The Foreign Service Journal, June 2003

weight allowance decisions were based on grade. Clearly, this was an issue that could only be negotiated by a union. Insurance. There was also a major problem with government cov- erage for damage to effects in ship- ment. The regulations authorized claims up to $5,000, but the proce- dures for claiming for breakage and theft were so stringent that most employees gave up before they started. In addition, coverage was only for depreciated value, not replace- ment value. After seeing a number of complaint letters, I initiat- ed inquiries about private insurance for overseas ship- ment of effects. This led to the establishment of AFSA’s personal effects insurance policy that was dis- tinguished by an honor system in reporting claims, and in reimbursement for replacement value. With the addition of other insurance programs later, the AFSA Governing Board decided to establish a separate Insurance Committee, breaking that function away from the Members’ Interests Committee. In approximately 1972, the State Department established an Office of the Ombudsman, with responsibility for handling employee complaints. (My feeling is that department man- agers did this because they saw a union coming down the pike and hoped to head it off with the establish- ment of an office that represented employees.) The first incumbent was FSO Robert Gordon. He had offi- cial authority to go to any State Department adminis- trative office to inquire about problems raised by employees. Whereas these same offices only tolerated me, as a representative of AFSA, they had to deal with the F O C U S J U N E 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 37 In 1969, many of the requests for assistance involved issues like allowances, insurance and education.