Category: Message from the President

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/

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

Happy fourth quarter to everyone. The end of the year is insight, and I hope everyone is planning to take some time off as we near the end of 2023. If not, please make sure you are getting plenty of rest as we are at the beginning of the cold and flu season.

As in the prior two years a meeting Secretary of State Blinken was planned with the three State Department Unions for this past August, but world events got in the way and the meeting was cancelled.

In September we were told the meeting would most likely take place in November. I was excited that we still would be having the meeting this year. But out of the blue the meeting was set up for September 28, 2023. Which for me was not a good day since I was supposed to be going on annual leave late in the day that Thursday. So, I woke up early on Thursday, September 28, 2023, and got myself down to Washington D.C. so I could make sure the voice of NFFE-1998 was heard by Secretary Blinken.

Unfortunately, our laundry list of issues had to be very short. So, after much deliberation the two main topics for discussion decided upon by NFFE-1998 were the following:

• •  Expanded workplace flexibilities and employee development to provide a larger range of career opportunities and improve employee retention and recruitment.
    • • • Retention bonus: Retention Incentive Payment and Termination Calculations Fact Sheet
          • At the completion of the year of service, at each year:

          GS-5 BUEs receive $500.00.

          GS-7 BUEs receive $1000.00.

          GS-9 BUEs receive $1500.00.

          GS-11 BUEs receive $2000.00.

          GS-12 BUEs receive $2500.00.

        • Recruitment Bonus: OPM Recruitment Incentives Fact Sheet
  • Work systems that allow us to perform our jobs productively and in an agile and adaptive fashion.
  • All applicant material is scanned into the system at the beginning of the of the process.
  • Online Passport Renewal System that works.

• 

Only time will tell on how all of this plays out. But as always, I am glad that we get to have a seat at the table to explain and work towards our goals of better systems, adding people to the workforce, and keeping people around.

In closing thank you for allowing me to represent you along with all the other National Officers and Stewards. None of this would be possible without your support and engagement.

In Solidarity, Lee W.

President, NFFE-1998