Union Delegation Meets With Congressman Massie

A group of NTEU representatives who live in Kentucky met with Congressman Thomas Massie at his office Crescent Springs in December. The meeting was part of a continuing union effort to save jobs at the IRS in Covington.

NTEU73 President Rick Riley presented the Congressman with a wish list of things that could help , including a request for funding from Congress that would be earmarked for the Service Center to bring other IRS work into the Covington area. Another proposal was to stop using independent contractors to do IRS work. NTEU has long opposed the using of contractors to do work that federal employees should be doing.

Congressman Massie was very supportive as he does not like the idea of losing Kentucky jobs either. He is the second Kentucky Congressional leader to which the chapter has reached out, the first being Senator Mitch McConnell.

“I am going to leave no stone unturned in trying to everything I can to save these people’s jobs,” said Mr. Riley. “We all understand that it is an uphill fight. But I am very encouraged at the reception we have received so far.”

The annual NTEU Legislative Conference will be held beginning February 28 in Washington. Each year, National NTEU sponsors the event when union leaders from around the country meet with their Congressmen and Senators to push federal employee issues such as pay, benefits, etc.

“This year, I plan on being prepared to talk to these people about the consolidation,” said Mr. Riley. “We plan on having proposals in hand including a specific amount of funding that would be needed to move jobs here. This is something we are working on very seriously.”

The union has a team in place to deal with employee consolidation issues which is headed up by Thomascina Braswell.