT infrastructure and software jobs flies in the face of TVA’s mission to assist state and local governments with economic development, job creation and prosperity to the Tennessee Valley. Indeed, these are jobs that are performed by residents of the Tennessee Valley. Many of these workers have been long-time, loyal employees for TVA, who not only have families who depend on them, but also take pride in serving our rate payers.

It is our understanding that TVA’s desire to re-model this IT infrastructure and software work has sent them in the direction of outsourcing these jobs to one or more managed service providers, wherein, any and all of the work would be sourced by workers from anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world. TVA is enlisting the services of several companies to provide the various services it will outsource. For example, one such company, Capgemini, is a global IT consulting and technology service company located in Paris, France. It certainly is easy to see where this work could leave the Tennessee Valley, and/or the country.

Like other federal government agencies, TVA has a process to evaluate if work should be performed in-house vs. outsourcing. TVA’s process, the Contract Decision Model (CDM), provides for the participation of the affected employees’ union. In accordance with the model, TVA’s objective is to be competitive and viable for the long term. The decision to perform the work by its own force or by contract are driven by several factors that include ensuring competitive cost, ensuring quality work & customer service, and enhancing job opportunities & career development for TVA employees. The model is meant to ensure that when contracts are used, TVA uses diverse & valley-wide business.

As required, TVA engaged together with the EA/IFPTE Local 1937 in the CDM for two portions of IT work – software development & infrastructure. However, TVA failed to complete the CDM with the EA/IFPTE Local 1937 and failed to provide the union required information - consulting & benchmarking data - used in its decision to outsource the work. Additionally, TVA did not run the model with any particular comparison options, making only a general comparison to GSA schedule 70 type contracts. No companies were compared against TVA’s IT workforce in the decision model. In addition, TVA is required to consider 3 major factors: TVA service & quality requirements; impacts to TVA employees, and; cost. TVA reports that outsourcing the work does not cost less than keeping the work in-house. Absolutely no savings were identified by outsourcing.

Also problematic is the fact that while the EA/IFPTE Local 1937 was working through the CDM with TVA, TVA signed a $15M contract with Capgemini in September 2019. When the union provided TVA an option to outsourcing which included keeping and re-engaging the existing workforce by use of the DevOps model – a model that TVA had indicated was desirable - TVA did not respond. By this time, it was mid-November 2019 and TVA refused any further discussions with the union. In short, TVA did not run the CDM with the union in good faith.

We want to make it clear that our members are more than capable of doing this work and doing it well. In fact, TVA reports that their own infrastructure support outpaces the industry benchmark. Yet, it is our understanding that TVA plans to run an additional CDM on their remaining IT work this spring, in which more pink slips can be expected for over 100 more TVA employees.

We sent a nearly identical letter to TVA CEO, Jeff Lyash, on January 29th. Unfortunately, we have not received a response to our concerns, which explains this letter to you. We ask that you share a copy of this letter with your colleagues on TVA’s Board of Directors, as this is an issue of extreme importance to the 108 impacted workers, their families, and the Tennessee Valley community.

We believe that TVA’s agenda to outsource these jobs is fiscally irresponsible, being undertaken without transparency and in violation of TVA’s own internal contracting policies, compromises the safety and security of TVA’s IT infrastructure, could lead to these jobs being sent overseas, and is contrary to TVA’s mission to bring and keep work in the Valley. For these reasons, we urge the TVA Board to step in immediately and demand transparency and answers about this outsourcing plan. In that regard, our union stands as a resource to you as you move forward.

We thank you for your consideration and stand ready to work with you and your team on this issue moving forward.

Sincerely,

Paul Shearon
President

Matthew Biggs
Secretary-Treasurer/Legislative Director

Gay Henson
Engineering Association-IFPTE Local 1937 President
IFPTE Eastern Federal Area Vice President

Cc: TVA Board of Directors