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Washington, D.C.?The head of the nation's largest independent union of federal employees has called on the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make good on his stated support for the right of workers to organize by allowing a prompt election among employees at his agency.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) urged in a letter to SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt that the agency "forego an appeal" of a ruling earlier this week by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) that a nationwide bargaining unit is an appropriate one for the SEC.

Kelley said that last September, SEC reneged on an agreement to permit an organizing election among some 1,800 headquarters and field employees, choosing instead to request an FLRA hearing on whether regional employees have "sufficient common interests" to be in a bargaining unit with headquarters employees.

At that time, Levitt said in a letter to Kelley that "I have always felt that the right of employees to organize is an important one and I fully respect that right."

The SEC chairman also wrote to Kelley that the agency had filed the FLRA petition for a hearing on the appropriateness of the proposed bargaining unit "to ensure, as the federal labor relations statute requires, that employees have the fullest freedom in exercising their rights."

The NTEU president said the decision by the FLRA, which is an impartial body which oversees union elections in the federal sector "directly and without question addresses the appropriate makeup of the bargaining unit and finds squarely in favor of NTEU's position"?a finding she said " that should remove any obstacle to a prompt election."

Kelley added in her letter to Levitt that "SEC employees have been denied their right to decide if they want union representation for long enough. We respectfully ask that you let the employees vote as soon as possible." SEC has 60 days in which to request the three?member FLRA board review the determination and order of election.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments.

Kelley's letter to Levitt came in the wake of a meeting with NTEU of more than 200 SEC employees to discuss what the union president called the "well?reasoned and unequivocal finding" of the FLRA's Washington regional director that including all SEC employees in a single bargaining unit is appropriate.

"The determination of SEC employees to unionize strengthens our resolve to bring this to a successful conclusion as quickly as possible," the NTEU leader said.