Long-Serving NTEU President Announces Retirement

Colleen Kelley, the face of the National Treasury Employees Union at pay and benefits hearings, Capitol Hill protests and in the news media, will retire this August, NTEU announced on Wednesday.

In a memo to chapter presidents, Kelley—first elected in 1999 after 14 years as an Internal Revenue Service agent—said she believed the union is well-positioned to “make a transition this summer,” and that she is “in awe every day” of the union’s work and proud of its current state.

Representing 150,000 employees at 31 agencies including Customs and Border Protection workers at Homeland Security and attorneys at the Securities and Exchange Commission, NTEU and other federal employee unions have struggled in recent years against sequestration, pay freezes, furloughs and legislative proposals to cut federal retirement benefits.

Kelley's accomplishments highlighted by NTEU included ending the IRS' outsourcing of tax debt collection to private agencies and protecting employees’ collective bargaining rights at Homeland Security. “Kelley is visibly active across government in the fight to rein in government contracting and to return contracted work into the hands of trained and accountable federal employees,” NTEU said. “She also plays a leading role in the effort to restore labor-management collaboration to the federal sector.” The union also credited her with negotiating with the Office of Personnel Management to give federal employees Flexible Spending Accounts.

Kelley will be retiring to spend time with her family in Pittsburgh. An election for a new national president will be held at the NTEU convention this summer.