A98
X"
areas, including custody in Panamanian jails of those charged with murder, rape, robbery with violence, trafficking in drugs, or "Crimes against the security of the Panamanian State."
The Implementation Agreement to Article IV of the Treaty (Status of Forces Agreement) repeats as Article 11 of that Agreement the text of Article V of the Treaty regarding the Principles of Non-Intervention. Thus, the similarity of legal status of U.S. citizen employees of the Armed Forces to U.S. citizen employees of the Commission is expressly emphasized. Article VII of the Implementing Agreement to Article IV of the Treaty stipulates that the -same ratio of Panamanians to total employees will apply as defined in the Panamanian law regarding foreign company operations.
I could cite additional passage in the Treaties and Implementing Agreements but I believe they would be redundant since the weight of these Texts clearly establishes that the United States citizen employees have narrowly circumscribed and limited rights.
AFGE INSISTS ON THE MAXIMUM RIGHTS OF PANAMANIAN NATIONALS VIS-A-VIS MANAGEMENT
I want to make it absolutely clear that we are asking for the same rights to be given to the employees of Panamanian or other nationality in labor-management relations as we are asking for employees who are United States citizens. At the minimum, insofar as the Treaties themselves do not preclude these. rights, they should be equivalent to Title VII of Public Law 95-454.
We would prefer more, of course. Title VII does -not give any Federal employees the same rights as private enterprise employees in the United States have. But it is a great advance over the old system -of Executive Orders. At least we now have a, statutory* platform from which we can apply a lever to acquire rights and conditions of work through collective bargaining for Federal employees which gradually will make their status somewhat like that of private enterprise employees.
We will support totally all the unions in the AFL-CIO and, with them, will insist that Panamanian nationals who are employees either of the Commission or of the United States agencies have the same rights as United States citizen employees. We do this while at the same time noting that it is the Treaties them-selves which make it impracticable in most cases for all employees, regardless of citizenship, to be in the same units in order to effectively exercise these same rights without the interjection of conflicts of interest among them.
SPECIAL PROTECTIONS FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ENTITLED TO PLACEMENT WITH AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES
Although certain Panamanian national employees are entitled to special consideration for immigration into the United States, the Treaties do not give them any rights to guaranteed employment in the United States. At best, former employees of the Company/Commission will be placed with other United States agencies located in Panama, so far as employment rights are concerned.
United States citizen employees, on the other hand, are entitled to certain employment rights in the United States. Our concern is to assure that they will be able to enjoy these rights in a timely fashion. Therefore, I should like to solicit your Committee9s support for express legislative language they can cite