Internal Revenue Service

A local media outlet asked to interview me comment on unions and budget shutdowns. I declined but I think the story might help.

My mother was involved in the last successful local governing public worker strike. The inside scoop of that strike is it dragged on because issues on how to end it. What the public saw was a mostly female union of school clerical workers walking a strike line not for pay increases but issues like ending dress codes and unpaid maternity rights which later became FMLA. It was a powerful strike that unions nationally wanted to walk the strike but the local union wanted only their members on the strike line. It had all the elements of the 70s era with violence in a city raw from riots.

I am woman was played from loud speakers in the theater the public saw.

The union faced off against a powerful, ego driven and visionary mayor. The head of that union was a Pelosi that with a few calls could raised an army of strikers.

How to end it was a monster mash of powerful personalities. The teachers had a valid contract and couldn't join the strike. The mayor ordered schools opened forcing the daughter of the union president to cross her mother's picket line. The public didn't see the sharpshooters on the roof of the daughter's school and the detail of the city's female detectives protecting the daughter. I walked in the front door and out the side door into a police car because the situation was escalating with violence.

The end would come in the most unexpected way. The union would loose on the issues except just one, the right of unpaid maternity leave. The mayor would get all he wanted including the daughter crossing her mother's picket line. The union members would go 5 years without a raise and none of the workers quit to stand their ground. My mother and some of the strikers would later be in DC when FMLA became the law. My mother would go on as a noted labor mediator and community leader.

In a quirk the union president's daughter would be on one of the last flights in the air when the air traffic controllers were fired under Reagan. A scary experience. The flight landed and was met by a throng of reporters. I was barely 18 and had no idea my hometown mayor had called Washington to get that flight safely on the ground. I was terrified by the huge crowd and scene. It was just like wow. At that time there were no cell phones and news on planes. The plane was full of business people from my hometown including a CEO of a major company. The reporters wanted to talk to me. Over the loud speaker I was being paged.

My mother's world was not for me and I chose a quiet career in tax and accounting. I couldn't work for government until my mother died due to the maze of rules connected with her job. The CEO on my flight gave me my first job in the crazy 80s recession and we remained friends until he died bound by that experience of being passengers in the air as Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. My mother would face the backlash that it was the unions that put me on that plane in harm's way. The trip had been planned months before as a family event. History would never mention that air traffic controllers after being fired had stayed on the job to land the planes that were in the air. Reporters never followed the story of the 24 hour trip I had to get home. Routed all over the country for what should of been a 2 hour flight.

Here we go again as history is made. The union president's daughter facing working for free with no paycheck. Ironically that was one of my mother's union strike issues. The clerical workers that prepared payroll checks for their fellow clerical workers had their checks held for 3 additional days so they could be verified in the days when payroll was hand calculated.

Such Happy Days of that old story of how to end it. Let the good times roll.

Interesting, although I can see management rejecting these hardship requests out of hand.

Congress passed the bill to authorize back pay for furloughed federal workers, haven't heard if POTUS signed it yet. Now doesn't this back pay bill violate the anti-deficiency act, as it authorizes payments that have not been appropriated by congress?

The President announced last night that he would sign the bill once the shutdown is over.



This I found interesting from an article in The Hill:

The House and Senate this week voted overwhelmingly to provide back pay to about 800,000 federal workers who are going without paychecks because of the partial government shutdown.

But seven lawmakers — all House Republicans — opposed the measure. Those "no" votes came from Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Glen Grothman (Wis.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Ted Yoho (Fla.).



Sorry I don't live in one of their districts.

Edited by user Saturday, January 12, 2019 8:58:14 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

So if this thing is over in 10 days and he signs the bill, or if he doesn't sign it in 10 days, it is law. Same result. Only way he can hurt us is if he vetoes it within 10 days. He said he wouldn't do that. That is the only reason the Senate voted on it. If he tries and vetoes, he will lose all the Senators in his own party,

Nice part of this bill is that it will be permanent to get us back pay for future shutdowns. Little less angst next time.


Let's get these people to act like adults and get back to the table.

Edited by user Saturday, January 12, 2019 11:10:42 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

If you bank with NFCU contact them for help if you need it. They will deposit your pay take home amount into your account as a loan on your normal pay date.
Also, they may lower your interest rate on credit cards.
I've seen stories from others that mortgage lenders are not being sympathetic!

They send the CP01A out in January. I know people who got them. What I always tell people is update the address IRS has prior to they are sent. Typically that's January 2nd.

They won't resend it if the address has changed after a certain date. So once we're back and ENMOD shows the address wasn't updated they won't reissue the letter.

At that point you're filing on paper and expecting delays OR you could try www.irs.gov/getanippin

From the Day 21 e-mail:



So far, still nothing.

Anybody have any nice plans for Week 4?

With all due respect to any who believes life starts and ends with the union but, that list of 36 can be cut back to about 3 or four.
I am not going to go full bore analytical on this issue. Believe me, with the time I have on my hands I could but... what's the point?
Take healthcare for one. This has nothing to do with NTEU or unions in general. Basic understanding of American history tells us that employers did not want government providing healthcare (I think the word 'Socialism' was thrown around a lot during that era) and said employers knew that if government were to provide that healthcare, the best employees would just up and leave for a better job if they did not like conditions on the current job.
Only one more... Social Security. Did the writer truly think that was brought to us by unions? Give us a break. FDR became president as the depression was raging and started implementing programs to benefit the down and out. One of which was, you guessed it, Social Security.
I promised to go easy. But please folks, this forum can be more than just pie-in-the-sky, "life is gonna be the way I want it to be" wishful thinking.
While opinions don't have to be researched as if we are answering a taxpayer call, if we are to present something as 'fact' let that be thoughful, well researched and, hopefully, enlightening.
Just a thought.

I will be watching my caller ID for the area code and number from my office. I just hope they have the good sense to not call people and require them to report in 4 hours. That is why when that call does come through. it goes to voicemail.