405th AFSB virtual townhall emphasizes importance of local national workforce

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – The 405th Army Field Support Brigade recognizes its local national workforce as a critically important element of the organization and pivotal to mission success. Recently, the 405th AFSB conducted a virtual townhall for its local national employees, and more than 400 host nation employees from Germany, Italy, Poland, Netherlands and Belgium participated.

Facilitated by Christine Schneider, the 405th AFSB labor advisor, and led by the 405th AFSB deputy to the commander, James “Mac” McGinnis, the townhall took place using MS Teams, Jan. 22 across Europe.

“What we are trying to do is get information out to our local national workforce and have an open dialogue with all of our local national employees,” McGinnis said. “During these townhalls we are able to provide the latest information, what the command is doing that impacts them, and we’re able to discuss other topics that the employees ask us to talk about.”

Several topics were raised during the virtual townhall, both by the local national workforce who were tuned in from their various locations and duty stations and directly from the brigade deputy to the commander and the brigade labor advisor.

One of the topics discussed was the U.S. Office or Personnel Management’s alternative work schedule policy such as flexible work schedules, compressed workweeks and regular day off, or RDO. And telework was another topic discussed.

McGinnis explained that dialogue with the supervisory chain of command is extremely important when discussing alternative work schedules and telework options. For example, what works for one employee may not work for another, he said, and it’s important that everyone understands there are multiple factors that supervisors and leaders consider when making decisions on who may be a good candidate and who may not.

Since many of the townhall participants are assigned to one of the eight logistics readiness centers across the brigade’s footprint, specific discussion on LRC operations and LRC support to their perspective garrisons was also covered. Two areas discussed were central issue facility reform and shuttle bus operations, for example.

Overall, the local national employee townhall was deemed a success and additional townhalls are expected to be scheduled, likely on a quarterly basis in the future. Several employees commented following the townhall and even more thanked Schneider and McGinnis for holding the townhall and inviting everyone.

“I hope we will continue on a regular basis. Thank you,” stated Mickel Plantaz in the comments at the end of the virtual townhall. Plantaz is a host nation employee from the Netherlands and a quality assurance evaluator with LRC Benelux in Brunssum.

There are eight LRCs under the command and control of the 405th AFSB. In addition, there are two base support operations divisions, which are transportation and maintenance, and there are six Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksites. All of these subordinate organizations and sites employ local nationals, plus the brigade headquarters. In total, an extremely large percentage of the 405th AFSB workforce are local national employees. They are critically important and pivotal to the brigade’s success.

The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging U.S. Army Materiel Command’s materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website and the official Facebook site.