January 14, 2010
NTEU Urges Confirmation
for CBP Commissioner
NTEU is urging a key lawmaker to schedule a confirmation hearing for Alan Bersin to be CBP commissioner when the Senate returns next week from winter recess.
In a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.), NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley points to the recent failed terror attack and the retirement of Acting CBP Commissioner Jayson Ahern as underscoring the need to fill the leadership position.
Internal Affairs
Agents to Visit Ports
Undercover Internal Affairs agents will once again visit primary processing at land and air ports of entry to evaluate local security and processing procedures.
When CBP conducted the exercise last summer, NTEU objected because
it had not been given notice to bargain over the initiative. This time, NTEU was notified and has requested a briefing from CBP and to bargain over the initiative.
The role player's exercise will involve concealed audio and/or video testing by agents to assess port security practices and identify weaknesses. CBP asserts that the information garnered will be used for training purposes and the employees in the video recordings will be obscured.
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Bersin, currently the assistant secretary of Homeland
Security for International Affairs, is "an experienced homeland security veteran," she wrote.
Kelley has previously expressed NTEU's desire to work collaboratively with the nominee to achieve CBP's mission and to reestablish
the successful labor-management partnership NTEU shared
with the then-U.S. Customs Service during the 1990s.
DHS To Implement IdeaFactory
DHS will soon roll out IdeaFactory, a program to solicit employee input for improving department operations.
NTEU endorsed the program after DHS agreed to address union concerns that IdeaFactory not be used to bypass NTEU and its bargaining rights.
In response to NTEU's concerns, DHS agreed to put an NTEU representative on the IdeaFactory Council, adhere to its bargaining obligations and give NTEU pre-decisional input before implementing ideas.
As part of IdeaFactory, DHS employees will have the opportunity to provide input on mission-related topics including operations, security, policy and work-life improvements.
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