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Washington, D.C.—President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today slammed opponents of a compromise proposal that could break a logjam on homeland security legislation for their use of “distortions and misinformation” during debate on the proposal.

“Opponents ought to have enough courage not only to address the issue on its merits, but to base their arguments on the facts,” President Kelley said. The Senate is engaged in continuing debate on homeland security proposals affecting the civil service rights of federal workers who would be transferred into a new Department of Homeland Security.

NTEU is supporting an amendment to pending legislation offered by Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (NE) and John Breaux (LA) and Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI) that would provide for collective bargaining rights and labor-management flexibilities in the proposed department.

The NTEU leader was particularly angered by comments made by homeland security director Tom Ridge purporting to show that NTEU members in the Customs Service—who would be among those transferred to the new department—stood in the way of security improvements. Ridge alleged during a speech to U.S. mayors that NTEU attempted to block use of radiation devices among Customs inspectors and canine enforcement officers.

President Kelley pointed to an April 8, 2002 letter to Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner in which she wrote: “This is to confirm that NTEU does not object to the agency’s proposal” regarding the wearing of radiation detectors. The union did raise concerns about training and some issues related to the use of the devices, and Kelley wrote that “hopefully, the agency’s training plans will be in place by the time the detectors are distributed to all employees.”

Customs employees had been using the detectors on a voluntary basis for some three years. Customs told NTEU last December that after all employees were provided with radiation detection devices their use would become mandatory. Customs estimated it would take four to six months for all affected employees to have the devices.

Kelley said an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge filed last week against Customs relating to new alert level protective measures merely requested the agency to comply with statutory directives of notification and impact and implementation bargaining with regard to changes in working conditions.

The alert measures have been in place since their issuance and are being followed by NTEU-represented employees. “Unfortunately, since President Bush’s executive order ending labor-management partnerships in the federal government, we are forced to work within the formal, more rigid confines of the law, rather than through more cooperative models,” Kelley said. “Customs simply needed to notify us, and our ULP action asked them to do so.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 26 agencies and departments, including some 12,000 in Customs.