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Washington, D.C.?The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today expressed her outrage at the action of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "in continuing to deny to its employees the basic right to decide for themselves" whether or not they choose to belong to a union.

This action is especially outrageous, said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, because the ..?f SEC "clearly is acting on the advice of its anti?union outside law firm, whose only objective is to prevent the agency's employees from unionizing."

That the SEC waited until the 60' and final day to file an appeal of a decision supporting an election, Kelley said, "is proof positive that all the SEC really cares about is delaying a union election in hopes that NTEU will abandon its organizing effort. I say again to the commission: that will not happen."

NTEU is engaged in a continuing effort to organize into a single bargaining unit 1,800 SEC headquarters and field employees. In early January, the regional director of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) supported a single unit and ordered an election. FLRA is the independent body that oversees federal sector labor relations.

The SEC had 60 days in which to appeal the Washington regional director's decision to the three?member FLRA, and waited until the 60`h day to do so. Kelley said the agency's 64?page brief in support of its appeal "raises no substantive issues that weren't previously raised and rejected" by the FLRA regional director.

The NTEU president was sharply critical of SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, reiterating that he had said to her on January 24 that whatever decision the agency made on a possible appeal, it would act promptly. "Chairman Levitt told me that SEC employees would not be held hostage to the process," Kelley said. "Obviously, the well?being of SEC employees means nothing to the agency leadership."

SEC has said that if there is to be a union election, it wants 11 separate bargaining units. Kelley called that position "nothing more than a sham from the beginning." The SEC reneged on an agreement to hold an election last fall, shortly after hiring the anti?union outside law firm, Kelley said, and has now followed its advice in delaying its FLRA appeal to the final day "in an effort to deny to employees the exercise of their rights."

The nationwide bargaining unit would consist of some 1,200 SEC employees, both professionals and non?professional support staff, at its Washington headquarters, and another 600 in five regional and four district offices in cities around the nation. NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments.