Delay Sought in Closure of Dover Passport Center; 300 Jobs at Stake
PASSPORT
New Hampshire Union Leader
Jillian Jorgensen
Boston University Washington News Service
Feb. 25
WASHINGTON—Three members of Congress from New Hampshire petitioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday to delay closing the National Passport Information Center in Dover because of a complaint of misconduct in awarding a contract that would move 300 jobs out of the state.
“I think it’s important, given the dispute and the importance of the work that the center does, for there to be a delay in the closing of the center,” said U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H.
In a letter to Clinton, Hodes joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in asking the State Department to hold off on termination of 300 employees at the center that handles questions about U.S. passports, which are administered by the department.
“I think it’s great. I mean, anything that can help the workers there,” said Kevin James, an attorney with the Communications Workers of America, which represents the workers. “They’ve been through so much. This has got to be terrifying for them, to be without a job in this environment.”
The passport center had been under contract with AT&T, but that contract expired last year. A new contract was awarded to Peckham Industries, which plans to shut down the center on Friday and move operations to Arizona, where it says it will employ disabled workers. James drafted the union’s complaint to the State Department, asking that the contract be investigated for conflicts of interest, violations of the Service Contract Act and bad faith toward the union during negotiations.
“I want to make sure that the merits of this are fairly heard, and if the merits of this complaint are found to be true … we have a chance to save these jobs,” Hodes said.
The union and AT&T were involved in “hard bargaining” last year for a contract when, James said, AT&T told workers, “If you make this hard for us, we’re going to give the contract to a company that employs disabled workers.”
In a statement, Walt Sharp, an AT&T spokesman, said: “There have been many confusing claims made regarding the Dover contract. This is in the hands of the State Department and we will look to them to resolve it.”
The department’s press office did not respond to requests for comment.
A contract between the workers and AT&T was negotiated near the end of 2008, James said, but on Dec. 1, the State Department awarded a new contract to Peckham Industries.
The workers’ contract is “just a piece of paper now,” he said. “The whole pretext of doing it under the guise of giving the job to disabled workers, it’s just horrendous.”
A clause in the Service Contract Act calls for a successor contractor to honor the bargaining agreement of a previous contract, but only if operations stay in the same plant.
“There’s an incentive to take the jobs out of New Hampshire and go down to Arizona,” James said.
James is also concerned about the relationships between AT&T, Peckham Industries and the State Department. In an annual report from 2006, Peckham Industries states it filled 240 jobs for AT&T and the State Department, James said.
“There was some kind of relationship with Peckham Industries when this threat was made,” he said.
According to the union’s complaint, the Service Contract Act required AT&T to file a conformance request to determine the wages of their employees within a month of its getting the State Department contract in 2006. AT&T, the union said, filed the request last July, but the State Department did not send it to the Department of Labor until late December, more than two years late.
“It’s just a cozy relationship with the Department of State,” James said.
Shea-Porter said the State Department wanted to work with a company that would place workers in programs that employ blind or severely disabled workers. Peckham Industries will do that, she said, but it will subcontract 40 percent of the jobs to Vangent, a recruitment and job assessment company.
Shea-Porter, who met in her office with State Department officials this month, asked if Peckham Industries would monitor Vangent for compliance and was told it would not.
“There is no disability requirement [for] the subcontractor,” she said. “I fully support the concept and I understand the good intentions, but if you’re not sure if you’re complying– and certainly we have people in our state who are disabled and would make terrific workers and we have terrific workers right now–it just doesn’t make any sense to do this.”
“We’ve got to fight for every job now,” she said.
Hodes said he met with the passport office employees several months ago.
“It’s very important that we keep every job we can in New Hampshire,” Hodes said. “I was very concerned and remain very concerned about the loss of jobs and the impact on families that closing the center has.”
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