UNION FILES MOTION TO HALT CBP ELECTION

Source: fednews-online

The battle over which union will represent Customs and Border Patrol employees has become much more complicated.

Last week, the National Association of Agriculture Employees filed a motion with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District that would stop CBP from holding an election to determine which union will represent the agency’s professional employees.

In the motion, NAAE argues that the Federal Labor Relations Authority “erroneously reclassified” 847 CBP “agriculture specialists” currently in the union as “non-professionals.” Labeling those employees as non-professional would eliminate their eligibility for union representation.

NAAE has represented the agriculture specialists for 33 years. Before entering the Department of Homeland Security four years ago, the agriculture specialists were a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Heath Inspection Service in its Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit.

NAAE’s motion can be found at http://www.aginspectors.org/9th.htm.

In late March, FLRA announced plans to mail ballots to approximately 21,000 eligible CBP employees May 9. Ballots must be returned by June 22, and the Authority will begin tallying votes June 27.

CBP employees will have three choices on the current ballot: the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union or no union. If no choice garners 50 percent of the votes, a runoff will feature the top two vote-getting options.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 bundled 22 agencies into the Department of Homeland Security. Two of the those agencies — Customs Service, a part of the Department of Treasury, and Immigration and Naturalization Services, a Department of Justice agency — merged to form CBP.

Both unions have a foothold in CBP — AFGE mostly represents employees who entered the agency through DOJ and most NTEU members were one-time Treasury employees.