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Washington D.C.—A final decision was issued today by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) upholding the validity of NTEU’s overwhelming two-to-one victory in last year’s election to select a single union to represent the CBP bargaining unit of some 21,000 employees. The decision clears the way for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) to become the sole representative of employees in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley applauded the FLRA decision. “Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the development of this key agency,” Kelley said. NTEU already represented some 14,000 CBP employees from the legacy U.S. Customs Service.

In rejecting the final appeal of the losing union in that election, the three-member FLRA upheld a previous decision in favor of NTEU by that body’s Washington Regional Director who earlier examined election complaints filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

The AFGE complaints, the FLRA said, “provide no basis to conclude” that agency actions during the election process “interfered with employees’ free choice” in selecting NTEU. Thus, there is “no basis,” the FLRA said in its 10-page decision, for granting the AFGE application for review of the regional director’s decision.

President Kelley said the early benefits of certification of the election results by the FLRA, which is expected by within days, will be to “provide employees with a single voice speaking on their behalf, provide CBP management with a single representative, and bring the benefits of NTEU representation to CBP employees who have not had any representation.”

Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs) hired after the formation of the Department of Homeland Security were declared unrepresented bargaining unit employees pending the outcome of the representation election.

“There was no doubt concerning either the validity of election process or the clear intent of the CBP workforce to choose NTEU representation,” President Kelley said. “I am pleased that the FLRA has made this decision and I look forward to bringing the benefits of NTEU membership to every employee in this bargaining unit.”

CBP, which was formed in the merger that created DHS, has serious morale problems, the NTEU leader noted. “One of the critical means by which these issues can be addressed,” she said, “is for agency managers, at every level, to begin listening to the voices of their employees.” NTEU representation, she said, “provides the mechanism through which that can occur in meaningful ways—and our intention is to ensure that it does happen.”

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