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Two major federal labor unions are headed toward a likely election early next year that will force federal inspectors who guard the nation's borders to decide which union they want to represent them.

Negotiations have broken down between the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees to reach a joint representation pact for Customs and Border Protection bureau union members. The two groups have been working for the last two years to establish an agreement .

CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner has told the unions that he wants one point of contact for organized labor. Pending a decision from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, an election will likely determine the outcome since neither union represents the mandated 70 percent of the employees.

NTEU represents a majority of CBP inspectors, going back to before the formation of the Homeland Security Department in 2003, when they advocated for customs inspectors in the former Customs Service. AFGE represented immigration inspectors in the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, including border patrol guards, inspectors and lawyers.

AFGE advocates for about 6,000 CBP union members and NTEU represents about 12,000. Another 2,000 former Agriculture Department inspectors, represented by the National Association of Agriculture Employees, will also have to decide which union they want to represent them.

Charles Showalter, president of the AFGE's National Homeland Security Council 117, said an election would be harmful for organized labor within DHS and will cost the unions millions of dollars in campaigning, diverting union resources from representing employees.

"The thing that disturbs me the most is that NTEU has handed the agency exactly what they wanted and that is an election between AFGE and NTEU," Showalter said. "AFGE and NTEU were to enter into a joint coalition, to be that one face for the agency to talk to ... in a shared partnership, each union officer would represent the people they represented before."

NTEU President Colleen Kelley is pressing for her union to represent CBP employees because it already acts for two-thirds of the agents. That could happen without an election if FLRA decides that NTEU represents a sufficient percentage of the employees. The decision is likely to be announced in August.

"I determined that we were not going to be able to reach an acceptable agreement between us, so I withdrew the joint petition," Kelley said. "In the end, the representation model we have with NTEU is a good model and that was a priority for me and the benefits of those remain in place."

COMMENTS

• Border Patrol agents are not 1811's. They are 1896's and allowed to join the worthless union. 1811's are professional employees and do not need a union to hold their hands. Union=Working Man NonUnion=Professional Professional Government Employee Posted July 1, 2005 6:24 PM
• I thought "agents" (GS-1811 criminal investigators) were non-bargaining unit employees, and not eligible for union membership and representation. Did something change, or did the media make another mistake? GovExec.com reader Posted June 29, 2005 5:15 PM
• How really sad that the dirty laundry gets aired in public-- but not really surprising. I've worked across the table from both unions and their philosophies and practices are very different. And knowing the players as well as I do I'm not suprised by: I determined that we were not going to be able to reach an acceptable agreement between us, so I withdrew the joint petition," Kelley said. "In the end, the representation model we have with NTEU is a good model and that was a priority for me and the benefits of those remain in place." Colleen- if your model is so good why are you not putting the needs of these constituents ahead of your organizational needs? I'm sure there are folks at DHS, OPM and the White House who are loving this fight. Why give them this satisfaction? GovExec.com reader Posted June 29, 2005 9:50 AM