Treasury Union Wins Fight Over (21,000) Border Officers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Washington Post

Treasury Union Wins Fight Over Border Officers

By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; Page D04

A bruising battle between two federal unions has ended.

The unions -- the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union -- faced off in an election last year for the right to represent employees at Customs and Border Protection, a bureau of the Department of Homeland Security.

Yesterday, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that oversees union elections in the government, certified NTEU as the sole representative of about 21,000 Customs and Border Protection employees.

In balloting last year, NTEU won the most votes, 7,369 to 3,426, but AFGE appealed the election results, claiming that Customs and Border Protection had violated its obligation to remain neutral. Last week, 11 months after the appeal was filed, the federal labor board rejected the AFGE claims, making the certification possible.

Customs and Border Protection, created in 2003 when the Bush administration pulled together 22 agencies to form the Department of Homeland Security, absorbed the old U.S. Customs Service, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and parts of the Agriculture Department. In 2004, the department filed a petition requesting the election to clarify union jurisdiction issues, which set up the showdown between AFGE and NTEU.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101580.html