AFEU-IFPTE Local 30 Delegation Meets Virtually with Congresswoman Speier

IFPTE Local 30 President Suzanne Meyer and Vice President for Legislative Affairs Jonas Dino led a delegation of Local members in a meeting with Congresswoman Jackie Speier (CA-14) to discuss employee concerns, including:

• Continuing bipartisan support for NASA’s missions and budget;

• Ensuring the new NASA core value of “Inclusion” is implemented into actual recruitment, retention and hiring practices;

• Continuing leave flexibilities for parents of school aged children engaged in remote learning;

• Preventing abuse of term hiring authority at NASA;

• Ensuring that on-site essential work at Ames continues to be performed with adequate safety procedures in place, appropriate PPE available and continued transparent communication from management to staff, and that any expansion of on-site work prior to the advent of a COVID-19 vaccine be done with great caution and labor consultation; and

• Raising concern for Ames employees adversely affected by current fires in the San Francisco Bay Area

IFPTE Western Federal Area Vice President Lee Stone attended and raised some national concerns related to the anti-fed Executive Orders:

• Unilateral imposition of a contract on our Social Security Administration judges;

• Ongoing effort to decertify our Immigration judges' union; and

• Potential decertification of DoD Locals

The meeting ended with an expression of IFPTE’s gratitude to Rep. Speier for her ongoing support for NASA and federal workers, and to Speaker Pelosi for standing firm on ensuring that the next COVID relief package contain support for state and local governments so that frontline public-sector workers can be protected.