NTEU Chapter 164

History

Headquartered at the Blaine, Washington, Area Port,NTEU 164 has been in existence since 1975, as a chartered entity of the National Treasury Employees Union, originally founded in 1937 by a core group of IRS employees in Wisconsin.  From 1975 until 1997, NTEU 164 represented U.S. Customs employees  in the ports of Blaine, Lynden, Sumas, Bellingham, Point Roberts, Anacortes, Friday Harbor, and Vancouver.  In 1997, the Customs ports in eastern Washington were realigned from Chapter 139 (Seattle) to Chapter 164.  In 1999, Anacortes was realigned to Chapter 139.  In 2007, following the merger  of USCS and INS and PPQ in 2003, NTEU was chosen by the bargaining  unit as the exclusive representative for all bargaining unit members in CBP , excluding the Office of Border Patrol.  In that same year, Chapter 164 assumed representational responsibility for the preclearance port of Victoria, which had previously been an INS-only port, and for IT specialists in Everett and Spokane.