FIRREA Employees of NTEU Storm Capital Hill with a Unified Voice

 Last week, hundreds of NTEU members from around the country—representing more than two dozen agencies—gathered for NTEU’s highly-successful 2010 Legislative Conference.  This year’s conference was particularly important for the four NTEU-represented FIRREA agencies:  OCC, SEC, FDIC and NCUA.  Union members from the four agencies combined in rarely seen, cooperative efforts to develop a national agenda for the federal regulatory agencies.  With this agenda, members from all four agencies blanketed congressional members with a unified message.  We specifically targeted congressional members of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), given the potential for upcoming regulatory reform. 

Congressional members were impressed to hear OCC members arguing passionately for concerns of the SEC and FDIC, as well as concerns of their own agency.   Throughout Congress, it was the same scene with SEC and FDIC examiners frequently arguing for and supporting OCC related issues, as well as their own.   Our unified agenda consisted of three items:   

1. Collective bargaining over pay and benefits at the OCC,
2. An independently funded SEC, free from the appropriations process, and
3. The ability of FDIC employees who previously worked as temporary liquidation employees to purchase retirement credit for the years in which they were classified as “temporary employees.” 

(Please refer to our Home Page for additional detail: “Financial Regulatory Agency Legislative Issues.”) 

OCC members argued for an independently funded SEC.  We noted that, unlike the FDIC and OCC that are free from the appropriations process, the SEC collects fees sufficient to cover the entire cost of their operation.  However, all fees are turned into Treasury, with their budget then decided via appropriations.  For example, not knowing what their long term funding is has prevented the SEC from modernizing its information technology systems.  While the number of firms the SEC supervises has exploded, its staff has declined during this same period.  We believe most members of Congress now understand that financial markets are not self-regulating and require federal oversight. 

Likewise, temporary liquidation employees at the FDIC often worked for years along side with FDIC employees.  However, the “temporary employees” did not accrue retirement benefits during that time.  We argued that these employees who subsequently become permanent employees should be able to buy into FERS for the years of service that they were classified as temporary.

NTEU members from all financial regulatory agencies noted to Congress that the OCC is the only such agency represented by NTEU that lacks collective bargaining over pay and benefits.  Congressional members and staff were surprised to understand that the basis of this related to Civil War era, enabling regulation.  Generally, NTEU lobbyists reported back that most members of Congress were supportive and that regulations needed to be drafted to reflect a modern workforce.  We also reported to Congress on the OCC’s refusal to provide any meaningful information under the Freedom of Information Act in response to employees concerns about the fairness of the agency’s management performance system.

We were also fortunate to have a NTEU-arranged meeting with staff from the HFSC and members of a consumer advocacy group.  These sessions often included educating Congressional members and their staffers about the work we do and their need to support us on our issues.   This included candid discussion of the need to ensure that inherently governmental work (such as supervision of the country’s financial institutions) is actually performed by government employees. 

On that basis, NTEU members challenged providing any additional regulatory authority to the FED.  We noted that actual supervisory work is performed by employees of the individual Federal Reserve Banks.  Those examiners are NOT government employees and are not subject to the same federal ethic guidelines and background checks that federal employees are.   The Federal Reserve Banks also lack uniform examination procedures, and there is wide disparity of examination practices between the individual reserve banks.  Members were candidly told by one NTEU member that “the FED primarily is concerned with monetary policy, safety and soundness is its step child, and consumer compliance is its bastard child.” 

Other Highlights from the Conference

On opening day, NTEU National President Colleen Kelley shared stories of the heroic acts of IRS employees who (amid flames, smoke, and debris) risked their lives to assist each other when a plane deliberately crashed into their office building in Austin, Texas, on February 18.  NTEU paid tribute to 27-year IRS collections manager Vernon Hunter and announced a scholarship in his name.  Ms. Kelley also shared a letter from President Barack Obama addressing the critical issue of federal employee safety, which is posted on the White House blog.

We were joined at the conference by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY).  Sen. Mikulski expressed her concern about employee safety and vowed to stand side-by-side with federal employees on a variety of important issues, including those dealing with federal contracting. Rep. Lowey, sponsor of H.R. 1881, a bill to provide collective bargaining rights for employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said employees in that troubled agency need both a clear career path and respectful treatment from management.

Later in the week, we heard from Jeffery Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and co-chairs  the newly formed National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations with Director John Berry of the Office of Personnel Management.  Director Berry also joined us on the Hill at an NTEU sponsored reception and roamed the audience taking candid one-on-one questions from NTEU participants.

Throughout the week, delegations of NTEU members participated in Capitol Hill meetings with Senators and House Representatives from their states and districts, providing to them information on NTEU’s priority legislative issues for 2010. They include:

• TSA bargaining rights;
• Appropriate agency funding and efforts to return in-house federal work that has been contracted out;
• A range of issues impacting employees of the Department of Homeland Security, including an increase in the journeyman level for Customs and Border Protection officers and Agriculture Specialists, and repeal of authority for the agency’s failed human resource management system;
• Parity in military and civilian pay increases;
• Winning the right for federal retirees to use pretax dollars to pay health care premiums as well as the repeal of the Social Security offsets that penalize federal retirees and their spouses; and
• Securing affordable health care, including support for more transparent management of prescription drugs costs as a key step in holding down premium increases in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

From the OCCNTEU Home Page, check out the detail sheets for NTEU's "Union Legislative Issues."

NTEU was a force to be reckoned with this week on Capitol Hill and we will continue to be a force for the future as we organize, mobilize and deliver real change for those who do the work of our country.

Editor's Perspective on the 2010 Legislative Conference

This was my first opportunity to attend this conference, which by name was somewhat of a misnomer.  While we certainly convened from time to time for lunch and various speeches from congressional and union leaders, we were in point of fact blanketing Capitol Hill as lobbyists.  It was not at all what I expected.

In what required an incredible amount of scheduling and coordination, NTEU divided all of the 'delegates' into 30 or so geographical focus groups.  Over a two-day period, they scheduled roughly 6-8 appointments a day for each group (more for some) with congresspersons or their staff members representing the geographic area for that group.  In some instances, some groups, including members from financial regulatory agencies, scheduled separate meetings specifically with members of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee (as you read above).  You do the math.  We met with a substantial portion of Congress. 

Two major discussion points emphasized at the outset by our speakers and during our meetings: the disparity of treatment experienced by TSA employees and physical security in light of the Austin tragedy.  Obviously, the latter is very current on everyone’s minds, and it certainly begs the question about the security and safety of many buildings housing government agency offices, that simply are not secure.  The government created the TSA to address security deficiencies nationwide after 9/11.  However, without form, substance, and most importantly leadership, the agency has devolved into a shop that basically mismanages its workforce.  We certainly addressed both of these issues in all of our meetings, in addition to those you read about (above).

As a newbie, I have some definite takeaways for next year's newbie’s, which also provide some additional perspective on what the conference process was all about:

• Attend the pre-conference (pre-lobbying) training.  It lends focus to the task, particularly if you do not know what the task is when you get into DC.
• Stay on point with the priority legislative issues.  In most cases, there was time to get through all of them in our 30 minute meetings.  Unfortunately, there was a couple times (or more) where we hopelessly got bogged down with individual agency minutia. 
• After a couple meetings, if you identify very capable speakers in your group, make a group effort to appoint and allow them to hit the high points.  It is almost impossible for everyone to get a word in.  I had the benefit of two bright and articulate individuals, one from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the other from the IRS.  They allowed others to chime in at the appropriate time and hit on all the issues, including OCC issues.
• On the less serious side, be aware right upfront that there are tunnels connecting the Congressional office buildings.  When you have back-to-back meetings, sometimes in different buildings, security is a hassle if you are entering and exiting each building.
• For the men, always remember after you go through the building security, you probably wore a belt walking into that building.  And,
• You will be walking all over Capitol Hill.  Do not wear hard-soled shoes.  If you do, at the end of three days, you will die.

I never expected this type of experience.  It was great and totally invigorating.  I never expected to see how the government operates in this fashion.  I hope to see it again; it is empowering.  Most importantly, interfacing with other agency union members allowed me to see more clearly how the union makes differences in all of our agencies.  That is not always clear until you take a step a back and get a better perspective of the bigger picture.  The National Treasury Employees Union is not just for Treasury any more.

Expanded Grades at the OCC

Last week the OCC announced that it is looking at expanding certain jobs and pay bands at the agency.  As indicated in the announcement, NTEU was “briefed” on the overall concepts.  At this point, NTEU is generally supportive of the issue.  However, as with anything, the devil is always in the details.  OCC is in the very advanced planning stages of this program, having informed the NTEU that they are “about 90 percent there.”  Management has consulted with the NTEU and asked us to provide our thoughts and comments to the plan.   NTEU’s overriding concern in this matter is that the process is fair and credible; that increases are applied uniformly to positions (not to individuals); and that the entire process is transparent to all employees.

 As always we want to hear your feedback, good, bad or indifferent. Write us at this website.

A seat at the table, professionalism and fair and equitable treatment of employees…union values that you can count on (through out the year)!!!