The Federal Labor Relations Board has upheld results from an election for exclusive union representation of Customs and Border Protection bargaining unit employees, which the National Treasury Employees Union won last June.
The American Federation of Government Employees challenged the results after losing 7,349 to 3,426, in an election that in effect decided which union would gain influence in homeland security affairs.
AFGE had alleged that CBP management unfairly swayed employees to vote for NTEU.
The decision said however that the matters raised by AFGE are without merit and dismissed them, adding that, "certification to NTEU should be issued without further delay."
AFGE can file with the full FLRA an application for review by March 19, then the FLRA would rule on that application with 60 days of the filing date.
NTEU president Colleen Kelley said that barring an appeal her union would become the sole representative of about 21,000 CBP employees, and could begin actively pushing for contract benefits such as bilingual pay for immigration and agriculture inspectors and seeking contract improvements in terms of work assignments, bid and rotation procedures, overtime and alternative work schedules.
