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Robins hosts AFMC/AFGE Council 214

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Robins was host to the Air Force Materiel Command and American Federation of Government Employees Council 214 partnership meeting this week.

A dozen AFMC and AFGE representatives met to discuss several topics, including  the Civilian Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project, council progress in Washington D.C., information on the violence-prevention initiative known as Green Dot and local partnering updates.

Including Robins, the bargaining council includes AFMC and AFGE officials representing management and employees from Edwards, Eglin, Hill, Kirtland, Tinker and Wright-Patterson Air Force bases, as well as Hurlburt Field, Duke Field and Air Force Metrology and Calibration.

Participants included Patricia Young, AFMC executive director, and Troy Tingey, AFGE Council 214 president.

AFGE membership at Robins includes about 4,000 members, led by Robert Tidwell, AFGE Local 987 president, who shared recent production successes, including fiscal 2015 being the most productive year for the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in the last five years. Tidwell also spoke of workers' compensation reductions.

He emphasized the ongoing commitment of the workforce to always strive to do better and increasing capacity for future workloads.

"There's a culture change that started here," Tidwell said. "Everyone is working together.  

"We are winning at Robins, but we're still in a constant fight with ourselves to be better, and we're going to do that with more workload," he added.

Ashley Hightower, Robins' Labor Relations Office chief, shared how ongoing training of 440 management and AFGE members has been a success in addressing workplace issues.

She also briefed how Robins identified and structured its installation-level labor meetings, highlighting its labor relations forum and labor management production council and various sub-forums.

She discussed Robins' attention to conflict resolution and its focus on pre-decisional involvement -- a formal engagement process between labor and management to tackle workforce matters before agency leaders make important decisions.

"The goal is for PDI to become an everyday discussion -- we want it ingrained in our everyday culture," said Hightower. "We're also very excited about our joint training. We used to have an 'us and them' mentality, but we realized we're here for the same mission and same overall goal."