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Washington, D.C.—With continuing reports from around the country that frontline homeland security workers are being denied the right to don respiratory masks to protect against exposure to swine flu, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) fired off letters to two key Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders asking for an immediate reversal of that policy.

In letters to Jayson Ahern, Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Gale Rossides, Acting Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the NTEU leader urged both CBP and TSA to revise their “unilateral, unnecessary and callous” policies and give workers at the nation’s air, land and sea ports of entry the choice to wear these masks to protect themselves and their families. Kelley initially wrote to Rossides on April 28 with the request.

She noted that CBP and TSA employees continue to receive verbal directives from managers prohibiting the wearing of protective equipment unless a traveler exhibits swine flu symptoms. NTEU represents the entire 22,000-employee Customs and Border Protection (CBP) workforce, as well as thousands of airport passenger screeners in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

“In the last few days the first American death from swine flu was confirmed in Texas near the Mexican border where many of our Customs and Border Protection Officers work,” President Kelley wrote to Acting Commissioner Ahern. “For the past several weeks they have diligently worked on the U.S. side of the border without the ability to take even the most basic medical precautions to protect themselves and their families, while their Mexican counterparts, working just steps away, worked in masks.”

Kelley noted that some of these workers, or their family members, may suffer from compromised immune systems from such factors as chemotherapy treatment, may have small children at home or may themselves be pregnant.

Since the outbreak, President Kelley has repeatedly asked DHS to issue written guidance permitting employees to wear protective masks at their discretion since local managers at some ports of entry around the country have told employees they cannot wear respiratory protection in the performance of their duties unless a passenger is exhibiting symptoms—and, in some instances, have ordered employees to remove masks.

Guidance provided by DHS last week to frontline employees does not address the voluntary wearing of masks, but requires them to don a mask only if they cannot maintain a distance of at least six feet between themselves and a traveler who appears to be ill.

“CBP Officers work in close contact with travelers, clearing airline, vehicle and pedestrian traffic from Mexico,” she said. “TSOs are involved in ‘wanding’ passengers, engaging in pat-down searches or checking boarding passes.”

“It is our understanding that there are no OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or CDC (Center for Disease Control) rules that would prevent the voluntary donning of masks by these workers,” said Kelley.

In the letter to Ahern, Kelley stated, “You have provided us with no reasons for this policy. In fact, I believe you have done everything possible to obscure the policy, particularly by refusing to issue it in writing.”

In both letters, she referenced an upcoming hearing in a key House subcommittee to examine the federal response.

President Kelley will testify next Thursday at the hearing entitled, “Protecting the Protectors: An Assessment of Frontline Federal Workers in Response to the H1N1 Outbreak.” The hearing, by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, is scheduled for 2 p.m., May 14, in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)

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