SEC Workers Vote to Join Treasury Employees Union

Employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining a nationwide union and a single bargaining unit.

By an almost 3-to-1 margin, 968 of the 1,341 SEC workers who cast their ballots voted in favor of joining the National Treasury Employees Union, which already represents 155,000 federal workers in two dozen agencies.

There were 373 votes against joining the union.

“Majority has been cast for NTEU,” a union official said in announcing the final official results of the vote, which took place after a year of legal wrangling and a protest.

The decision to form a single bargaining unit instead of separate units for the field offices was made exclusively by a group of SEC “professionals,” such as lawyers and accountants, unlike the “nonprofessionals,” who are support staff.

The professionals voted 452 to 410 in favor of forming a single unit.

A simple majority of the votes cast was needed to approve the referendum.

More than 1,900 SEC workers at the headquarters in Washington, an office in Alexandria, Va., and other sites across the country were eligible to vote.

Polls were open all day in Washington and only a few hours in Virginia. Workers in field offices were allowed to vote by mail.

Workers at the securities regulatory agency were seeking union representation to boost their salaries and get improved benefits and working conditions.

Additionally, employees with representation could file grievances against supervisors, if the need arose.

The SEC had no immediate reaction to the results of the voting.