Message from the National President

Dear CBP Employee,

Earlier today, I sent a letter to CBP Commissioner Jayson Ahern once again urging him to immediately reverse the agency’s policies and permit employees to wear protective masks during the current public health threat.

This is the latest step in NTEU's ongoing efforts to secure written guidance from CBP allowing employees to wear respiratory masks, since port managers continue to give verbal directives prohibiting the donning of masks unless a traveler exhibits swine flu symptoms. In some instances, employees have been ordered to remove their masks.

So far, DHS has issued guidance that fails to address the voluntary wearing of masks but requires employees to don them only if they cannot maintain a six-foot distance between themselves and a traveler who appears to be ill.

In my letter, I tell the Commissioner that NTEU does not believe that there are any OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or CDC (Center for Disease Control) rules that would prevent you from wearing masks. Not only has CBP failed to give a reason for its policy, but the agency has done everything possible to obscure it by not putting anything in writing.

I also tell the Commissioner that I plan to again inform lawmakers of employees' concerns with the agency’s inadequate policy, this time in congressional testimony. I am scheduled to testify Thursday at a House subcommittee hearing that is being held specifically to assess the response of federal agencies to the swine flu outbreak.

NTEU will continue its aggressive, multi-pronged efforts until there is a policy in place that protects you during this and future threats to health and safety.

For more information about NTEU’s efforts and swine flu, visit www.nteu.org/swineflu.aspx.