Critical Thinking

Assignment 1 - Critical Thinking

University of Maryland University College

Assignment 1 - Critical Thinking

The Purpose of this paper is to apply the 10 steps developed by (Browne & Keeley, 2010) and I will apply those methods on the following memo. A memo was drafted by Ms. Mary Ford (personal communication, January 30, 2012) who is Director of Amalgamated Public Employees Union (APEU) Local No. 121 to Mr. Hector Fuentes the President of APEU Local No. 121 on the issue on New Mexico State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Outsourcing, proposed by the New Mexico Governor Gloria Gainor. This is response memo to the Governor's (personal communication, October 20, 2011) letter informing the APEU Local No. 121 the intent to privatize and outsourcing of their DMV information management systems in the state of New Mexico.

Step 1: What Are the Issue and the Conclusion? (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 3)

The issue is that should Governor proceed with the intent to "outsource and privatize the information systems management function" of their New Mexico DMV, thereby effecting 43 of their union members.

Author's conclusion is that APEU Local No. 121 should oppose the governor's proposal "as an unfair management practice" that affect their 43 union members and some of them will lose their job in the process of privatization and outsourcing of DMV information systems management functions. This proposed action clearly violates some of the core principles dictated in the Pendleton Act of 1883, which protects both the federal and state employees against any gain or efficient government operations. The author also suggested the alternate method to avoid this proposal by attacking on the convention center project commented as "wasteful" and recommend the governor to abandon that project to protect the APUE union member jobs.

Step 2: What are the Reasons? (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 4)

According to the (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 4) this is step 2 and the purpose is to identify the reasons behind the author's conclusion. The following below reasons justifies the author's conclusion.

1. Foreign companies will win the proposed governors contract and will accept lower wages than the current pay of our union members. This will set as a precedent to reduction of union employee wages in other state departments and agencies in the future.

2. Strong belief is that dispersing union members will undermine the union ability to protect their union members against the government management decisions in the future. The dispersing method also leads to lower union members, and union will be powerless to protect the government union members in the future.

3. The effected union members will be mostly out of job and there by effecting their family and the community. This will lead to age discrimination to replace the old experienced union employees from the state government departments.

4. Outsourcing causes current recession, economy downturn and high gas prices will lead to high unemployment and thereby affecting the community and citizens of the New Mexico state.

5. Privatization of public services generally is a "bad idea" and effects all the citizens of our state including the union.

6. Citizens data will be compromised and corporate greed will lead to poor customer service, and instability. When the private company goes bankrupt and the state need to bail out to protect the public service and information safely and securely.

7. There is an additional "hidden cost of 20%" to oversee the third-party contractors, which was published in a Wall Street newspaper recently.

8. We will have to deal with cultural and communication problem when our customer service outsourced to foreign country, which will add further cost to the operations.

9. The cost of building the convention center project will be lot more than $250,000 per year savings.

10. Privatization and outsourcing proposal clearly violates the Pendleton Act of 1883.

Step 3: What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous? (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 5)

According to the (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 5) this is step 3 and the purpose is to identify the words or phrases that are ambiguous that need further clarification to justify the author's conclusion. The phrase "similar positions" from the memo "our union members will be offered similar positions in other departments within the executive branch of government as vacancies arise through attrition." are ambiguous and need to have further clarification of the phrases.

The phrase "similar positions" leads to multiple interpretations whether the positions will be based on the grade or pay or job location or job responsibilities or job requirements or is it strictly for the displaced union members or can the displaced union member to get trained to fill it or can the position accept over qualified union members or undercut the current pay for the displaced union members. The phrase "similar positions" need to be further elaborated by the author as it will be easily interpreted and constructed differently by various individuals reading this memo.

The word "everyone" from the memo "I had lunch the other day with a group of our members, and everyone was in agreement" are ambiguous and need to have further clarification. Is the word "everyone" refers to the group of the members that had lunch or as whole union members of APEU Local No. 121. The word everyone can be interpreted and constructed differently by various individuals reading this memo.

Step 4: What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions? (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 6)

According to the (Browne & Keeley, 2010, Chapter 6) this is step 4 and the purpose is to identify the hidden values and assumption specified to justify the author's conclusion. The value in the memo is that privatization of public services considered as "anti-American" as well as "assault on our unions" that protect the union workers. The author who is being with the union and author's value assumptions is debatable. Author was biased to the union and expressed author's point of view based on work experience as well as personal events that happened to author's family members in the past. In the statement, the author