NTEU Chapter 275 Newsletter

December 1, 2005

Welcome to your new Chapter 275 Website.
I would like to thank Dallas Area Vice President JaRue Addison who has worked very hard in bringing our new chapter website to fruition. Thank you JaRue!

Compensation Contract Negotiations

I sent a global e-mail to you on 11/15/2005 stating that NTEU and FDIC are scheduled for mediation Wednesday 12/7/05 through Friday 12/9/05. If an agreement cannot be reached through mediation then the NTEU and FDIC will go before the Federal Impasse Panel. The chances are not good that we will receive a favorable decision from the Federal Impasse Panel. If an agreement is not reached in mediation, then most likely the Federal Impasse Panel will rule in FDIC’s favor and leave the CSA program intact in its current format.

Several chapter members have inquired as to what we can expect in wage increases for 2006. Due to the current impasse over CSA, negotiations have not reached the point of discussing wage increases. However, I can tell you that it appears the General Schedule civilian federal employees will receive a 3.1 percent raise in 2006, with 1.0 percent of the 3.1 percent being designated as Locality Pay. My guess is that we will receive a pay raise of around 3.0 percent for 2006.

Good News

Chairman Powell’s departure from FDIC on 11/15/05 was good news for the bargaining unit employees of FDIC. However, do not expect any significant improvement overnight because the senior management team remains intact. Hopefully, once a new chairman is in place, he or she will change the climate at FDIC to one of a partnership between management and the employees. I am encouraged that none of the three individuals rumored as possible nominees for the vacated chairman’s position are community bankers. The comments in this paragraph are solely my personal opinion.

Rumored Nominees for Chairman of the FDIC

To date, three individuals have surfaced as possible nominees to become the next Chairman of FDIC. They are:

Diana Taylor, the Superintendent of the New York State Banking Department. Ms. Taylor seems to have a stronger belief in the need for bank regulation, which is in complete contrast to Mr. Powell’s ideology;
Jo Ann Barefoot, an Ohio bank consultant. Ms. Barefoot has worked at the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Home Loan Bank, and for the Senate Banking Committee; and
Diane Casey, Head of the American Community Bankers.

Remember, these are just rumored nominees. Vice Chairman Martin Gruenberg became acting FDIC Chairman on 11/16/05. My feeling is that his tenure may last a year. Why? Cutting his tenure short through a recess appointment would probably upset his former longtime boss, Senator Paul Sarbanes, the lead Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. This is the opinion of some insiders close to Capital Hill.

Legislative Contact

If you are concerned about the current condition of the FDIC’s supervisory arm (DSC) resulting from ill-conceived programs such as MERIT and Relationship Manager program, then now is a good time to voice your concerns. During the May, 2005 NTEU Training Conference, NTEU attorneys indicated that Senators and Congressmen stated that if they get 6 letters on 1 issue – they consider it a significant issue that needs to be addressed. Please check out http://capwiz.com/nteu for a handy program for generating letters to your local representatives. (Or you can reference capwiz through the legislative information button on the website). You can edit or change the text of the pre-developed letters on key issues involving Federal employees. The letters can be printed and sent the old fashioned way, or you can e-mail them directly from the site. You can also put the e-mail address on the right hand side where you want the e-mail to originate from. That way your letter will not be tied to your FDIC e-mail address.

CSA Survey

NTEU is in the process of conducting a three question survey on the CSA program on the NTEU national website. To date, we have only had 543 of the 3,200 BUEs participate in the survey. I encourage you to take the time to complete this survey.

For members:
https://www.nteu.org/Secure/Register.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMembers%2fDefault.aspx[Note: this requires members to login, under the heading for the FDIC bargaining update, click the link for "Tell us your views."]

For non-members:
www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=492671364155

Some members have indicated to me that they did not register because the website required them to give their social security number. However, you can register with your NTEU member number in lieu of your social security number.

Nationwide Agreement between FDIC and NTEU

The Nationwide Agreement dated 1/17/03 has a five-year term; however, Article 50 of the agreement allows for mid-contract negotiations on the original agreement. NTEU and FDIC entered into mid-contract negotiations with FDIC earlier this year on six articles of the agreement. We have completed negotiations on the Nationwide Agreement, but I have not yet received the final language.

Comp Time for Travel Policy

We are still negotiating over this one. There are three significant unresolved issues:

Waiting time and extended waiting time: Management has proposed covering normal waiting time of 1 1/2 hours, while NTEU has proposed 2 hours (to allow time for parking and transportation to the terminal). Management may revise its position on this. On extended waiting time, management proposed limiting this to a maximum of 4 hours, while NTEU proposed up to 8 hours. At our meeting last week, I suggested that we distinguish between waiting time due to a scheduled connection, which we could limit to 4 hours, and waiting time due to an unplanned delay (such as weather or mechanical problems), which could extend to up to 8 hours, or whenever the employee learns that they will not get a flight that day.
Duty Station Boundaries: Management proposed 50 mile boundaries, which they say are the same as are used elsewhere in the pay administration rules for OT and comp time. NTEU proposed that we use the same boundaries that are currently used in the definition of each office's defined commutable area (30 miles).
Intervening Weekends: At the meeting, the FDIC appeared to agree with our contention that return trips of less than 100 miles are required travel, and that comp time must be provided for these trips. However, management continues to oppose our proposal for comp time for longer return trips, even when restricted to a cost-comparative basis. They expressed concern that allowing this will result in a build-up of comp time hours, which would then result in disruptions to scheduling of work (exams).

Closing

I would once again like to thank JaRue Addison for all of her hard work in the creation of our new website. In addition, I would like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Ralph Stanley
Chapter 275