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The NTEU family is mourning the loss of former National President Colleen M. Kelley, who died on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
The NTEU family is mourning the loss of former National President Colleen M. Kelley, who died on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Kelley retired from NTEU in August 2015 after 16 years as National President and 35 years as an NTEU leader.
A certified public accountant, Kelley joined the IRS as a revenue agent and worked in the Pittsburgh office for 14 years.
Kelley never intended to become a union leader, but injustices in the workplace made her get involved. She became a union steward in 1980 and was elected president of Chapter 34 (IRS Pittsburgh) two years later. Kelley moved to NTEU’s Washington, D.C., headquarters in 1988 to serve as the membership director and later became NTEU’s second in command before she was elected to NTEU’s helm in 1999.
Kelley’s legacy runs the gamut from convincing the Bush administration to create Flexible Spending Accounts for federal employees to pressuring the Obama administration to respond quickly to the cyberattacks on millions of federal personnel records maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.
She led the campaign to end the IRS program to privatize the collection of unpaid tax debts, won an enhanced law enforcement retirement benefit for CBP Officers, reined in federal contracting and led the way in restoring labor-management collaboration at federal agencies.
Kelley was respected and admired by members of Congress, agency heads, other union leaders and—most importantly—from NTEU members. She will be greatly missed.