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