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Washington, D.C.—When more than 400 National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) chapter leaders and activists from around the country meet with their federal legislators this week, they will carry with them the concerns and views of tens of thousands of federal workers on issues that impact the entire nation.

The issues range from the privatization of federal jobs and plans to do the same to Social Security to sweeping changes in personnel rules that threaten the delivery of vital government services to the impact of inadequate pay and benefits on the ability of federal agencies to recruit and retain high-quality employees.

These matters, which NTEU has identified as its priority legislative issues, will be the focus of the union’s 2005 Legislative Conference, which opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow and continues through early Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of Capitol Hill visits are planned by the NTEU activists.

The opening session of the annual conference, at Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel near Capitol Hill, will feature remarks by NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA). It will include a Wednesday noon rally on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, and will conclude with a Thursday luncheon featuring remarks by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD).

“These are not federal employee issues alone,” President Kelley said. “There is a direct connection between these issues—privatization efforts, inadequate pay and benefits, stripping away of the right of employees to impact their workplace—and the ability of federal employees to serve the public with the programs that people want, need and expect.”

The emphasis of the NTEU leaders will be on carrying the message from their local members across the country that now is the time for Congress to address these key legislative issues in positive ways.

They will warn that the continuing administration effort to open up to outsourcing as many as one out of every two federal jobs to the private sector continues to wreak havoc on federal worker morale. “Our members will be trying to reinforce the growing bipartisan understanding on Capitol Hill of the devastating impact on federal employees and their agencies of contracting out,” President Kelley said. NTEU leaders will also warn Congress of the potentially dangerous effects of outsourcing tax collection work to private collection firms, particularly in the area of taxpayer privacy.

NTEU's message on Social Security will be that the administration’s plan for private accounts injects an unacceptable level of risk into this important program. The proposal jeopardizes future Social Security benefits and the secure retirement of the nation's federal workforce.

Legislative Conference attendees also will urge Congress to reject administration attempts to expand throughout the government the regressive personnel rules recently adopted by the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. President Kelley has said NTEU will strongly oppose any such effort.

Finally, NTEU members will say that federal pay and benefits that are not comparable with the private sector seriously impede government efforts to become an employer of choice, both for purposes of recruitment and retention. Federal pay lags behind that in the private sector; and the share the government pays of ever-rising health costs fails to match that paid both by private sector employers and state and local governments.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.