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Washington, D.C.—Amid the chaos caused by a plane deliberately crashed into their office building, with flames, thick smoke and dangerous debris everywhere, heroes abounded among Internal Revenue Service employees in Austin, Texas, on that fateful February 18.

One aided his disabled colleagues to reach safety; two others led co-workers out by helping break a window with a four-foot-long crowbar, allowing them to reach a ladder rescuers had put up; yet another stood by a door in a blackened room, calling out to those who were dazed: ‘Come to me. Come to the sound of my voice;’ and before he made his way out of the dangerously-damaged building, a manager made sure everyone in his area had gotten out.

These were some of the stories President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told hundreds of NTEU members from across the country gathered in Washington for the start of NTEU’s annual three-day legislative conference.

“Without the quick thinking and selfless acts of those employees, and others, this tragedy could have been so much worse, and many more lives could have been lost,” she said. One IRS employee, Vernon Hunter, was killed in the attack, and Shane Hill, a state employee, seriously injured.

The NTEU leader, who visited Austin and the IRS employees there in the days immediately after the suicide attack, told conference participants: “Witnessing their courage and resilience was a humbling experience for me, and one that gives me new inspiration to carry out our work today.”

Kelley said NTEU is working closely with the IRS and Congress on the safety of IRS employees nationwide and has been sharply critical of those who have made callous and thoughtless remarks and even jokes about the Austin attack. “Encouraging hatred and violence toward federal workers is unacceptable, and we’re not going to stand for it,” she said.

She was joined in addressing the NTEU leaders by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). Sen. Mikulski expressed her concern about employee safety—“I worry about you being on the front lines,” she said— and vowed to stand side-by-side with federal employees on a variety of important issues, including those dealing with federal contracting.

Rep. Lowey, who is sponsoring 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. “If we keep our eyes on the goal, and stick together, we will win,” she said.

Meanwhile, President Kelley applauded a House resolution condemning the Austin attack and honoring those injured, and welcomed a bipartisan show of support from legislators who took to the House floor to praise IRS employees for their dedicated efforts.

She asked the NTEU members who will lobby on Capitol Hill this week to invite their member of Congress to issue such supportive statements. Kelley also said she is pleased the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, chaired by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), is planning a hearing on the safety and security of federal employees. President Kelley announced a $5,000 annual memorial scholarship in conjunction with the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund (FEEA) in Vernon Hunter’s honor.

She used her opening remarks to update the NTEU members on the union’s aggressive campaign to organize TSA employees, and emphasized the union’s continuing efforts to win collective bargaining rights for them.

During their Capitol Hill visits, the NTEU members will advocate for TSA bargaining rights, an issue on which NTEU has taken a two-pronged approach—working with the administration to press for a directive allowing such rights and working with Congress to secure passage of H.R. 1881.

Winning TSA bargaining rights is among NTEU’s priority legislative issues for 2010, which also include 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; and securing greater transparency and oversight in the management of prescription drugs costs as a key step in holding down premium increases in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.