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Washington D.C. – The National Treasury Employees Union today released its blueprint for how President-elect Joe Biden’s administration can repair the labor-management relationship and harness the full power of the federal workforce to tackle the nation’s most complex problems. 

“A new administration is an opportunity to collaborate on restoring the executive branch agencies to the standards that the American people deserve and expect,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon. 

NTEU’s blueprint, “United for America,” was delivered to the Biden transition team and released publicly on Tuesday. It includes a series of recommendations for rescinding President Trump’s executive actions that undermined the civil service by weakening collective bargaining and pressuring agencies to run roughshod over employee rights. 

“There is a clear path to undoing the damage done by the outgoing administration, one that will put the Biden administration on solid footing by restoring the ability of federal agencies and their employees to meet their missions with professionalism and integrity,” Reardon said. “Everything we recommend is designed to improve the federal workplace in a way that benefits employees, agencies and the quality of services they deliver to the American taxpayers.” 

The document addresses steps to correct the imbalance Trump created within the administrative boards that are supposed to be neutral arbiters of disputes between employees and supervisors. NTEU is recommending a series of changes in the appointees to those boards, including the Federal Service Impasses Panel and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which in four years have upended legal precedent with decisions that disproportionately favored management. 

“Not only were Trump’s appointees ideologically opposed to unions, many lacked experience in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and were unqualified for the positions they held,” Reardon said. 

NTEU’s full list of recommendations can be found here.

NTEU also recommends shoring up the budgets of the IRS and Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations as critical steps to collecting the revenue the federal government is owed and rebuilding the economy.

NTEU represents about 150,000 employees in 33 federal agencies and offices.