Feral Jundi

Monday, September 29, 2008

Industry Talk: When Companies Mistreat You-What Can You Do?

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , — Matt @ 2:17 PM

     Well, I have been doing a bit of research and found some information about dealing with companies that have mistreated you.  I actually called the Department of Labor here in the US, and asked for suggestions on how employees and contractors can protect themselves or deal with wrongdoings.  The DOL cannot protect you overseas.  They can protect you here in the states, and the Fair Labor Standards Act applies. 

     For overseas, the companies that hire US citizens and Non-US citizens for work in Iraq and elsewhere need to contact the Department of State or US Embassies in that country your working in, if you have problems with your company.  But I really do not have any faith in that process, because there are no laws that can protect you.  But you can still file complaints and bring this stuff to the attention of those who should hear it.

     The big one for me, is to exhaust all methods and use the shotgun technique with the idea that at least one of the methods will work. 

     And then there is always hiring a lawyer.  But I tell you what, you go down that path, you have to have some serious coin and make sure your case is solid.  The rule of thumb for legal stuff is findings of fact, and conclusions of law.  Your damages must be absolutely solid, so read your contract thoroughly to see if in fact you were mistreated. 

     The other problem is conclusions of law.  There are very little protections out there to fall back on.  In the US, you have a better shot in a case, but once you go overseas, then you don’t have much to work with.  I could be wrong, but you have to remember that these companies come packing with the best lawyers in the business, and small grievances and legal issues are very easy for them to sink.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Industry Talk: DOD Tests Contractors’ ID Cards

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 12:24 PM

     This is interesting.  It’s almost as if they are taking the Incident Qualification Card that I was talking about in another post, and trying to come up with something similar.  But really, this is the first time I have ever heard about this.  –Head Jundi 

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DOD tests contractors’ ID cards

By Alice Lipowicz

Published on September 22, 2008

The Army is testing a program that allows contractors to use an identification card approved by the Defense Department to gain access to the service’s facilities and computers.

The Army’s Materiel Command is running the Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker program, known as SPOT, as a pilot project at Fort Belvoir, Va., in coordination with the nonprofit Federation for Identity and Cross-Credentialing Systems group — or FIXs — a vendor certified by that group, and others.

“The ultimate goal is to give us visibility to the contractors in the battlefield,” said Col. Archie Davis, a spokesman at the Army command. “This goes a long way to solving that problem.”

The project, which has been planned for several years, is one of the first in which DOD is participating in a federated identity management system with a private entity to verify identities for nongovernment personnel. The contractor ID cards are modeled after the federal employee identity cards developed under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Industry Talk: Mission Critical Psychological Services

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:45 AM

     For the most part, I am all for these kinds of services. Although I do have some reservations on how these services might be used, and that it would be very easy for a company to just get rid of employees if they had to thin out their contracts do to budget problems.  Instead, a company should remain committed to helping that employee through thick and thin.  And PTSD remains long after the contract, so will a company use these services for that reality of security contracting? 

    I am all for companies providing mental health services for it’s employees, and this is a great step forward to making that happen. We’ll see if the companies use these types of services ethically and for all the right reasons, and I hope to keep them honest here at FJ.  –Head Jundi 

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About Us

Mission CriticalMission Critical Psychological Services (MCPS) is the leading provider of comprehensive psychological support programs for companies employing people in war-torn countries. For over a decade, the psychologists at MCPS have provided support to thousands of civilians working in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Liberia, East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel, Columbia, and Haiti. MCPS psychologists have backgrounds in law enforcement, security, and the U.S. military, and they have lived and worked in hostile environments: they understand the unique challenges of dangerous assignments. All have been trained and mentored in MCPS methodology.

Paul Brand, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Brand founded MCPS to build on his decade of experience developing and managing psychological screening and services for people working in war-torn areas. As the President of Medina & Thompson, Inc., he developed psychological fitness programs to support police officers sent to Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel, Liberia and East Timor as part of peacekeeping initiatives. Under his direction as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for DynCorp International, the Department of State’s largest contractor, DynCorp became the first company with comprehensive psychological support for its employees serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Brand holds his Ph.D. in Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology and has lived and worked in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the United States.

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Building Snowmobiles: Incident Command System for Military Companies and Enhancing COIN

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 3:16 PM

   This is a subject close to my heart, and I think it deserves some attention.  I respect Peter Singer’s work and I have read Corporate Warriors, and it was an interesting book about the history of security contracting. I have also read his article about the harm military contractors are doing to the current counterinsurgency(COIN) operations and it has troubled me to some degree.  The article makes the case as if there is no place in today’s wars for the private industry and that we are not worth the effort.  I guess my argument is that we do have a place in today’s wars, and we are performing crucial services for the US Government.   But I do agree that we could be doing some harm to the overall COIN strategy and that we need to find some solutions on how to work together more efficiently.  

 

     Now my focus will be more about the operational relationship out in the field between the military companies and the military.  I cannot even begin to talk about contracts or money or all of that other stuff.  But what I can talk about is the operational relationship of the two, and some possible solutions to get us all on the same sheet of music so we can only enhance the war effort, and not hinder it. 

 

     As for my background, I have worked for the US Government in one capacity or another for most of my adult life. But the most relevant job to this discussion I held was as a smokejumper and forest fighter in the US wild land fire services.  I fought forest fires with the Bureau of Land Management and with the Forest Service, and I witnessed the use of thousands of private industry service providers doing an amazing job providing support to these incidents.  From cooking food, to cleaning clothes, to providing shelter, all the way up to fighting fires from the land and air–the private fire fighting industry does it all.  I also think today’s military companies and military can learn a lot from this relationship. 

 

     What was most unique with this relationship is the fact that the services of these fire contractors could be called up at a moments notice through a dispatch center, and released at a moments notice through what is called a ‘call when needed contract’.  And this call up was all based on the Incident Commander’s decision(the manager of the fire).  If this commander of the fire did not need those services anymore, he would just tell them that they were no longer needed and inform the Dispatch Center that they have been released from incident.  There is something remarkably simplistic about this system of command that the military companies and military can learn a lot from.  

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Sunday, September 7, 2008

Industry Talk: The Truman Commission Repeats Itself–Who is Looking Out For the Little Guy?

Filed under: Industry Talk,Washington DC — Tags: , , — Matt @ 12:37 PM

     In this post, I wanted to hit on a little bit of history in regards to contracting.  I think it is important that today’s US tax payers get what they pay for and I do not find fault with this kind of ‘accounting’ scrutiny.  I also salute what Truman did back in the day in regards to cutting wasteful spending with contracting companies, and it certainly saved this country a lot of money.  And with that said, I do think that today’s Commission on Wartime Contracting Establishment(S.1825) is important–but with a few stipulation.

     Invariably these things are more political than just pure business.  It’s Capital Hill, and that is what makes the machine move.  So I am happy that this proposed Commission is bi-partisan.  If this commission can be more like Truman’s, and remain as objective as possible, then I would be happy and I applaud that effort. I will be saddened if this process turns more into a With Hunt, stacked with personal agendas.  Honest scrutiny and debate is what the country deserves about this subject, and the end product should be the result of objective hard work.  My smart monkey instincts says that this commission will be more ‘politics as usual’. 

    The other thing that worries me about this Commission, is who will set the pay scales as to what is the proper payment for a contracted security specialist overseas? The government, the companies, who?  It has always been a mystery to me, as to what the standard is and most of the companies I have worked for were all over the place with pay and benefits.  And that is why I am hoping that this commission will be honest in their assessment of what security contractors are truly worth, and in evaluating what the true cost of doing business in today’s wars is.  If the companies are punished in some kind of politically motivated ‘Witch Hunt’, then what will the trickle down effect be for the guys overseas doing the protecting and dying for US government clients?  And most importantly, how will this impact the war effort and the security of these US government clients?  

    And seeing how security contractors really have no union representation on the Hill, then I could totally see how our voice would be just a murmur in this debate. I am sure the big companies have plenty of lobbyists on the Hill fighting for them, and that is great.  But for the little guy, I have not seen anything that has impressed me as far as a voice in this field of giants.  

      I have seen a few unions pop up, with some attempt to organize, but overall there really isn’t much out there.  The two unions I have seen are the Pipe Hitters Union and SEIU .  I am sure there are others, but I really haven’t heard of any kind of voice for the guys overseas.  I could be wrong, and if the readers know of any other unions or associations that are fighting for overseas security contractors specifically, I would love to hear about them.  (With SEIU, they are more of a domestic union that is fighting for guards here in the US.)  

     Now one thing everyone can do, is send letters to your local politicians and to the members of the commission.  The letters should be respectful and to the point.  The members of this commission are:

Clark Kent Ervin, Grant Green, Linda Gustitus, Dean Popps, Michael Thibault, Charles Tiefer, Dov Zakheim and of course you could also contact Jim Webb or Claire McCaskill(these two came up with the commission) 

     Below I have posted the details about this latest move in DC, and the history of the Truman Commission.  I hope I have come across as objective as possible in this article, and I have no intention of offending anyone.  My only intent is to make sure everyone out there knows what is going on. –Head Jundi 

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The Buck Stops Here

Commission on Wartime Contracting Establishment Act S.1825

    * Introduced: July 18, 2007

    * Status: Introduced

    * Next step: Voted on by Senate

    * Latest action: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

    * Sponsor: Sen. Jim Webb [D, VA] 

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Truman Committee

Truman gained fame and respect when his preparedness committee (popularly known as the “Truman Committee”) investigated the scandal of military wastefulness by exposing fraud and mismanagement. The Roosevelt administration had initially feared the Committee would hurt war morale, and Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson wrote to the president declaring it was “in the public interest” to suspend the committee. Truman wrote a letter to the president saying that the committee was “100 percent behind the administration” and that it had no intention of criticizing the military conduct of the war. The committee was considered a success and is reported to have saved at least $15 billion. Truman’s advocacy of common-sense cost-saving measures for the military attracted much attention. In 1943, his work as chairman earned Truman his first appearance on the cover of Time. He would eventually appear on nine Time covers and be named the magazine’s Man of the Year for 1945 and 1948. After years as a marginal figure in the Senate, Truman was cast into the national spotlight after the success of the Truman Committee.

 Wikipedia Link

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