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Washington, D.C.—Delegates to the 53rd National Convention of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today re-elected Colleen M. Kelley to her fourth, four-year term as president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Delegates from agencies throughout government and from across the country re-elected Kelley by a margin of 86 percent to 14 percent over her lone challenger.

Kelley was first elected to the top NTEU office in 1999. Also re-elected to a fourth term by the convention delegates who are meeting in Seattle this week was National Executive Vice President Frank Ferris.

“I am honored by the privilege to continue my efforts to move NTEU forward, to help ensure the voices of federal employees are heard in Congress and in their agencies, and to work to see that the public recognizes the dedication, commitment and professionalism of the federal workforce,” President Kelley said.

In remarks to convention delegates, President Kelley took note of the continuing political attacks on federal employees and said that it is would be easy to become frustrated and give up in these challenging times but that NTEU will never give up.

“At NTEU, we are relentless, and because of that we are successful,” Kelley said.

Even as NTEU fends off these attacks, President Kelley said, our members have remained focused on the important work they do for the country. This includes collecting taxes, helping protect the borders, feeding schoolchildren, safeguarding retirement savings, protecting the banking system, monitoring nuclear materials, providing services to the elderly and the disabled, printing the nation’s money, preserving national parks, and much more.

“No matter what else is going on,” she said, “the American people can count on our members, and our members can count on NTEU.”

Kelley is a former federal employee and has been and remains an outspoken advocate on behalf of federal workers, taking the lead, among other areas, in ongoing efforts to limit federal contracting and to bring contracted work back into the hands of trained, accountable federal employees.

She also is the leader in pursuing the development of labor-management collaboration in the federal sector, and successfully pressed for an executive order reestablishing a mechanism for frontline employee pre-decisional involvement across government.

At the same time, she is a strong supporter of the notion that federal agencies require adequate resources, including personnel, technology, equipment and more, in order to carry out their missions.

To that end, she frequently is invited to testify before members of Congress on appropriations matters, and on such important questions as federal recruitment and retention, the pay and benefits of the federal workforce, aspects of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and more. Kelley began her career as a Revenue Agent with the Internal Revenue Service and served as president of NTEU Chapter 34, representing IRS employees in Pittsburgh.

As the nation’s largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.