Represent all employees equally and democratically.

Strong leaders share power. We will serve as transparent, accountable leaders. We will never hoard power or information.

• Instead of only one bargaining-unit member meeting per year, we commit to at least one meeting every quarter.
• We will share our calendars so that our time spent working on behalf of the union is visible and accountable to the members.
• We will appoint a Democracy Committee to research and recommend common sense bylaws and processes to create a democratic union where every member exercises their power. We will make these changes sustainable so they outlast our term.
• We will not let management pit our diverse membership against one another, and we will represent DC and regional employees equally. We will take the fight to management, not to each other.

Increase the membership.

We only have 58% dues-paying members. To most employees, the union is invisible, or worse, another bureaucracy to navigate. Imagine what we can accomplish if we activate the entire bargaining unit to not only become dues-paying members, but to participate in every aspect of our grievances and negotiations. To do this, we need to nail the fundamentals of union organizing:

• an accurate and up-to-date member list
• transparent, frequent communication
• grassroots-owned strategies for winning the top priorities of all our workers.

Recruit, train and empower stewards. 

To recruit members, we need empowered stewards.

• We will hold regular biweekly meetings so stewards can report back the valuable work they are doing to represent their bargaining unit colleagues.
• We envision an autonomous, empowered and knowledgeable cohort of stewards who will lead us to win better working conditions for everyone.
• We will recruit the maximum number of stewards we can have under our contract, to represent the full diversity of our workers.
• Every steward will meet one-on-one at least monthly with the president, vice president, or vice president of the field, to ensure access to the leadership and accountability for the leaders and the stewards.

Stand up to management proactively, not reactively. 

We have given up our power – we celebrate a 2% raise that barely keeps up with inflation as if it’s a massive win. We cannot sit back and wait for management to offer us terrible deals. We have to show our strength before we get to the table. We do this through protected concerted activity that show our power: flyering, tabling, picketing, petitioning and other actions. The purpose is to make our demands loud so they cannot be ignored. Plus, it’s fun.

Hold NTEU National accountable

As dues-paying members, we expect accountability and responsiveness from our national representatives. We deserve a binding vote on any article to do with pay. We will require transparent and aggressive negotiations and representation for our members. We need democracy and accountability for our local chapter AND with the national union.

Our top issues for workers:

Pay equity and salary reviews

We propose an education and organizing campaign to win pay equity for underpaid employees. Salary review grievances are our most common type of grievance. Human Capital is violating their own pay setting procedures and our contract by denying so many salary review requests for arbitrary reasons. We’ll wage a protected concerted activity campaign to hold them accountable and make them change their ways. We are doing this no matter the outcome of the election, but having seats on the board will give us more resources to succeed.

Paid parental and family leave

Did you know that the Washington Post union won 4 weeks of paid parental leave last year, and built on that campaign by winning 20 weeks this year? And the FDIC’s NTEU chapter has a tentative agreement for 6 weeks paid parental leave in their new contract. We will organize our members to contact their Senators to pass federal employee paid family leave, while also building a campaign to win paid family leave in our own contract.

LGBTQ+ rights

LGBTQ+ people are under attack by the current administration, which threatens our work and our workers. We continue to fight for equality and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees and for equal consumer protections for the public we serve. This includes making sure our workplace is welcoming to LGBTQ+ employees and that training is in place to educate managers about our rights. When management fails to speak up for trans and gender nonconforming employees, we support each other with the union via tabling, flyering, petitioning and other signs of solidarity in the office. Together we’ll demand legislation and court decisions that protect gender identity and sexual orientation under civil rights law. We’ll hold the Director accountable to maintain the CFPB’s protections for LGBTQ+ Americans under fair lending laws. We’ll create guidelines for employees on accessing gender affirming medical care. And we will continue to visibly and vigorously oppose policies that roll back protections for queer and trans Americans.

DC office move

Once the move is complete, we anticipate more issues will arise. If more negotiations are needed, we’ll require the Bargaining Committee to represent a diverse group of DC-based employees on these issues and to report back regularly during any negotiations. Agreements will require a majority ratification vote by affected dues-paying members.

Your issue here: Organize a Campaign Committee

What concerns are you hearing from your colleagues? Whose voice isn’t being heard? How do you want to improve our workplace? Organize groups of stewards and employees around an issue campaign and a set of goals. Once a Campaign Committee’s goals are approved by board vote, the committee makes decisions and conducts the campaign autonomously, so long as it continues to report back to the board and to the steward and bargaining unit meetings.