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Philadelphia, PA—The leader of the union representing some 150,000 federal employees told more than 350 delegates to the organization’s national convention today that they and every member of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) “must prepare for a coordinated, grassroots stand against the arbitrary contracting out of federal jobs.”

In her keynote speech to NTEU’s 48th National Convention, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said that fighting Bush administration proposals to contract out increasing numbers of federal jobs “will be a major ongoing challenge in the months ahead.”

Kelley is an outspoken critic of federal contracting out of government work, including administration efforts to deliver on a year 2000 Bush campaign promise to contract out 425,000 jobs and a White House directive earlier this year that federal agencies contract out more than 127,000 federal jobs over the next two years alone.

“These arbitrary quotas, this headlong dash to send federal jobs to the private sector puts at risk the jobs of our members,” Kelley said, “despite the fact there is no workable system right now requiring agencies to track whether current contracting efforts are saving money, and whether contractors are delivering services on time and efficiently.”

NTEU’s four-day convention opened today at Philadelphia’s Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, and will run through Thursday. In addition to Kelley, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) spoke to delegates, as did two Philadelphia-area members of Congress, Reps. Robert Borski and Chaka Fattah, both Democrats.

In addition to emphasizing NTEU’s continuing fight for greater accountability in federal contracting processes and procedures, Kelley called for continued strong effort by NTEU members nationwide on what she called “our unfinished work” in the 107th Congress.

She identified those issues as the union’s legislative priorities of winning higher federal pay, adequate funding for federal agencies—particularly for the Customs Service, which she called “dangerously underfunded”—and repeal or reform of a section of the 1998 Internal Revenue Service restructuring act that unfairly targets IRS employees and which has significantly eroded morale at the agency.

Kelley has been a leader in the fight for higher pay for federal workers as the key to helping make the government a more competitive employer and head off what is widely viewed both inside government and out as a looming “human capital crisis.”

The NTEU leader recounted the union’s legislative, political, legal and negotiating activities and victories since its 1999 convention, and emphasized in particular the continuing key roles IRS employees are playing in the massive restructuring and modernization of that agency.

On that subject, she declared that “we stand at an important crossroads,” and said that for the modernization to realize its full potential for the American people, “NTEU leaders and front-line managers will have to be truly empowered to solve problems at the lowest possible level.”

IRS modernization, she said, “remains a top priority for NTEU. We have accomplished a great deal, but there is much work that remains.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU’s representation extends to employees in 25 agencies and departments.