NTEU and IRS agree on ground rules for a new contract - IT IS ABOUT TIME!
The ground rules have been approved and mediation/arbitration remains in the process.
Since the IRS insisted on breaking away from a 30 year old tradition with NTEU and no longer agree to well established ground rules for negotiations, NTEU has declined to meet at the bargaining table to discuss a new contract. Management wanted to change "every sentence" in the term agreement with the belief that any disagreements would be heard by the pro-management/anti-union Federal Service Impasses Panel that President Bush had appointed. NTEU was left with no choice but to fight management's plan any way possible in order to keep political appointees from setting the terms of the IRS contract. So now, in short, we have a professional collective bargaining neutral, not a campaign contributor to settle issues in our union contract.
With clear ground rules for dispute resolution, "the game is now on!" Negotiations on our new contract will begin on October 17 and are scheduled to go through February 13th. IRS and NTEU bargaining of
