Many of you know that NTEU has assigned professional staff members to provide direct representation to officers at JFK. Those staff members work out of the NTEU field office in Hoboken, NJ, one of 7 field offices located around the country. At JFK, NTEU has assigned John Ziv to represent you and to work closely with Chapter 304 leaders. Prior to John, NTEU assigned Allie Robbins, whom many of you met. These are long-term assignments in addition to the organizers, such as Howard Lazarowitz, who are at the airport almost every day to explain to you the benefits of voting for NTEU.

Some of you have been represented by NTEU field staff in grievances, peer panels, oral replies for proposed suspensions and terminatins, at the DRB (now called the OPR or Office of Professional Responsibility) and EEO. The field staff also works closely with local leaders such as Chapter 304 President Al Lamberti (T7) and others to provide training, legal research, to discuss what NTEU has been doing on the national level, and so that we can bring local issues to national attention.

NTEU has set up field offices so that there is a representative or attorney located no more than two hours from any Federal workplace in the United States, with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska. That makes it very easy for NTEU to get to where our members work when we need to do so. It also means that NTEU is able to speak with one voice no matter where an employee works or what Chapter the employee belongs to. Even if a local leader retires or steps down, because there is a representative assigned to the Chapter, there is no disruption in service. That is one of the most important benefits provided to officers by NTEU. This is the NTEU difference and the other union does not provide this kind of support to TSOs.

No other union has that level of representation and national support for local chapters and members. It is one of the reasons why NTEU is the most respected and most successful union representing Federal employees.