The Department of the Navy established its Component level labor-management partnership group during the Clinton administration under the mandate of executive Order 12871, Labor-Management Partnerships. Although the partnership executive order was repealed during the early days of the subsequent Bush administration, the DON partnership group endured. Additionally, the Marine Corps and several major commands in Navy have continued to maintain partnerships in some fashion.

The purpose of the DON partnership group has been to improve the efficiency of the DON and the morale of its workforce through: (1) involvement in the development of DON-wide policies and procedures that will affect the civilian workforce; and (2) promotion and facilitation of labor-management partnerships throughout the DON. The partnership group continually strives to meet its purpose by incorporating practices such as pre-decisional involvement, mutual interest in mission accomplishment, use of alternate dispute resolution, consensual decision making, etc... Moreover, the members are committed to modify the Partnership Group Charter, purpose and membership participation, as necessary, to conform with the requirements of E.O. 13522.

Partnering between labor and management has proven an essential vehicle to information sharing, problem solving and relationship building. As the current administration has issued Executive Order 13522, Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services, the Component, Marine Corps and Navy major command level partnerships are working to ensure all DON activities and commands are establishing and maintaining labor-management forums at the various levels of recognition toward that end.

Resources providing information on Executive Order 13522, the DON Partnership Group Charter, and the USMC Partnership Charter can be found in the Resource Library.