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Border Shooting Underscores Need to Extend LEO Status A dangerous incident last week involving two CBP Officers is a stark reminder of the need to grant law enforcement officer (LEO) status to these employees. Last Tuesday afternoon, two fleeing murder suspects sped their car past CBP Officers at a border crossing in Blaine, Wash. The officers fired shots to stop the suspects who were subsequently apprehended. "This incident clearly illustrates that CBP Officers are trained and are expected to act as law enforcement professionals," said President Kelley, who visited with NTEU-represented CBP employees at Blaine just one day before the shooting. For information on how you can help secure LEO status for CBP Officers, click here or visit <http:// capwiz.com/nteu/issues/ alert/?alertid=7322351 &type=CO>.

NTEU Arbitration Win Highlights Importance
Of Transparency in Any New Pay System
As the administration continues its push for a government-wide pay-for-performance system, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said she hopes the secrecy exhibited by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in making awards is not a sign of things to come for all federal employees.

President Kelley issued this statement on the heels of an arbitration decision the union won for thousands of CBP employees who may not have been properly compensated under the agency's 2005 awards program. The arbitrator ruled that CBP illegally terminated the negotiated employee awards procedures when it unilaterally imposed its own system. CBP has been ordered to rerun the awards process using negotiated procedures.

NTEU followed up with a grievance filed Friday to force CBP to follow past practice and make public its 2005 nominations and award recipients. This will enable employees to determine whether these awards were made in a fair manner.

“Why the secrecy? Is this the administration's vision for a pay-for-performance system at the Department of Homeland Security and beyond?" President Kelley asked. "Any system that is not fair, transparent and credible to employees will be unsuccessful and open to the same criticism levied at this awards program.”

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.cbpunion.
org /PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=806>.

New NTEU Benefit Gives Members a Chance to Save
NTEU has added a new benefit to its fold that offers members preferred interest rates on a number of savings products from MetLife Bank®. Members can now take advantage of group rates on high-yield savings products such as money market accounts, savings accounts and certificates of deposits. Through the Automated Savings Program, NTEU members can authorize MetLife Bank to make regular transfers from their account at another financial institution into their high-yield savings or Met money market accounts.

For more information on this new NTEU benefit, click here or visit <www.nteu.org/
MemberBenefits/DiscountsMem.aspx>.

NTEU Wins Discrimination Cases On Behalf of Two IRS Employees
NTEU recently won two separate cases resulting in thousands of dollars for one IRS employee and a promotion for another. Both experienced discrimination in the workplace.

The first case involves a visually-impaired employee who scanned documents for the Service Center Recognition/Image Processing System (SCRIPS). The employee, a 20-year IRS employee and member of NTEU Chapter 247 (IRS Austin Compliance Center), successfully performed her work until 2001 when the IRS switched her job duties to data entry. While the employee received some accommodations, the IRS denied her the adaptive equipment she needed, claiming that she did not have a qualifying disability. NTEU took the issue to arbitration and won the employee $35,000 in damages for the negative impact the IRS's treatment caused her professionally and personally for four years. In her decision, the arbitrator ruled that the employee does in fact have a qualifying disability, and as a result, the IRS is required by law to install suitable adaptive equipment so that she can do her job.

In the second case, a deserving Las Vegas-based Revenue Agent will receive a retroactive promotion thanks to a grievance NTEU settled with the IRS. NTEU maintained that the employee, an African-American woman, had been denied a promotion on the basis of her race. The IRS offered the Chapter 85 member some compensation, but she held out and NTEU helped her secure the promotion for which she was qualified.


Headlines

NTEU Makes News With Call to Bring Contracted IRS Work In-House
Private sector contractors had a chance to deliver effective, cost-efficient services to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and failed. Now, the agency should use recently-enacted legislation to bring work it previously contracted out back into the hands of federal employees. This message, contained in a letter sent last week from NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, was highlighted in articles on several news web sites.

This is not first NTEU letter to the IRS to make news in recent weeks. The union made headlines earlier this month when it publicized a letter President Kelley sent to Commissioner Everson alerting him to concerns employees expressed over contractors collecting and sending to the IRS information on taxpayers' political affiliations. Hours after NTEU sent out a press release revealing this breach of taxpayer privacy, the IRS told newspapers it would instruct contractors to stop sending the political information.

To read NTEU's press release on contracting out at the IRS and related news coverage, click here or visit <www.nteu.org>.