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
House Committee Approves Federal Employee Parental Leave Bill
Thursday, May 7, 2009
(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Wednesday, the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee
passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental
Leave Act (FEPPLA), H.R. 626/S.354, a bill that
will give federal workers a minimum of four
weeks paid leave to care for a newly born,
adopted, or fostered child.
Under current law,
expecting parents may take up to 12 weeks of
unpaid leave to care for their
newborn, forcing them to use sick and annual
leave to make up for the lost time. To Rep.
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who is the original
sponsor of the bill, this is
unacceptable.
“The current recession
only makes paid family leave more important. No
federal employee who’s a new parent should be
forced to choose between their paycheck and
their newborn – or newly adopted – child in
those vital first few weeks home,” Maloney
said. “As the nation’s largest employer, the
federal government can – and should – lead the
way on this issue.”
Today, many private
sector employers provide workers with paid
parental leave which, along with comparatively
higher salaries, put the federal government at
a competitive disadvantage in recruiting new
talent. Oversight and Government Reform
Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY)
recognizes that this bill will be key in
closing this gap.
“The country is better
served by an experienced and productive federal
workforce that is able to adequately provide
for the health and well-being of their newborn
or newly adopted children,” said Chairman
Towns. “The federal government is becoming an
increasingly aged workforce so we must begin to
implement workplace benefits that allow us to
be as attractive, if not more attractive, than
the private sector. By doing so, we can create
the most skilled and effective workforce for
the future.”
The bill will now move on to be
considered by the full House of
Representatives.
