Thank You, Federal News Network!

Posted on By Paddy Shea

Local 1998 thanks the Federal News Network for their Advocacy.

From America’s first published newspaper on September 25, 1690, by Benjamin Harris in Boston, and going forward to today’s journalism by print newspapers as well as online news reporting, the work journalists do to investigate and report news and information is vitally important to our lives as American citizens.

Local 1998 appreciates the Federal News Network’s interest in capturing the lives of the workers within the U.S. Department of State’s Passport Services in two recent articles (see links below).  Local 1998 is grateful to FNN journalists, and other FNN staff, for their work to bring attention to the issues facing federal government workers.  Thank you, Federal News Network!

‘What happened to all of our funds?’ Passport services staff, exempt from shutdowns, working without pay

‘We did not expect this’: State Dept laid off passport planning staff, after telling them they were exempt

In Solidarity,
Boyd Hinton

President
NFFE Local 1998

https://nffe1998.org/

Screenshot of headline of FNN article with the headline: ‘What happened to all of our funds?’ Passport services staff, exempt from shutdowns, working without pay

 

Screenshot of headline of FNN article with the headline: ‘We did not expect this’: State Dept laid off passport planning staff, after telling them they were exempt

In The News, Message from the President

Passport Employees RIF’d without their Bargaining Agreement Rights, after Dept of State Repudiates their CBA

Posted on By Paddy Shea

Local 1998 opposes the Department of State’s decision to implement Reductions in Force (RIFs) this past Friday.  

On March 31, 2025, the Department of State repudiated its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with Local 1998 for the bargaining unit employees within Consular Affairs’ Passport Services.

On July 11, 2025, the Department RIF’d employees in the Office of Planning and Program Support.  Employees in that work unit had been protected under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Staff had been led to believe their positions were safe, and even some of the management officials declared, “we did not expect this.”

Local 1998 will be considering additional litigation in response to these RIFs, since management reneged on our CBA, which provided rights to the grievance-arbitration procedure for breaches in contract.

In Solidarity,
Boyd Hinton

President
NFFE Local 1998

https://nffe1998.org/

Message from the President

Local 1998 Wishes Lee Wentz a Happy Retirement!

Posted on By Paddy Shea

Photo of Lee Wentz wearing a spring green button-up shirt.
Local 1998 wishes Lee Wentz a Happy Retirement from his career in Public Service!

Lee began his federal career in the Summer of 2007, during the first ever “passport surge,” at the Philadelphia Passport Agency as a Passport Specialist.

Lee became a member of the Union in 2010, and shortly afterwards that year, he was elected as the Senior Steward for the office. After that, as the years unfolded, Lee held positions such as Trustee, Recording Secretary, and Vice President, and began his role as the President in August 2019, and then was elected in for another term.

Lee was involved with the Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime Settlement designating passport employees as having rights to time-and-a-half overtime rights. Lee also advocated and administered rights to employees under two Master Agreements – and he was one of the negotiators and signers of the December 2018 Master Agreement. As the President, Lee faced and overcame challenges with administering collective bargaining rights and representing Department employees, especially during the Pandemic.

During his term as President of this Union, Lee was awarded Consular Affairs’ inaugural 2022 Passport Services Award for Excellence in Professionalism, which was presented to him by a Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of State. Lee also met with several key leaders within the Department of State to bring awareness of our collective bargaining partnership and rights in the passport workplace. This included three meetings involving former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Lee’s public service was outstanding, both for the American public in his role as a passport specialist, and for U.S. Federal Employees in his role in the American Labor Movement. We celebrate his work and wish him a wonderful retirement!

In Solidarity,
Boyd Hinton
President of NFFE Local 1998

Message from the President

PM Update: Guidance on OPM’s Saturday “5 bullets” Email

Posted on By Paddy Shea

This is an afternoon update to our post this morning regarding OPM’s Saturday email asking staff to report to them with 5 bullets on their work activities last week.  

At the end of the day, it is up to each BUE if they choose to reply to the OPM email or not, but below we are sharing 3 messages with you to help you make an informed choice.

1.) Click here to read advice from our parent union, the National Federation of Federal Employees (“NFFE National”) which was emailed out to subscribers at 1:02 PM ET today, 2/24/2025.

2.) DAS Pierce sent an email at 12:00 PM ET today, 2/24/2025, that said: 

Subject: In Case You Missed It: Update on the OPM Email

Hello Passport Services,

You may have received a message from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (HR@opm.gov) requiring you submit five work-related accomplishments for last week.  In case you missed it, per Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy’s email the State Department will respond on behalf of the Department.  No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.

This is the most current guidance we have at this time. We will let you know if we receive any other updates.

Thank you for your continued service to the American people.

Matt Pierce
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services

3.) During the “PPT 2025 Vision Townhall” from 2:00-3:00 PM ET today, 2/24/2025, DAS Pierce reiterated that Ambassador Nagy’s email was the most recent guidance we have received.  He said, “nobody is required to respond. Nobody will be penalized for responding.  We do not have further guidance to share at this time.”

Click here to read our initial post on this from this morning.

Executive Orders

Guidance on OPM’s Saturday “5 bullets” Email

Posted on By Paddy Shea

On Saturday, OPM sent out an email asking federal government workers to “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

Click here to read advice from NFFE National President Randy Erwin about how to respond.

Here is an excerpt of his letter:

February 23, 2025

NFFE members and Bargaining Unit Employees,

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has sent out an email asking federal employees to respond with five bullet points regarding what they worked on last week. Most of the emails federal employees received state the deadline to respond is not until Monday. The email does not threaten termination or implied resignation, however, Elon Musk posted on Twitter indicating failure to reply would be considered a resignation.

NFFE believes this email and the threat by Elon Musk are illegal. We advise you to forward the email to your immediate supervisor and ask for their guidance. If your immediate supervisor does not give you instruction to reply, please wait to respond until further notice is given by your agency, your supervisor, or NFFE. If your immediate supervisor advises you to reply to the email, please do so.

OPM and Elon Musk do not have legal authority to take personnel action based on this request. This is yet another ploy by the Trump Administration and Elon Musk to create an atmosphere of intimidation and is not a legal manner to manage America’s largest workforce.

Click here to read the rest of President Erwin’s message.

Passport bargaining unit employees were also sent an email on Saturday from Ambassador Nagy that said:

You may have received a message from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management requiring you submit five work-related accomplishments.  The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department.  No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.

Click here to read an article about the situation, including the President’s post about it.

Update: Click here to read our update posted at 3:30 PM 2/24/2025.

Executive Orders

Advice Regarding Probationary Layoffs, RIFs, and Future Trump-Musk Actions

Posted on By Paddy Shea

Hello to ALL Bargaining Unit Employees,

The past few weeks have been a very tumultuous time, with people being cajoled to resign, and threatened with potential mass firings.  We hope that working for Passport Services will insulate us from firings, and the fact that we got a hiring freeze exemption is hopeful, but we do not know what the future holds.

Please know that your union, both NFFE Local 1998, as well as our parent union, the National Federation of Federal Employees (“NFFE National”), are working hard to protect your rights.  On behalf of NFFE Local 1998, I have filed grievances in response to the rollouts of some of the Executive Orders that violate our collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Simultaneously, NFFE National has been advocating for federal government workers on national news broadcasts, and in myriad ways, such as gathering and distributing information.

Please click on this hyperlink to see guidance from NFFE National which contains information that is important for all federal government workers to know, and especially for probationary employees. Being as knowledgeable as possible can help folks feel a bit less stressed while we go through this period of uncertainty, and being prepared gives workers a better chance to win back their jobs if firings do occur. For instance, having a copy of your eOPF available to you at home is important; click here to read how to download your entire electronic personnel file (eOPF) at once.  (I also emailed both of those resources to your work email address.)

NFFE Local 1998 and NFFE National will keep working hard for BUEs.  And, in case you haven’t heard it lately, I want to thank all BUEs in all parts of Passport Services for the hard work you do every day to ensure American citizens have the freedom to travel the world.  The work you do matters.   

In Solidarity,
Boyd Hinton

President
NFFE Local 1998

https://nffe1998.org/

Message from the President, NFFE National