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Washington D.C. — The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) today certified the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) as the sole representative of some 21,000 bargaining unit employees in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

At the time of its formation in the Department of Homeland Security, CBP was made up of employees from three legacy agencies—the U.S. Customs Service, where NTEU had long been the representative; the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Agriculture Department.

In addition to these employees, CBP new hires since that time who did not have the benefit of a union presence will now be represented by NTEU.

Last Friday, the three-member FLRA, which oversees federal sector labor relations, rejected the final appeal of a losing union in a representation election last year covering the CBP workforce. NTEU won that election by more than a two-to-one margin—7,349 to 3,426.

“NTEU is poised to move ahead on behalf of this entire bargaining unit,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “It is particularly important, in an agency with as many serious morale problems as are present in CBP, that employees speak with a single voice,” she added. “FLRA certification of NTEU provides just such a vital mechanism.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.