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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing thousands of homeland security workers today cautioned that organizational changes alone are not sufficient to enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to fully meet its critical national security mission.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), responding to restructuring plans advanced by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, said she is hopeful the changes “will bring more focus to the department’s most important resource—its employees.”

The NTEU leader said she was eager to hear specifics of Chertoff’s plans for training, career development and rewards for employees and would seek a meeting with the Secretary at the earliest possible opportunity to learn more. While she commended the secretary for recognizing the need for such improvements, she noted that such changes are not evident in the new DHS personnel system.

To date, she emphasized, “there has been little recognition of the impact that a pending overhaul of DHS personnel rules is having on the day-to-day performance” of the department’s mission. The regulations, which are slated to go into effect on Aug. 1, “will diminish the rights of DHS employees,” Kelley said, calling that an action “that is not necessary to secure the rights and safety of Americans.”

The secretary noted that security ‘at any price’ was not his goal. That same standard must hold true for DHS employees, Kelley said.

The pending regulations largely curtail employees' collective bargaining, due process and appeal rights. NTEU and other DHS unions are engaged in a federal court suit seeking to block the new regulations as illegal under the dictates of the Homeland Security Act (HSA), which established the department more than two years ago. A hearing on the unions’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the regulations from going into effect until the legal challenge is decided is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

The NTEU leader added that she has told Secretary Chertoff “the morale of employees throughout DHS is at an all-time low because of the uncertainty they are facing with the changes to their working rules.” While the secretary was concerned and expressed his support for employees, Kelley said, a key aspect of that support “has to be his recognition that these changes to the working conditions of DHS employees are detrimental.”

For DHS employees, she said, “there is nothing more critical to helping them get their job done than adequate resources and the ability to share their knowledge and concerns about their work with top managers who understand and respect that input because they respect the work front-line employees perform every day.”

As to the structural changes announced by the secretary today, President Kelley noted that “more than one government reorganization has failed because it was little more than the movement of boxes on an organizational chart.”

She added: “Given the critical role played by the men and women of DHS, including those on the front lines of the war against terrorism, DHS doesn’t have the luxury of putting their needs in second place.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 14,000 in DHS.