FederalDaily - January 22, 2007

FLRA Upholds NTEU Certification Vote

The Washington regional director of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) upheld an election certifying the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) as the exclusive representative of all bargaining unit employees in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Robert Hunter, the Washington FLRA regional director, ruled in favor of the NTEU in an election complaint filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which lost the June vote by a 7,349 to 3,426 margin. The director’s decision read: “Following a consideration of all the issues identified by AFGE, I do not find them to be meritorious. In sum, all objections are dismissed, and the certification to NTEU should be issued without further delay.” Under FLRA rules, AFGE can file with the full FLRA an application for review no later than March 19, with a ruling deadline of 60 days from filing. If no further appeals are taken, NTEU President Colleen Kelley said, the regional director’s decision will become final and NTEU would be certified in late March as the sole representative for a bargaining unit numbering some 21,000. Another appeal could push that back to May. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org.

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Air Controller Staffing Drops for Third Year

Air traffic controller staffing levels have dropped for the third year in a row, a reduction of 21 controllers from the previous year, according to the most recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data. The overall total number of controllers working in the FAA’s 300-plus facilities dropped from 14,227 at the end of Fiscal Year 2005 to 14,206 in Fiscal Year 2006, according to the FAA Administrator’s Fact Book. Controller staffing totals reached as high as 15,386 in September 2003, but have dropped by 1,180 controllers since then, a reduction of 7.7 percent. The new figures contradict the FAA’s claims that it hired more controllers than it lost to retirement and other factors over the past year, said National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey. “This is the most definitive proof yet, from the FAA’s own reported figures, that the agency simply cannot get ahead of the retirement wave,” Forrey said Jan. 18, “no matter how many people they say they are hiring and trying to rush into the system.” To see more, go to:  www.natca.org/mediacenter/press-release-detail.aspx?id=406.

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Lawmakers Urge Limit to Military Stop-Loss Policy

A group of lawmakers asked Department of Defense (DoD) Secretary Robert Gates to limit the use of “stop-loss,” or the forced extension of a soldier’s activation, as Gates wrestles with ongoing manpower issues and the plan to surge 21,000 troops to Iraq. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., led a group of lawmakers—including Reps. Randy Kuhl, R-N.Y., Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and James Ramstad, R-Minn.—in encouraging Gates to reduce the practice of military service extensions. They were particularly concerned with a recent announcement by the Pentagon abandoning its limit on the length of time reserve components can be required to serve on active duty. “The policy change extending the cumulative time on active duty for the Iraq or Afghan war beyond 24 months betrays (the reservists’) trust, separates families and threatens to devastate the likelihood that active duty soldiers will follow up their service with time serving in the reserves,” the group wrote in a Jan. 17 letter. To see more, go to: www.house.gov/shays/news/2007/January/jandod.htm.

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