With the influx of new hires in every division except Collection we have realized that the IRS has begun bringing in people who are not aware of what government work entails. This has led to talks with new members which tell us that they are signing up without exactly knowing what they are getting themselves into. A check of the IRS web site dedicated to recruiting showed the depth of the problem. The agency paints a rosy picture of working for the IRS. How rosy? If they were under oath, these liars would risk a perjury indictment. Luckily for them the law seems to wink at false claims when it is done in the name of "recruiting." Now most of their lies are lies of omission. They don't say that they offer free health insurance. They say they offer health insurance and don't tell you how much it is going to cost you. It's that kind of lie. The kind of lie you'd expect from a used car salesman in a cheap suit. People who do not know IRS management expect integrity. We, of course, know better. Our problem with this is that when new recruits find out they have been sold a bill of goods they complain to the union. We are sympathetic but the way the system works, there is not a lot we can do for them BEFORE they are hired. In an effort to address this problem we have added a separate set of pages to our web site entitled: What They Won't Tell You About Working for The Internal Revenue Service. You can find a link at our home page www.nteu53.com or http://www.homestead.com/nteuch53/TinAd.html We have listed this new site with individual search engines as the goal is to reach people BEFORE they sign on the dotted line. So, if you have any enemies who want to work for the government (we can't believe you'd recommend this mad house to your friends) you might show compassion and send them to our web site so they can at least make an informed decision. We leave the choice to you and your conscience. |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Vol. 23, No. 3 The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves Sep 20, 2006 |
HER HIGHNESS OF HOBOKEN By Mike O'Grady |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Published by NTEU Chapter 53 George Greenberg President Bob Schillaci Editor 107 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. 1180 Veterans Highway Garden City, NY 11530 Hauppauge, NY 11788 516 683-5679 631-851-4965 |
EMPLOYEE WISECRACKS |
Bushwhacked...Junior Red States.........................Blue States One Issue Crosses the Great Divide |
EDITORIALS |
CHAPTER 53'S NEW PUBLIC SERVICE WEB SITE |
An LMSB agent with a good system for meetings: It's a good thing I am deaf in one ear because I can only hear half the crap. |
SERFER GIRL |
A Little Humor |
Last year NTEU Chapter 53 held an election for chapter president. Unbeknownst to our members this election was an exercise in futility as Janine Davitian, NTEU National Counsel, has in effect declared herself in charge. "Her Highness of Hoboken" has unilaterally usurped the right of the local Chapter President to request invocation of arbitration on Chapter 53 cases. Invocations ordered by her would potentially commit Chapter 53 funds on arbitration cases that in the opinion of the local chapter leadership do not merit invocation. She reneged on a 10/24/05 promise to drop her "protective invocation" on such a case. She promised to drop this "protective invocation" after the period for filing an unfair labor practice regarding the case expired. She then brought in a field rep not assigned to Chapter 53 to insure that an arbitration hearing on another unworthy case was held within six months. Meanwhile cases that the local chapter leadership considers to be meritorious, with issues that could potentially have a seriously negative impact on the bargaining unit, awaited a hearing date. These cases include management illegally bypassing a candidate for a promotion. This candidate held a priority consideration for about nine years for the position in question. Another case dealt with the issue of a management official rejecting an employee suggestion, subsequently resubmitting the suggestion as his own six months later and receiving a substantial award for the suggestion. The two cases cited above have languished for roughly three years without having an arbitration hearing date scheduled. Perseverance on the part of the Chapter 53 Executive Board resulted in hearing dates finally being scheduled for these important cases. They are scheduled for hearing in the fall of this year provided Her Highness doesn't kill the cases. Her Highness of Hoboken refuses to answer phone calls from the local chapter president and makes him contact her through the field rep assigned to Chapter 53. We are aware of no other chapter president subjected to this special restriction. Meanwhile she makes decisions that impact Chapter 53 without consulting with the local Chapter President. Her Highness of Hoboken refuses to answer the concerns of the local chapter officials and takes umbrage when these same officials elevate their concerns to Colleen Kelley's staff. In the past her Highness has said there is only one civilized person in Chapter 53. He is now retired and resides in a western state. We don't know why she treats Chapter 53 like a bunch of barbarians; last time I checked our dues money was as green as anybody else's. Her Highness' arrogance is nothing new. After the last Chapter 53 election in 2005, Her Highness of Hoboken determined she is above labor law by decreeing that sealed NTEU Chapter 53 election material be sent to her office by the opposition candidate for chapter president instead of said material being maintained by the elected local chapter Secretary as per the statute. The current Chapter 53 Secretary STILL does not have possession of the 2005 Chapter 53 Election Material. The Chapter 53 leadership regularly writes and calls the palace in Hoboken in an effort to resolve these issues. We receive a healthy dose of Her Highness' wrath but we keep persevering. We have gone so far as to elevate our concerns to NTEU National President Colleen Kelley via a series of E-mails. Several Chapter 53 board members received a response from Colleen Kelley that condones Her Highness' course of behavior. Maybe the Labor Department will show more interest in her Highness' actions than National NTEU. It is amazing that an individual, Janine Davitian, who was not even elected to a position in NTEU believes she can control and commit Chapter 53 funds. So Janine, "Who died and made you Queen?" |
With the influx of new hires in every division except Collection we have realized that the IRS has begun bringing in people who are not aware of what government work entails. This has led to talks with new members which tell us that they are signing up without exactly knowing what they are getting themselves into. A check of the IRS web site dedicated to recruiting showed the depth of the problem. The agency paints a rosy picture of working for the IRS. How rosy? If they were under oath, these liars would risk a perjury indictment. Luckily for them the law seems to wink at false claims when it is done in the name of "recruiting." Now most of their lies are lies of omission. They don't say that they offer free health insurance. They say they offer health insurance and don't tell you how much it is going to cost you. It's that kind of lie. The kind of lie you'd expect from a used car salesman in a cheap suit. People who do not know IRS management expect integrity. We, of course, know better. Our problem with this is that when new recruits find out they have been sold a bill of goods they complain to the union. We are sympathetic but the way the system works, there is not a lot we can do for them BEFORE they are hired. In an effort to address this problem we have added a separate set of pages to our web site entitled: What They Won't Tell You About Working for The Internal Revenue Service. You can find a link at our home page www.nteu53.com or http://www.homestead.com/nteuch53/TinAd.html We have listed this new site with individual search engines as the goal is to reach people BEFORE they sign on the dotted line. So, if you have any enemies who want to work for the government (we can't believe you'd recommend this mad house to your friends) you might show compassion and send them to our web site so they can at least make an informed decision. We leave the choice to you and your conscience. |
Starting in 2005, National NTEU caught up to Chapter 53 and stopped participating in the IRS' outrageous Employee Satisfaction, or was that Engagement, process. We gave it up years ago because local management was simply going through the motions and then patting themselves on the back. We're not saying "we told you so." We were glad enough when National realized that the IRS was wasting everyone's time. Once National dropped out of the process the IRS' survey participation numbers sank quicker than the Titanic. That is all they deserved. Part of our objection, and we assume National NTEU's as well, was the tendency of 'embarrassing questions' to disappear from future editions of the survey. If the IRS got a zero on a question like "Upper Management is totally honest" you could bet your ass that you would not be seeing that question on the following year's survey. So we were elated to learn from Govexec.Com on August 29th that the Office of Personnel Management as part of a new law, has directed Federal Agencies to include 40 specific questions in new surveys and IRS management is not going to be happy. Some of their old friends are coming back to visit. Yes, questions that the IRS was only too happy to dump are now back for all to see. "Happy in your work?" "Satisfied with your paycheck?" "My workload is reasonable." The all-time favorite is back, too..."How satisfied are you with the policies and practices of your senior leaders?" These surveys will be used to compare agencies on the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government web site. The IRS did not do so well last time and with real questions we suspect they will do even worse. As the IRS is not rigging the game any more, you might wish to tell OPM what you think. The IRS will STILL not do anything about it but at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are embarrassing Everson and his collection of toadies. |
In this critically divided country of ours, one must give George Bush credit for finding an issue which unites people from both sides of the spectrum. Liberals, conservatives and independents, across the country are united that the contracting out of tax collection is one stupid idea. Bush must also get credit for appointing Mark Everson as IRS Commissioner. Before joining IRS Everson worked for a company which handled 'food service' for airlines. One imagines that his toughest decision was working out how much money his company could make by giving you nine peanuts per bag instead of 10. Last March, Everson actually admitted during testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee that IRS employees could do the job far cheaper than the 22-24% that would be paid to contractors. Predictably, Congress did not react well to this news. New Jersey Representative, Steve Rothman said, "this got everybody screaming with its audacity, with its wastefulness, with its arrogance, with its inexplicability." With all due respect to the congressman, this is no surprise to us. In the May 15, 2005-edition of The Dodger we noted the safeguards which congress had put in place to protect the government from the misconduct of contractors. For them to pretend now, that they had no idea what was going on is a bit hard to swallow. Nonetheless, they seem to have gotten the message. The House has barred the IRS from continuing the program in 2007. If the Senate goes along and if Bush doesn't veto the bill, the project will end. That's a lot of 'ifs', though. We know the government has a short memory. In 1874 an earlier private collection experiment under the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant ended in scandal. The House Ways and Means Committee investigated and concluded that outsourcing tax collection served no useful purpose. Perhaps people were smarter back then? In the modern case, the three contractors selected so far are to be handed up to 40,000 delinquent accounts in which taxpayers owe $25,000 or less. For the sake of argument, let's assume they are successful. Each case would then be earning between $5,500 and $6,000 whereas an IRS employee could do the job for $750 or so . . . maybe less the way they pay people in W & I. This is not about efficiency. It is part of a long standing Bush Administration goal to diminish government and reward political donors. All the rest of their rationalizing is just hot air. Continuing the history of taxation we note that the Roman Republic used tax farmers, called publicani. The publicani would bid for the right to collect taxes in the provinces, pay the amount of the bid to the treasury and then see what they could extort from the locals. They kept any excess which was quite an incentive. Emperor Augustus put an end to the practice because of corruption....and he wasn't even on the Ways and Means Committee. We suppose that given that this whole idea of bringing back private collectors comes from Bush, we should call his contractors the Re-Publicani. Has a nice ring to it. |
IRS Commissioner, Mark Everson, while on a union-busting tour of the Mid-West, suddenly found himself feeling ill. He called the hotel doctor to his room. The doctor examined him with a worried look on his face and backed away. "Sir," said the doctor, gravely, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you have an advanced case of high infectious rabies. You must have had it for some time. Soon you will be frothing at the mouth. It will almost certainly be fatal." "I see," said the Commissioner. "Would you get me a pen and paper?" "Of course," said the doctor, "do you want to write a will?" The Commissioner answered, "No. I want to make a list of all the people I want to bite. |
SOMETIMES THERE IS JUSTICE |
SO, WHAT ARE THEY UP TO? |
Many of you must be wondering what the IRS is trying to do with its hardball approach to new contract negotiations. It's really very simple. They seek to benefit from five years of Bush Administration appointments to the Federal Services Impasses Panel. As federal employees are not allowed to strike, any bargaining dispute goes to the FSIP who is supposed to weigh the evidence and issue a determination. They don't do that anymore. "Good faith bargaining" is a stretch for IRS management at the best of times. Now they are relying on the fact that the referees have been replaced by pro-management appointees. We will know for sure when they present their bargaining issues. We expect them to try to set back the rights of IRS employees to the mid-1950's and to try to make it damn near impossible for NTEU to give you effective representation. They will go through the motions of bargaining as usual, declare an impasse when NTEU resists their barbarism, and wait for their fellow travelers to 'award' them everything they want to take back from you. Keep an eye on Flexplace and AWS for starters. If you think the IRS was Hell before wait till the next contract is "awarded" to management. |
Leave it to the federal government to find the most expensive solution to a problem. -San Antonio Express News (Texas) Mark Everson, the IRS Commissioner, should fight hard for the resources the agency needs to do the job it clearly does best. Instead, he supports private collection, allowing the administration and Congress to indulge the fiction that they are saving money. - New York Times Tax collection is a government job, and the government can do it well if it has the resources. - The Arizona Republic |
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This looks like a typical case of unnecessary Republican privatization of a legitimate government function. Politicians sell the idea by saying it will be more efficient but on further review that proves not to be true. - St Petersburg Times (Florida) For a party dedicated to fiscal responsibility (at least rhetorically) the Republicans in this instance seem badly adrift. Deceptive bookkeeping will not alter the fact that, under the new system, collecting back taxes will cost all Americans more. - The Providence Journal (Rhode Island) Everson said the private collection effort will begin with "a modest number of cases" and then will "ramp up deliberately and very carefully" to ensure that taxpayer privacy is protected. Right. And the check is in the mail. And I'll still love you in the morning. -The Statesman (Austin, Texas) |
We all know that the IRS is a backward organization hopelessly behind modern times. Chapter 53 has discovered a segment of this Reorganized/Dismantled IRS that is so primitive that it applies the medieval principles of feudalism in its daily operations. We have learned that the Long Island TCO territory under the ironclad rule of Linda Barthel employs the concept of tying the serfs to the land. Prior to the great Dismantling of the IRS in 2000 it was not unusual for employees in office audit to obtain the necessary additional education and advance to the Revenue Agent position where higher grades were available. Nowadays the IRS is so fragmented that each territory acts as an entity unto itself. These new dukes and duchesses fight with each other for the scant resources that are available much as the feudal lords fought amongst each other during the Middle Ages. We have found that Linda is very effective at looting and pillaging a neighboring fiefdom. Instead of taking her employees off-line and reducing her closings, she been able to use the staff of Mike Bernstein to benefit her program. She has raided his manor by using his employees as on-the-job instructors to train her new hires. It's no skin off our nose but it isn't like Bernstein to get hosed like that! It must burn his ass. Meanwhile she has successfully protected herself against losing resources. Linda knows she can't attract outside hires even if she had permission to do so due to the low pay in comparison to the credentials the IRS requires for the TCO job. In order to keep her serfs tied to her land she has adopted the approach of keeping her employees' appraisals at an artificially low level thus ensuring that they will never be able to compete for any jobs outside her territory. The appraisals are kept low despite the fact that the her serfs have worked the TCO program so effectively that they met the area's fiscal year exam plan in just 10 months and were congratulated by the area director. In years past we knew of a manager who complained that while his "team" contained all All-Stars they were in last place! In other territories outstanding evaluations and even additional promotions have accompanied a highly successful program. This is not the case in the Long Island TCO fiefdom. In one particular case an employee has effectively worked their inventory and served as an on the job instructor yet the employee's annual appraisal was too low to even be competitive in a recent Revenue Agent package. Another employee has served as a formal instructor and an OJI, but the annual appraisal does not indicate that the employee is performing at a superior level. Linda's 'team' apparently contains nothing but second-stringers to read the appraisals which Linda ghost-writes for her managers, but they still manage to be champions! To us, this does not compute. The first few grievances filed over this issue showed that Area Director, Bill Marshall, did not agree, either, as he significantly raised the appraisals in question. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in blatant retaliation from managers who like to lose even less than they like not meeting their program! A word of caution to anyone applying for a TCO job on Long Island, it is like the Roach Motel, you can check in but you can't check out! Once again we are shown what hypocrites we have in management. They bombard us with the propaganda that the IRS wants their employees to reach their full potential. Yet in reality, as is the case all too often, an individual manager's self interest comes before fair and equitable treatment of the employees. |
