NTEU chief stands firm as agencies seek to terminate contracts

National Treasury Employees Union National President Doreen Greenwald said Tuesday that while her union has gotten “some lovely mail” in recent days, its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service and another Treasury Department agency remain in full effect, as far as she’s concerned.

Last week, IRS and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service informed NTEU that they planned to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with the labor group, seeking to finalize implementation of President Trump’s 2025 executive order aimed at stripping two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights on national security grounds.

While many agencies named in the anti-union edicts formalized their compliance by cancelling their labor contracts last August, the Office of Personnel Management advised against terminating CBAs with NTEU, as federal appellate judges presiding over a lawsuit from the union warned that an order allowing other elements of the executive orders to go into effect was in part predicated on agencies’ refraining from doing so. Last month, OPM changed its guidance and suggested agencies may begin terminating NTEU contracts, though it denied that it was encouraging agencies to defy any court orders.

Speaking with reporters at NTEU’s annual legislative conference, Greenwald said the union will continue to seek enforcement of its contract in negotiations, grievances and arbitration, with management in absentia, if necessary.

“IRS said it was taking this action based on the guidance that OPM put out [last month],” she said. “That guidance referred back to the executive order last year. But nothing has changed [since last August]. From our perspective, the executive order is illegal, and any steps to enforce it are also illegal. We still have a valid contract.”

That attitude is reflected in a letter sent from Greenwald to Bureau of the Fiscal Service Chief Administrative Officer Amanda Kupfner last week and obtained by Government Executive.

“BFS cannot unilaterally end a CBA with the exclusive representative of its bargaining unit; to the contrary, BFS must have a CBA with that exclusive representative,” she wrote. “And regardless of whether BFS continues to recognize NTEU as the exclusive representative of its bargaining unit employees, there is no dispute that the Federal Labor Relations Authority certified that status, as your memorandum acknowledges, and has taken no action to undo it. So, under Section 7114 of Title 5, BFS must maintain its CBA with NTEU and cannot purport to end it.”

Greenwald told reporters that the continued viability of NTEU’s contracts with agencies are particularly important as the Trump administration pushes forward with wholesale changes to federal personnel policies, most notably Schedule F or Schedule Policy/Career, which is set to take effect next week, and OPM’s proposal to institute a forced distribution of federal workers’ annual performance ratings, as the CBAs would force management to negotiate over how those policies are implemented. Greenwald noted that her members have already reported the informal implementation of caps on top performance ratings, mandated by agencies’ political leadership.

“One of the most critical things a federal employee will tell you is the importance of a fair and accurate appraisal,” she said. “What’s concerning about the rules the administration has put out there is a push to lower current appraisals using that [forced distribution], telling managers, ‘You can only have so many employees with a certain score, regardless of their performance.’ That’s very concerning. There’s language in our contracts about how appraisals should be done, and we’re pushing to make sure they’re followed.”

She said the ability for an employee to grieve their performance rating—a right that would be removed under OPM’s plan—is particularly important during periods of high management turnover.

“We see quite a few grievances happen because of performance management, especially in the last several years where government has had a hard time keeping people in management positions,” Greenwald said. “So you have a lot of actings who may not be fully trained or skilled yet in how to evaluate employees. Having a solid grievance procedure allows workers to highlight projects they’ve worked on and their accomplishments, particularly if a manager has only been around for a few weeks.”

Ultimately, NTEU is fighting for recognition of its contract at IRS because it makes the agency more flexible and efficient, contrary to the administration’s claims that it unnecessarily hamstrings them, Greenwald said.

“When you have, as IRS does, a very thorough contract negotiated by both management and the union, you have a well operating work environment,” she said. “If there are problems, there is a clear path to get them resolved and addressed early on. People can take leave, and they can be rewarded for their good work and contributions toward the success of the mission. Whether you can go on a detail, how you apply for a job, how you’re evaluated, how you’re disciplined—and then ensuring it’s appropriate to correct the behavior—all these things are covered by the contract. If you take that away, you’re going to have chaos.”