NTEU should order employees to telework after irs lost and did not appeal
I believe the NTEU should have some teeth and order all union members to start teleworking and those saying we are striking, it is not a strike. NTEU should send a mass email:
“Effective August 20, all bargaining-unit employees should resume the telework schedule they had in effect before March 8, 2025. If management directs you to report in person, contact your NTEU representative and follow these instructions…”
this is not a strike.
What NTEU is describing is essentially:
- NTEU won the arbitration.
- The arbitrator ordered the IRS to restore telework/remote work to the pre–March 8, 2025 levels.
- NTEU believes the IRS did not timely appeal, which would make the award final and binding.
- NTEU is seeking enforcement of that victory, rather than asking employees to strike.
- If NTEU eventually tells employees to resume their prior telework schedules, that would be employees exercising the rights NTEU says they already won, not a strike.
A strike generally involves employees collectively withholding their labor or refusing to work as a form of labor action. Working from home under a telework entitlement is still working.
The caveat is that if NTEU gives employees a specific instruction to telework despite an IRS order to report physically, there could be a legal dispute over whether that instruction is protected and how the agency can respond. That’s different from calling a strike.
So IRS can take the union to court like what trump did to us, the union should react and have the agency take the union to court. Take the battle to the agency.
UNION STRONG?