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Detroit—In protest of plans to move technology work out of Detroit, local employees of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) held an informational picket today to raise public awareness about the agency’s plan to shut down the mainframe database at the Detroit Computing Center and transfer all related work out of state. Members of the National Treasury Employees ...

Washington, D.C. — The leader in the fight to end the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program of private tax collection today called on the House of Representatives to approve legislation that would repeal the agency’s authority to continue its costly program that puts taxpayers’ sensitive and private information at great risk. The House is expected to vote ...

Washington, D.C. — After helping turn back an ill-advised effort by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to close more than half its laboratories, FDA employees have now, in addition, won the first four of 13 planned public-private competitions for their jobs. While welcoming—and not being at all surprised by—the result of the outsourcing competitions, ...

Washington D.C. — If it is going to meet its workforce requirements in the face of potentially large looming retirements, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must do a much better job of addressing the needs of its employees, including a focus on their low morale caused, in part, by the agency’s efforts to contract out their work, the leader of the union ...

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing thousands of FDA employees today applauded increased congressional scrutiny of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to study the possible contracting out of more than 300 positions to the private sector. On Friday, Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the House ...

Washington, D.C. — As it did a year ago, an independent federal advisory body closely attuned to the views of the nation’s taxpayers has called—in unambiguous and forceful language—for an end to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program of using private sector debt collectors to pursue tax payments. “The IRS should abandon all plans to outsource any tax ...

Washington D.C. — At a time when the nation is justifiably wary of the safety of a wide variety of imported products, it makes no sense whatsoever for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider contracting to the private sector the work of more than 300 positions, the leader of the union representing FDA employees said today. “I think it is a ...

Runaway federal contracting is a shell game masking the true costs of government to America’s taxpayers and handing the crucial work of the government to a less accountable workforce. I would suggest that administration officials are the ones spinning tales of wildly speculative savings to promote an agenda of turning as much work as possible over to the ...

Washington D.C. — In a letter to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), two senior members of the House have expressed what they described as their “shock” at revelations the agency plans to cut 196 microbiologists, chemists and engineers—some 37 percent of the laboratory analysts in its Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA)—in a proposed ...

Washington D.C. — In the wake of record gas prices that show signs of even further increases, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make a mid-year upward adjustment in the mileage reimbursement rate for business travel. High gas prices are placing “an especially high ...

Washington D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today offered its strong support for pending legislation in both the House and Senate that would restore the rights of federal employees to be protected from workplace discrimination because of their sexual orientation. “These bills underscore the importance of these long-standing protections,” ...

Washington, D.C— In the face of a key Congressional subcommittee hearing about the safety of nation’s food supply, the leader of the union representing thousands of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees criticized the agency for continuing to move ahead with its much-maligned national reorganization plan. The plan includes not only closing seven of 13 ...

Washington D.C.—When it comes to the best places to work among 30 large federal government agencies, as gauged by the employees who work there, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is right where it was last year—next-to-last, in 29th place—and that, said the leader of the union representing thousands of DHS employees, is “a ranking the nation can’t ...

Washington, D.C — The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today again sharply criticized efforts by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to close seven of its 13 labs nationwide, this time after a tour of the FDA lab in Lenexa, Kan., with Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.). The Lenexa facility is one of the seven labs targeted for closure. “Rep. ...

Washington, D.C. — The deplorable conditions impacting outpatients at Walter Reed Army Hospital are a not-at-all surprising result of a federal contracting process that drives experienced federal employees from their jobs and seeks to replace them with unaccountable private contractors, the head of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said ...

Washington, D.C.—One of the leading House critics of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) use of private debt collectors today called the privatization program “a cash cow for special interests,” and promised to push pending legislation that would strip the agency’s right to engage in the program. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told a lunch meeting of some 350 ...

Washington, D.C.—The administration’s proposed 3 percent federal pay raise for 2008—coming in the wake of the paltry 2007 raise, which was the lowest in 18 years—will do nothing to close the continuing gap between private sector and federal pay, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers told a House subcommittee today. “If we are ...

Washington, D.C.—Midterm election successes and progress on a number of legislative, legal and other issues in 2006 have set the stage for even further accomplishments this year on behalf of federal employees, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a large group of NTEU members from around the country today at the start of the union’s ...

Washington, D.C.—A senior leader in the U.S. House today promised to work for a fair pay raise for federal employees and in support of their efforts to rein in runaway contracting—not just because that supports federal workers, but because it is good for America. “The focus of the federal workforce is on service to the America people,” House Majority Leader ...

Washington, D.C.—A key congressional leader will join with President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) as opening day speakers next Tuesday as more than 300 NTEU members from around the country gather for the union’s annual three-day legislative conference. Along with President Kelley, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) ...