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Washington, D.C.?The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) again today urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to appeal a decision by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) directing a prompt election over union representation at the regulatory agency.
NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the union "has firm plans" to go ahead with a rally of SEC employees outside the agency's downtown headquarters on Tuesday, February 8, "to show the determination of SEC employees to vote on their right for union representation." The rally was scheduled for January 20, but was postponed due to bad weather.
Earlier this month, the NTEU leader wrote to SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, urging him not to appeal a January 7 decision of FLRA Washington regional director Michael Doheny, acting on a petition filed by the SEC, in which he sided with NTEU and ruled that a nationwide bargaining unit is an appropriate one at the agency.
In a recent internal message to its workforce, the SEC said it intends to file an appeal with the three?member FLRA within 60 days of that decision.
Last fall, rather than conduct a representation election as it had agreed, the SEC Petitioned the FLRA for a determination on the question of whether or not a nationwide bargaining unit, including both Washington headquarters and regional employees, is an appropriate one for the agency. The impartial FLRA, which oversees union elections in the federal sector, sided with NTEU on that question, and ordered an election for a nationwide unit.
NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 155,000 employees in 24 federal agencies and departments.
The nationwide SEC 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 offices?New York, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, as well as four district offices, in Atlanta, Fort Worth, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.