NTEU Gives Kelley 3rd Term at Helm;

Keeping IRS Work
NTEU Gives Kelley 3rd Term at Helm


National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley and Executive Vice President Frank D. Ferris were re-elected Aug. 7 to a third term during the union's week-long convention in New York.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James MAKING THE BUCKS STOP IN-HOUSE: U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, shaking hands with National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley, as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has pushed through a bill that, if approved by Congress and signed by President Bush, would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from contracting-out debt-collection work. Nearly 400 delegates from around the country representing workers at more than a dozen Federal agencies attended the convention at the Sheraton New York and participated in the election. Ms. Kelley and Mr. Ferris won more than 80 percent of the votes, according to a union spokeswoman.

Outsourcing Big Issue

In addition to clarifying bylaws and training new volunteers, the big issue of the convention was outsourcing, especially in the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee approved the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 July 18, which, if approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, would strip the IRS of the ability to hire private debt-collectors. The committee's chairman, Rep. Charles Rangel, addressed the convention Aug. 9.

"Tax collection has been a thankless and sensitive job," he said.

Congressman Rangel told the crowd that IRS work could not have been done better or more effectively by private contractors, a remark met with enthusiastic applause. He told this newspaper there was only one reason why the current administration sought the outsourcing of government jobs.

"They're trying to break unions," he said. U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley also addressed the convention Aug. 6.

Union: Do It Better

NTEU photo FOUR MORE YEARS: National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley, right, was re-elected to a third four-year term during the union's national convention in New York last week. At left is Executive Vice President Frank D. Ferris, who was also re-elected.

The union has often argued that tax collection was inherently government work and has cited IRS numbers proving that it did not save money by hiring private firms. The union's leadership believes that the American people are on its side.

"Taxpayers wanted to know that they were talking to an official IRS person," said Margaret Newcombe, an IRS worker and president of NTEU Chapter 117 in Long Beach, Ca.

She believed that Ms. Kelley, president since 1999, was leading the union to victory against privatization.

"I think there's a lot of progress fighting back," she said. "She's put it out in the public."

The union represents workers inside and outside of the U.S. Treasury Department. The convention included delegates representing workers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The NTEU represents about 150,000 workers.

Ms. Kelley thought that privatization was an issue in every agency and that the convention's focus on private tax collection would invigorate the membership.

In addition to fighting outsourcing, Ms. Kelley hoped to lead organizing efforts in the Transportation Security Administration, whose workers currently lack the right to collectively bargain.

The union organized nearly 700 TSA workers at Kennedy Airport in April and plans to organize other airports. While the NTEU cannot bargain with the TSA, it can represent workers on an individual level. Ms. Kelley vowed to continue organizing in addition to lobbying for legislation to grant TSA workers collective-bargaining rights.

She noted that the union, working with consumer advocacy and government watchdog groups, has helped push legislation that would end the process of private tax collection and other forms of outsourcing. Much of the battle is uphill. While the union has won language in appropriations bills protecting certain work from being outsourced, such bills only last a year, forcing the NTEU to lobby for renewal of the protective language every year.

Looking back on the 51st convention, Ms. Kelley was optimistic that her members had the energy to continue battling the privatization of the Federal Government.

"They know that the intent of this administration is to contract out as much work as possible," she said. "Things will turn in 2009. We really slowed them down."