New Year, New Opportunities
This past year was a time of great progress and achievement for NFFE and its members. We have seen vast improvements in our organizing, stepped up our communications and secured a series of significant legislative victories.
Now, with 2010 in full swing, we are looking to build on these successes and bring our union to even greater heights. In this spirit, I would like to share with you some of the many priorities that NFFE will pursue as 2010 continues to unfold.
In the early days of this year, we announced the formation of the Federal Workers Alliance (FWA), a coalition of 21 unions representing federal workers. FWA members will work together in solidarity to promote favorable legislation and personnel policies for the more than 300,000 combined federal employees it represents. Working side by side with our union brothers and sisters on these matters benefits us all.
Another important relationship we are looking to cultivate is that between labor and management at the many agencies we represent. We intend to play a very active role in the formation of new agency partnership councils. Our goal is to build a strong foundation for robust and productive dialogue to take place between workers and their managers.
We have an ambitious legislative agenda for 2010. Among our numerous legislative priorities this year, we hope to secure pay parity between military and civilian employees, establish a paid parental leave benefit, and to obtain the benefits that many temporary federal employees are denied.
Lastly, NFFE will continue to focus on organizing and engaging new members. With the new Organizing Strategic Plan in motion, we are committing significant time and resources to growing our union. By year's end we anticipate greater growth in members than we experienced in 2009.
With your help, I am looking forward to making 2010 the best year ever to be a NFFE member.
William R. Dougan
Federal Retirement Reform Act of 2009 Passes House
Friday, April 10, 2009
(National Federation of Federal Employees)
The House of
Representatives passed HR. 1804, the Federal
Retirement Reform Act of 2009, a bill that will
give FERS employees credit for unused sick
leave upon retiring and automatically enroll
new hires in the Thrift Savings Plan.
As Vice Chairman of the
Employee Thrift Advisory Council (ETAC), an
advisory body to the board that oversees the
TSP, NFFE National President Richard N. Brown
has urged automatic enrollment of new hires for
years:
“Automatic enrollment in
the TSP is crucial to the future retirement
security of incoming federal employees,” said
Brown. “For years, new employees have been
leaving free money on the table because many
aren’t aware this opportunity is available to
them.”
Sponsored by Rep.
Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
the bill is essentially an amalgamation of
numerous retirement policy bills that had been
introduced earlier in the 111th
Congress.
In addition to
the sick leave benefit and automatic
enrollment, the legislation also contains
provisions to create a Roth Individual
Retirement Account within TSP, as well as
expand the authority of the TSP advisory board
to protect employees’ investments. Furthermore,
the legislation will allow former FERS federal
employees returning from a period in the
private sector to reinvest their retirement
savings and receive credit for their previous
time in the civil service.
