Union leader fires back on homeland security charges

The head of the largest independent federal labor union went on the offensive Tuesday, criticizing the Bush administration for suggesting that union members were obstructing homeland security efforts.

At a press conference, Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, took issue with recent statements by President Bush and White House Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge about Customs Service employees who are represented by NTEU. On Friday, Bush said during a fundraising event that the union had tried to block Customs' efforts to issue radiation detectors to inspectors. A day earlier, Ridge made a similar charge during a speech before the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

"This is a patently false accusation, and a needless and despicable recycling of rhetoric manufactured by opponents to employees having basic civil service protections in the new department," Kelley said.

According to Kelley, the union was not opposed to the devices, and many Customs employees were already using them voluntarily when the agency decided to mandate their use. Rather, Kelley said, the union just wanted to ensure that its members were properly trained on how to use the detectors.

"To suggest that these employees are an obstacle to homeland security is an injustice," Kelley said.

The union leader also challenged a statement last week by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, that NTEU tried to prevent the implementation of the color-coded terrorism alert system established by Ridge's office earlier this year. NTEU filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Customs last month after agency officials issued a 25-page directive establishing procedures for employees based on the various alert levels. But Kelley said the union lodged the complaint not because it opposed the alert system, but because union officials believed the agency had not properly briefed them before issuing the plan to employees.

"A potential change in work conditions was issued and the law requires notice be given to employees and the union," she said.

NTEU represents 12,000 Customs employees slated to be folded into the proposed Department of Homeland Security. A bill creating the new department is stalled in the Senate, as lawmakers and the administration continue to haggle over personnel rules for the 170,000 federal workers who would be merged into the new Cabinet-level agency.