ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Following a dispute between two members of the NCUA board, the agency has released to CUToday.info a chronology of updates that were provided to board members related to negotiations around its collective bargaining agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union.
As CUToday.info reported here, NCUA recently reached a new five-year deal with the NTEU, which represents approximately 950 of NCUA’s nearly 1,200 employees and about 150,000 bargaining unit employees in 30 federal agencies and departments.
NCUA said the agreement modernizes its employee pay and benefits program, keeping it competitive with the other financial services regulators as required by law, and that it also incorporates additional cost controls, such as pay caps at each pay grade.
The agreement between NCUA and the union, however, has not been a source of agreement among NCUA board members, with Board Member Mark McWatters issuing a statement that he was not provided with ongoing updates on the negotiations. NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz has disagreed with that assertion.
In response, NCUA provided CUToday.info with the chronology of negotiations and the information shared with board members, below.
In a statement, NCUA said “the NCUA Board delegates authority to the executive director (Mark A. Treichel) to appoint a chief negotiator with full authority to negotiate an agreement on behalf of the agency. NCUA’s chief negotiator and the agency’s executive director periodically briefed every NCUA Board member on the key elements in the negotiations. At critical points during the negotiating process, when changes were needed to primary negotiation parameters or upon reaching critical milestones, the chief negotiator provided every Board member with e-mail or in-person updates to affirm bargaining strategy or to discuss significant proposals, and solicited feedback. Any Board member was free at any time to express concerns, raise objections, suggest alternatives, or ask for further information.”
The chronology of events, as provided by NCUA:
7/29/2014 – 7/30/2014: Chairman Matz and Board Member Rick Metsger were each briefed individually and in-person in preparation for collective bargaining agreement negotiations and strategy. (McWatters was not sworn in until 8/26/2014)
9/19/2014: First briefing with Board Member McWatters in-person on collective bargaining agreement negotiations and strategy.
9/22/2014: Multiple bargaining sessions began and continued through January 2015.
01/26/2015: Some changes discussed in initial Board briefings started to emerge and were presented to all three Board members via e-mail from the chief negotiator. E-mail concluded with: “If you have any questions, let me know.”
01/29/2015: Update e-mail sent from the chief negotiator to all three Board members before entering mediation session in February-March on remaining points. E-mail concludes: “I’ll keep you posted. If you would like more information, I can provide it.”
03/12/2015: Following mediation conclusion, e-mail sent from the chief negotiator to all three Board members that overall agreement is reached with NTEU. E-mail concludes: “I will reach out to your office to offer a briefing once I have the information finalized.”
3/16-3/18/2015: All three Board members were individually briefed in-person on the results of the negotiations and provided with an eight-page summary of the negotiated changes in the contract with associated cost estimates (savings and new costs).
In a statement, NCUA said Treichel was available to, and met regularly with, each board member, “affording them an opportunity to ask any questions or express any concerns about the negotiations or any other issues.”