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Washington, D.C.—A key member of the congressional leadership today urged members of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers to explain to the American people across the country why it’s so important for the views of federal employees on workplace issues to be heard.

“No one is better versed in the details” of federal programs and issues than are front-line workers, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told a Capitol Hill rally of members of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “We’ve got a perspective,” he said. “We know what’s going on.”

Rep. Hoyer spoke to a crowd of NTEU members gathered on the West Front of the Capitol for the rally as part of the union’s annual Legislative Conference. The rally was led by NTEU National Executive Vice President Frank Ferris; NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley was presenting testimony before a House Government Reform subcommittee on the impact of new personnel regulations at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Standing with the crowd on the Capitol grounds in frigid weather, Rep. Hoyer referred both to President Kelley’s testimony and the DHS regulations in his remarks. He said the NTEU leader is “putting on the heat inside” the Capitol “and you’re turning up the heat on members of Congress out here.”

The Maryland Democrat, who serves as the House Minority Whip, took aim at the new DHS regulations, which severely cut back employee collective bargaining and due process rights, and curtail meaningful independent third party review of disputes.

“Collective bargaining is absolutely essential in a free society,” he said, sharply criticizing the administration’s stated preference for extending the untested, untried personnel rules from DHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) throughout the entire government.

“They are for doing away with collective bargaining,” he said. “They philosophically don’t believe in it.”

And that’s why, Rep. Hoyer said, it is vital for NTEU members nationwide to explain to people in cities and towns that meaningful employee input into workplace decisions impacting working conditions can improve the quality of government service to the public. He noted, for example, that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) got into trouble with drug safety issues “because they haven’t listened to their own employees.”

On another NTEU priority issue, Rep. Hoyer urged continued pressure on Congress from NTEU members and chapters in the fight for military-civilian pay parity in 2006. The administration had proposed a 3.1 percent raise for the military and a 2.3 percent raise for federal civilian workers.

“The military can’t be successful unless civilian federal employees do their jobs effectively,” he said, adding that “we’re going to pass pay parity” for 2006 with bipartisan congressional support.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing more than 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.