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Washington, D.C. —While the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) received a significant number of votes in the representation election at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), there has yet to be a clear winner because no option on the ballot achieved a majority of the votes cast. A runoff election between the top two vote-getters will be conducted.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said NTEU is prepared for a runoff and will continue its assertive nationwide campaign among TSA Officers. She expressed confidence in winning the runoff.

The six-week telephone-online voting period among TSA employees, conducted by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and which concluded yesterday, offered voters three choices: NTEU, another federal union or no union representation. To win outright, one choice had to secure 50 percent plus one vote of all votes cast.

The runoff election between NTEU and the other union likely will begin within the next month. If a six-week voting period is ordered, the election could be concluded by mid- to late July.

In the meantime, President Kelley said, NTEU will continue its coordinated, ongoing campaign among TSA Officers at airports, both large and small, emphasizing the successes NTEU has had on behalf of federal employees—and in particular the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) workforce—over many years.

Like TSA employees, many CBP employees work in airports; they have been a visible factor in NTEU’s election efforts to date, and will continue in that role, Kelley said.

NTEU has also focused on demonstrating to TSA employees its unique brand of local, on-the-ground representation with on-staff attorneys and labor relations experts located at seven regional field offices around the country. “NTEU representatives are there in the workplace for our members when and where they need us,” said President Kelley.

Earlier this year, NTEU succeeded in its long effort to secure collective bargaining rights for TSA employees; that occurred when TSA Administrator John Pistole issued a determination granting such rights.

The next step, President Kelley said, will be to use the administrator’s decision to the best advantage of the TSA workforce by choosing NTEU as its exclusive representative. “NTEU is widely known and highly-respected for having the best on-the-ground representation and negotiating the best contracts in the federal sector,” President Kelley.

NTEU will continue to press these points with TSA Officers during the period leading to the runoff vote.

“It is a message to employees about how best to improve and protect their future,” the NTEU leader said. “I’m confident that when the runoff election is conducted, TSA Officers will decide that NTEU is best positioned—by skill, expertise, structure and the respect it has rightly earned from everyone it deals with—to address both the big-picture and day-to-day workplace issues they face as a key part of the federal workforce.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.