In addition to contacting local legislators, NTEU73 Rick Riley has been in contact with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. He met with him here in Covington during his visit and recently sent a message to him via email. Here is Mr. Riley’s email:
Good Morning Commissioner Koskinen,
Happy New Year Sir, I pray you and yours had a great holiday season. I want to thank you for naming the negotiator.
We have been informed that we will receive a briefing next week and hopefully we can get these started very soon. I’ve been thinking about this very hard and it came to me, besides the mitigating strategies already in the contract, I realized we have a real opportunity. I’ve outlined my ideas in the document attached.
Mr. Koskinen, I really do think this idea, is a good idea. We would need to flesh it out, but in the end, it would be great for both the IRS and employees. If you would like to ask me any questions, please feel free to call. I hope we can include these ideas into our negotiations when they start.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this. I know it is as important to you as it is to me.
Mr. Riley received a response from the Commissioner.
In part, the Commissioner said: “I am pleased that we’re starting the negotiations provided under the contract well in advance of the normal, one year timing. And I agree that we shouldn’t be limited to the items specified in the contract as mitigations. As we discussed during my visit to Covington, we all have a joint interest in doing whatever we can to make sure that all 1,800 employees affected in Covington have a good landing spot at the end of the two + year transition.”
“I am very encouraged with what he said and feel optimistic about getting something to done to save these jobs,” said Mr. Riley. “It is certainly the most important single issue of my presidency.”