Treasury Union Wins Fight Over Border Officers

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.

As part of the Homeland Security reorganization, Customs and Border Protection took many of the legacy employees, as they were called, and gave them new duties and a new title, CBP officers. They work at about 300 ports and border crossings and have been hailed by the department as crucial to the fight against terrorism. The officers check visitors to the United States and inspect cargo being shipped into the country.

Going into the election, NTEU represented about 12,000 employees from the old Customs Service.

AFGE complained that Customs and Border Protection had tilted the election toward NTEU by failing to include AFGE in an internal telephone directory and by refusing to allow a direct-mail campaign, at the expense of both unions, to the homes of employees.

But the labor relations authority determined that the NTEU contract required the agency to list the union in its telephone directory and that AFGE's contract did not contain a similar provision. The agency denied the mail request because NTEU pointed out legal constraints on such actions, the labor authority said.

Colleen M. Kelley, the NTEU president, welcomed the Federal Labor Relations Authority's decision and said the union would seek expedited bargaining to write a new contract. She said work assignments, shift rotations and foreign language proficiency pay are likely to be the most contentious issues on the negotiating table.

Many ports and border crossings have been operating 24 hours a day since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with some employees being given short notice of shift changes, Kelly said. She predicted that agency morale would improve if employees are better able to plan for child care and family activities.

Labor Coalition to Appeal Ruling at Defense

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A coalition of 40 unions representing Defense Department employees will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a decision by three of its judges upholding a 2004 law that permits the Pentagon to curtail collective bargaining rights, four union leaders announced yesterday.

The labor leaders -- John Gage of the American Federation of Government Employees, Ron Ault of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, Gregory Junemann of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and Richard N. Brown of the National Federation of Federal Employees -- said they also will urge Congress to repeal parts of the law that undermine union and employee rights.

Last week, a three-judge panel of the appeals court overturned a decision by the U.S. District Court that had blocked the Pentagon from moving ahead with changes to workplace rules. The changes, which are being phased in, would overhaul how Defense civilians are paid, promoted and disciplined, as well as limit the power of unions.

Gage said the unions were disappointed by the 2-to-1 ruling but added that "we are not totally surprised, given the convoluted nature of this law. Even the decision referred to the law as a 'statutory puzzle,' and it has always been our position that it would take a legislative fix to change a bad law."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.