From: James L.Howard, Lead Facilitator AASG

To: Forest Service Employee’s

Subject: Underrepresentation of African American Employee’s in the Forest Service

Since the Blacks in Government (BIG) Conference which was held the first week of August I have been busy trying to do my job as a Forest Service (FS) employee. Therefore I haven’t had the time to do much as Lead Facilitator as directed by the charter of AASG. Although I haven’t had the time to do much AASG business since the BIG Conference, I have thought a lot about our underrepresentation issue over this time and I have come to the following conclusion. I know longer believe that the FS will at any time soon achieve the full employment representational level for AA’s as measured by Civilian Labor Force (CLF) statistics, which is 10.1 percent. Even though it’s stated in MD-715 that we are to try to reach the employment level of 10.1 percent for AA’s, I know longer believe that it will happen. My reasons for finally coming to this conclusion are simple and based on FS historical information. I ask this question, if MD-715 is to accomplish such lofty hiring goals for those that are and have been underrepresented for so long, then why aren’t we hearing and seeing it at work? Do you hear anyone talking about MD-715? I don’t. Besides, to accomplish an employment level of 10.1 percent for AA’s over the next five years assuming a constant level of 31,500 FS employee’s, the FS would need to hire 371 AA’s per year while lowering the level of employment for white employee’s by 315 per year. The bottom line is that for full representation to be achieved by all underrepresented groups in the FS we must have a transition of 4,725 jobs from white employee’s that are over represented to those that are underrepresented. Until we see reengineering, restructuring, or workforce changes occurring along these lines, nothing will be accomplished. Since the FS is currently faced with an aging workforce it’s an opportune time to accomplish this workforce change over the next five years through attrition.

The FS have always attempted to accomplish workforce diversity through a series of upper management suggestions and recommendations. When one examines the workforce directives concerning diversity hiring issued by every chief from Dale Robertson to Dale Bosworth, they all have something in common. They all state the same commitment and they all have had the same results. The results are AA employment have been at 4.1 percent for over two decades. I have also come to realize that reorganization, reengineering, downsizing all are bad organizational approaches for AA employee’s because every time restructuring by the FS is done the number of AA employee’s in the FS falls. We, the AASG have lost many of our core representatives and unless some unknown dedicated people step up from our diminished ranks, we’ll struggle to continue to provide the assistance to the FS that our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) states that we are to do. I’m also confused by the FS stated desire to improve AA diversity and in the same breath worked overtime to defeat the Spencer Class Action. There are only two ways to improve diversity, either through the courts or through voluntary means. Since the FS have failed in their effort to improve diversity through the use of voluntary means one can’t be surprised at the use of legal means to remedy the injustice that have gone on for AA’s for over two decades. Unless the FS adopts a program of real accountability by attaching real consequences for those not helping the organization achieve it’s mission, and by having minority representation in the organization equivalent to what it should be based on CLF statistics, the underrepresentation of AA employees will continue to be a structural problem.

Everyone believed that by improving AA representation at the upper management level that the issue of underrepresentation of AA’s would over time be eradicated. There is some in management that is now saying that they were wrong in that belief, I disagree. I now know that without the AA’s that have been and that are currently in leadership positions, without their hard work, our current number of AA employees would be even lower. I haven’t seen the numbers yet but I believe because of restructuring our employment level has fallen below the historical 4.1 percent. Much of the AA diversity currently within the organization can be credited to AA leadership efforts on outreach and hiring. Until the FS convene a National Leadership Team (NLT) meeting on this topic and establish accountability and solutions, we are an endangered species. That sad truth is we don’t even have an ACT to protect us and nothing is being discussed.

So with the release of this message the AASG is stating that we are no longer confident that the FS will achieve it’s mission and vision of workforce diversity based on our reasoning as stated above. Also this position shouldn’t by any means be interpreted as unwillingness on the part of the AASG to continue to work with the FS in achieving diversity. In fact the AASG is determined more than ever to continue to work with the FS to achieve the vision of the organization.