The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

The June issue of the Journal was ded- icated to recounting the successful strug- gle 30 years ago to transform the Ameri- can Foreign Service Association into a union. (If any of you missed that cov- erage, I invite you to read it online at www.afsa.org.) W hile AFSA has remained the same strong professional association it has been for nearly 80 years, it has also become an organiza- tion that works tirelessly to improve the treatment of all Foreign Service employees, both individually and col- lectively. Insightful as all the articles were, I want to highlight Ambassador Herman Cohen’s reminiscences about joining the AFSA Governing Board in 1969 to deal with “members’ interests” — a broad category covering requests for assistance with issues ranging from R&R and overseas allowances to ship- ment of household effects. Amb. Cohen found that to do his job, he sometimes had to challenge the reg- ulations themselves, not just their imple- mentation. For example, in making the case that Foreign Service personnel should be reimbursed for their chil- dren’s kindergarten costs as they were for other schooling, he discovered that the State Department’s refusal to do so was based on an outdated 1955 survey. Once he found more recent statistics demonstrating that most states were providing free public school kinder- garten, the department agreed a revision of the regs was appropriate. What struck me was howmany sim- ilar issues continue to arise in which AFSA has detailed evolving demo- graphics, or offered a practical alterna- tive, but the department has yet to respond positively. Take housing stan- dards for specialists who have 20 or more years in the Service. In the early 1970s, Amb. Cohen fought successfully to increase weight allowances, then based on rank, for these employees. Fast forward to the early 21st century. Now AFSA is fighting for increased housing for these employees, which is also based on rank. However, certain categories of employees like OMS have little expectation of being promoted beyond FP-4. Thus, their square footage is stuck at that level without regard for their years of service, or—as Amb. Cohen noted some 30 years ago — the personal effects they have accu- mulated during those years of service. I have pointed this inequity out to the department on numerous occasions, only to get the brushoff each time. Similarly, the demographics show that two-income families are becoming the U.S. norm. More than a thousand State employees are part of a tandem, and many others are single parents. AFSA has argued that since many posts lack adequate and affordable day care, forcing many parents to hire live-in help, they should receive more square footage to house this essential person. Yet thus far, management has turned a deaf ear. Then there is that hardy perennial: paying per diem to new hires who come to Washington for three weeks of orientation and then take up their domestic assignments. State correctly points out that the rules say that anyone brought to Washington for assignment is not entitled to per diem. Fair enough. But sometimes new hires do not learn they are staying stateside until literally hours before they board the train or plane for Washington. (There are even cases of their not learning they were staying put until after orientation had begun.) One employee told of sleeping in his car out at Dulles Airport, others of eating bologna sandwiches for days. One told me that a year later he was still paying off the thousands he racked up in temporary lodging bills during orientation. AFSA doesn’t understand why the department can’t just wait until the end of orientation to assign those employ- ees stateside, thereby allowing them to collect per diem. So thank you, Amb. Cohen, for stiff- ening our spine on these issues. We’ll keep fighting. ■ P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est La Même Chose B Y L OUISE K. C RANE O C T O B E R 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 5 Louise K. Crane is AFSA vice presi- dent for State. AFSA has a proud history of working tirelessly to improve the treatment of all Foreign Service employees.