Your job is at risk. Right now, 1812 jobs are scheduled to be eliminated here in  Andover and moved to Texas by October 1, 2009, unless we can get that changed. Below are the latest developments on this very important issue and other news of   interest to NTEU Chapter 68 members.

• April 16, 2008 - Letter to Commissioner Shulman
  
  Washington, D.C. - We write out of concern for the many employees who process paper tax returns and field constituent calls on a daily basis at the Internal Revenue facilities in Andover and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. These hardworking men and women have dedicated years of service to the IRS and local community. They are skilled employees who are vital to our nation's tax system and our region's economy.   Read More

• April 16, 2008 - Call for Delay in Planned IRS Andover Cutbacks
  
  Washington, D.C. - A group of Congressional lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire today called on the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to push back to 2012 from next year the agency's planned shutdown of its paper tax return processing operation in Andover, Mass. Thousands of IRS employees work at the Andover Service Center, a major tax return processing facility. In a letter circulated by Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.), the Massachusetts and New Hampshire legislators said the planned 2009 target date is based on a projection contained in the 1998 IRS Reform and Restructuring Act that 80 percent of individual federal tax returns would be filed electronically by 2007.   Read More

• September 25, 2007 - Major Arbitration Victory
  
  When management refused to extend the term of the national agreement on June 30, 2006, NTEU set in motion several national grievances to challenge the legality of management’s actions. NTEU received a decision on the first of those three cases in July when an arbitrator ruled that management had engaged in “bad faith” bargaining by repeatedly violating the law during negotiations over ground rules for a new contract. NTEU also received a decision in a second case when a different arbitrator ruled that management was wrong to have unilaterally terminated the partnership agreements as well as the contract clauses it deemed permissive. There is also a third case that has been filed that deals with NTEU's refusal to let management propose changes in term contract matters by using its right to initiate mid-term changes. We expect that decision in about two weeks.  Read More

• July 17, 2007 - Senate Appropriations Committee seeks to prevent reductions in the workforce or elimination of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax centers
  
  The language in the in the report that accompanies the Appropriations bill states that no funds would be made available to make personnel changes or close facilities by the IRS until the IRS submits a formal report to Congress defending its actions. This request appears in the Committee’s recommendations for the budget for Fiscal Year 2008.  Read More

• July 12, 2007 - State delegation asks IRS Acting commissioner Brown to save Andover Jobs
  
  Massachusetts senators and congressmen are asking the acting IRS commissioner to keep 1,800 jobs at the Andover Service Center where submission processing jobs are to be phased out over the next two years.   Read More

• June 29, 2007 - Senators seek to replace outsourced collection jobs held by private contractors with new ACS jobs to be placed at the Philadelphia Service centers.  Read More

• June 7, 2007 - Former Mellon Bank supervisor pleads guilty in tax return shredding case
  
  In April 2001, Mellon Bank held a contract to process tax returns and remittances for the Internal Revenue Service in Pittsburgh. The tax returns were to be sent to the IRS, Andover Service Center, in Andover, Massachusetts. Under the lockbox contract, Mellon was required to meet a program completion date (PCD) of midnight, April 29, 2001, for the processing of tax returns, vouchers and payments received at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. Timely completion of the work would have enabled Mellon Bank to avoid penalties and fines, and obtain renewal of the lockbox agreement.
  
  In April 2001, approximately 77,000 U.S. tax returns and payments, valued at $1.3 billion, were hidden and later destroyed by Mellon employees to give the false appearance of meeting the project completion date of April 29, 2001.    Read More