Federal Employees Have New Union Leader
The National Treasury Employees Union instated Tony Reardon as president of the Union. The Treasure Employees Union is the second largest federal employee union. Reardon has spent the last 25-years working as a staff member for the NTEU, but has never actually held federal employment. He won the election with 89 percent of the vote.
Reardon will replace former executive vice president, Colleen M. Kelley who served as president for 16 years. Members of the National Treasury Employees Union comprise federal employees from over 31 different department and agencies totaling some 85,000 members.
Reardon says some of the most pressing issues surround federal benefits include fair pay. He wants to address multiple pay freezes as well as years when pay increased only 1 percent. He said that ensuring federal employees receive fair pay is especially important.
Additionally, Reardon is a proponent for protecting government retirement benefits. He said, “We want to make sure we are protecting federal retirement. Federal employees deserve a secure and fair retirement. They signed on with the expectation they would get that modest retirement, and ultimately they earned it,” according to a question/answer session with the Washington Post.
Reardon also noted that proposals to weaken the federal retirement program are particularly disheartening, considering that so many individuals of government retirement age do not have enough money saved up for retirement. “Federal workers spend their professional lives serving their country and deserve the modest retirement income they were promised and earned,” he said.
Ensuring that all federal agencies, and particularly the IRS, will also be a major focus on Reardon’s time as union president. Reardon feels that providing fair budgets is essential to ensuring that all agencies function properly. He noted that ensuring the IRS has enough funding is vital to the success of the rest of the federal entities because the IRS funds the rest of the government.
Finally, Reardon wants to help protect safeguard employee rights. There have been several moves to remove the union from the IRS entirely, which Reardon says would be a mistake. “Eliminating or restricting due process will discourage workers from speaking up and expose employees to unfair treatment,” he said in the question and answer session.
Reardon says he plans to work from former president Colleen Kelley’s groundwork to protect federal employment and federal benefits.
While Reardon has never been a federal employee, he has worked for the NTEU for 25 years and served as the vice president for the NTEU. His tenure as vice president put him in the position to serve as a chair of the IRS term bargaining team as well as a chair of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection term bargaining team. He has worked closely with many federal employment organizations and spent more than 10 years as the NTEU Chief Operation Executive. His leadership and management skills include day-to-day operations, NTEU convention organization and national training conferences.
Colleen Kelley oversaw major changes to federal employment benefits during her tenure including sick leave credit in the FERS that can used toward retirement. She was also integral in the integration of flexible spending accounts as well as saving many FDA labs.
