Federal employees were dealt a major blow on August 10 when the U.S. Court of Appeals denied an attempt by federal worker unions to overturn a new Pentagon personnel system. 35 unions representing nearly 750,000 employees at the Department of Defense filed the motion and now plan to take it to the Supreme Court. According to the new personnel rules, the Defense Department can assign employees to new roles without first bargaining with union representatives. Employees can be disciplined without warning and without a union representative present during proceedings. Employees will also now be paid based on performance instead of seniority. Currently 110,000 employees are covered by the new system and 500,000 are expected to be covered by the end of 2008.

By Doug Cunningham

The National Treasury Employee Union is applauding the new Democratic House of Representatives for passing a bill providing collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Administration workers. The workers have been denied collective bargaining rights since TSA was created.

By Doug Cunningham

The National Treasury Employees Union welcomed a federal court decision Tuesday that sends illegal personnel rules changes back to the Department of Homeland Security. Judge Rosemary Collyer is ordering the government to revise the rules in order to ensure collective bargaining rights for Department of Homeland Security workers. The courts found that the Bush administration personnel rules changes would have severely restricted employee’s collective bargaining rights and violated the Homeland Security Act because the new proposed rules didn’t meet the congressional mandate that the agency ensure collective bargaining for its workers.

By Doug Cunningham

The IRS continues to move ahead with a plan to privatize tax debt collection, despite opposition from the National Treasury Employee’s Union (NTEU) and from some members of Congress. Senator Byron Dorgan has introduced legislation that would prevent the IRS from using private companies to go after tax debts. NTEU President Colleen Kelley says the plan to privatize tax debt collection is unwise and costly and it compromises ther personal information of thousands of taxpayers. Senator Dorgan says the plan will cost up to 24 percent of the money collected when IRS employees can collect the debts for three cents on the dollar.

By Doug Cunningham

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has won an election making it the sole union representing more than 20,000 federal workers at the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Workers chose NTEU over the American Federation of Government Employees. Customs and Border Protection is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

By Doug Cunningham

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. says the Bush administration’s efforts to gut collective bargaining at the Department of Homeland Security are illegal. National Treasury Employee Union President Colleen Kelley says it’s a big win for workers and their unions.

[Colleen Kelley 1]: “We won a sweeping legal victory for all DHS employees. What the court declared was that the labor relations portion of the Homeland Security’s regressive personnel system are illegal and they cannot be implemented.”

Kelley says the court was very clear that these Bush administration personnel system changes at the Department of Homeland Security are illegal attacks on collective bargaining rights.

By Jesse Russell

Unions representing scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency are accusing the organization of pressuring them to approve chemicals. The American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Engineers and Scientists of California allege that the EPA is urging scientists to skip some testing at the behest of the pesticide industry. The unions say that the industry is seeking to continue the use of some pesticides that may be harmful to children and babies. Together the three unions represent 9,000 workers at the EPA.

By Doug Cunningham

Unions representing Homeland Security workers were in federal court Thursday continuing a fight to preserve true collective bargaining as the government tries to impose a new personnel system. NTEU’s Greg O’Duden.

[Greg O’Duden]: “What they came up with, particularly with respect to collective bargaining, is a blatantly one-sided system that reserves for the agency really total authority regarding the setting of conditions of employment. And that of course is totally antithetical to the whole idea of collective bargaining."

Unions say the new personnel system guts collective bargaining rights.

By Doug Cunningham

The IRS is signing contracts with private debt collectors to pursue taxpayers who owe back taxes. Colleen Kelly, head of the National Treasury Employees Union representing tens of thousands of IRS workers, says this plan jeopardizes the privacy of taxpayers' personal information. Kelly says it's also far more expensive than collecting back taxes using IRS employees. The NTEU wants the IRS to drop the plan, but three private debt collectors are contracted now and the IRS wants to extend the program to 10 collection companies within two years.

By Jesse Russell

Plans by the Internal Revenue Service to cut back the hours taxpayers can reach IRS telephone assistance was attacked by the union representing agency employees. President Colleen Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union called the plan an "outrage." The IRS is seeking to reduce hours by 20 percent on January 23, 2006 - the start of tax season. Kelley said the agency is disregarding a congressional mandate that requires an increase in phone lines and staff.

By Doug Cunningham

The National Treasury Employees Union is testifying before a U.S. House committee today on controversial personnel rules changes known as the Working for America Act. NTEU President Colleen Kelly says expanding these new rules government wide as the Bush administration and its allies in Congress want to do is NOT a good idea. NTEU says the plan is excessively complex, expensive to administer and fatally flawed. Significant sections of the proposed new personnel system have already been declared illegal in a lawsuit brought by government employee unions. The new personnel system guts many collective bargaining rights, according to the unions. The lawsuit was against attempts to implement the personnel system in the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. The Bush administration wants to expand them government wide.

The Department of Homeland Security is asking a US District Court judge to narrow her ruling that prevents proposed personnel rules from being implemented. The rules have been opposed by unions representing nearly 60,000 DHS employees and were declared a violation of employee rights by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer. They would create an internal labor relations panel appointed by the DHS secretary and install a merit-based pay system. Department managers would also have increased authority over shift and duty changes.

By Doug Cunningham

Thousands of Department of Homeland Security workers recently won an important court victory that protects collective bargaining rights and prevents the department from implementing new personnel rules. The National treasury Employees Union's Colleen Kelly says if the Bush administration continues to attack worker's bargaining rights the NTEU will continue to fight, including going back to court if necessary…

[Colleen Kelly] : "If we believe that the statute - the Homeland Security Act - is not being followed, that the administration is continuing to overstep its bounds of the authority given to it by Congress, then yes NTEU will be fighting. We will use every tool available that we have to us to insure that the department does the right thing - both for the department and for employees."

By Doug Cunningham

The National Treasury Employees Union has won a round on privatization. NTEU successfully challenged a decision by the Department of Energy to award work to a private company. This is the first win on privatization under revised federal contracting rules. DOE had decided to give a headquarters logistic contract to a private company taking the work away from public employee unions even though the union bid for the work was lower. The NTEU argued that the privatization of this work was not the best value for the Department of Energy. The private contractor's bid would have cost taxpayers $2.6 million more than if unionized federal workers did the work. The NTEU represents 150,000 workers in thirty different federal agencies.

By Doug Cunningham

Five unions representing federal workers at the Department of Homeland Security were in federal court in Washington Thursday seeking an injunction stopping new personnel rules from taking effect August first. The unions want the injunction until their lawsuit against the changes is decided. Greg O'Doudin (O-dooden), general counsel for the National treasury Employees Union, says Congress decided these workers should have labor rights but the Bush administration is using national security issues to strip them away.

[Greg O'Doudin] : "Including the right to engage collective bargaining.

The National Treasury Employees union rallied in New York City Wednesday to protest taxpayer service cutbacks at the IRS. NTEU President Colleen Kelly.

[Colleen Kelley] : "We have legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Simmons from Connecticut and Congressman Van Holland that would appeal the IRS's authority to do this private tax collection work."

Legislation that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from privatizing tax collection was introduced in the House today. The bill, introduced by Representatives Rob Simmons of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, comes as the IRS moves forward with plans to do just that. National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M Kelly explains the potential impact of IRS plan:

[Kelly]: This is going to risk taxpayer privacy as well as invite aggressive collection tactics on the part of these collection agencies. they will be paid on a bounty of being able to keep up to 25 percent of whatever the collect.

In addition the IRS recently announced plans to cut more than 700 customer service positions and close nearly 100 taxpayer assistance centers. The centers assisted more than 7 million taxpayers in 2004. According to Kelly, the IRS has already begun implementation of these changes, with some of the more drastic reform coming as soon as six months from now.

On a frigid Wednesday afternoon on Capitol hill, House of Representatives Minority Whip told a rally held by the National Treasury Employees Union to "turn up the heat on members of Congress." The NTEU and other federal employee unions are watching as new regulations at the Department of Homeland Security strip away their collective bargaining and due process rights. Selina Musuta reports from the nation's capital for WIN:

Despite the cold, over a hundred National
Treasury Employees Union or NTEU and allies stood in
front of the capitol to demand collective bargaining
rights for employees at the Department of Homeland

George W. Bush is using the Social Security Administration ­ including Social Security associate commissioner Andrew Biggs - to push privatization of social security. Biggs was the Cato Institute's assistant director on the Project on Social Security Privatization. Social Security Employees, represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, resent the use of the Social Security Administration to push privatization propaganda. NTEU President Colleen Kelly says her members will join workers nationwide to oppose the undermining of social security. Kelly says defending social security will be a priority for Social Security Administration workers.